Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

THE DELINEATION OF THE SUN

It is interesting, however, here to notice that the Sun is " wreathed with cosmos/' and to compare this with the passage concerning the Macro-prosopus in the Untitled Apocalypse of the Coptic Gnostic Codex Brucianus, and especially with the sentence:

" The Hair of His Head is the number of the Hidden Worlds, and the Outline of His Face is the Type of the ^ons."1

In this Untitled Apocalypse there is a strong Egyptian under-colouring ; that, however, the idea of a crown of powers was pre-eminently Egyptian may be seen from many a passage in the Pistis Sophia.

8. It is also of interest to notice that the delineation of the Sun in § 8 reminds us of the Orphic Phanes, especially the reference to the two hemispheres above and below, — the two parts of the Egg in Orphic symbolism.

9. The hint that the sun-life runs in some sort of spiral or serpentine fashion in animals, and that this also is the case with the Great Bodies or Celestial Animals, is of interest.

CONCERNING THE DAIMONES

10. Our author then proceeds to set forth his doctrine of the daimones or ministers of the Gods, who are assigned to the lower hemisphere of operation, from the Earth to the Sun, the Gods presumably occupying the higher hemisphere of activity. These daimones are what a Hindu or Buddhist would call karmic agents, for they are all connected with what is called the Fate-

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Sphere, the Instrument or the Wheel of Genesis, or
Samsara.

15. These daimones rule over the lower energies of the soul; the higher energy or rational part of the soul is set above them, and is designed to be the " receptacle of God," — or rather of His Eay, — the Mind proper.

16. With § 16 compare the remarkable passage in one of the Letters of Valentin us :

"One [alone] is Good, whose free utterance is His manifestation through His Son; it is by Him alone that the heart can become pure, when every evil essence has been expelled from it.

" Now its purity is prevented by the many essences which take up their abode in it, for each of them accomplishes its own deeds, outraging it in divers fashions with unseemly lusts.

"As far as I can see, the heart seems to receive somewhat the same treatment as an inn [or caravanserai], which has holes and gaps made in its walls, and is frequently filled with dung, men living filthily in it and taking no care of the place as being someone else's property. Thus is it with the heart so long as it has no care taken of it, ever unclean and the abode of many daimons.

" But when the Alone Good Father hath regard unto it, it is sanctified and shineth with light ; and he who possesseth such a heart is so blessed that ' he shall see God.'"1

The language of Valentinus is remarkably like that of our treatises ; Valentinus himself was an Egyptian.

1 Quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., II. xx. 114 ; P. 489 (ed. Dindorf, ii. 219). See for further critical text, Hilgenfeld (A.), Ketzergesch. d. Urchrist., p. 296 ; F. F. F., 300, 301.

17. Entirely Egyptian also is the Scheme of Dependency given in § 17, as we have already pointed out on several occasions, quoting from a Hymn of Valentinus.

The sentence: "Wherefore God is the Sire of all; the Sun's [their] Demiurge" — distinctly contradicts Eeitzenstein's (p. 198, 1) statement that the Sun in our treatise is worshipped as the All-god. The Sun is He " by whom all things are made," — the Creative Logos of God.1

19. The treatise is evidently incomplete; if, however, we turn to the contents-title given at the beginning of these comments we can gain but little information as to what is missing, for the contents there given do not in any but the vaguest fashion correspond to the substance of our treatise, nor do the subjects treated of come in the same order as in the contents-heading. The Divine Essence, Man, the Economy of the Pleroma and the Man after the Likeness, which are clearly not treated of in our text, may then have been treated in the missing portion of our tractate ; but this is all we can say.

1 Qf. P. S. A., xxix. 5.

COEPUS HEEMETICUM (XVII.)

[OF ASCLEPIUS TO THE KING]

(Text : R. 354 ; Pat. at end of last piece.) ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Asclepius. If thou dost think [of it], 0 King, even of bodies there are things bodiless.1

The King. What [are they] ?— (asked the
King.)

Asc. The bodies that appear in mirrors — do they not seem then to have no body ?

The King. It is so, 0 Asclepius2; thou thinkest like a God3 ! — (the King replied.)

1 Of. Plat., Soph., 229 D, 240 A, 246 B.