Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
1 &xpt TUV Kara pepos opydvw, — that is, to " parts " as opposed to " wholes " ; " wholes " signifying generally noumenal or celestial essences, "parts" meaning the separate existences of the phenomenal or sensible world.
2 &pn Se KOI a.v\t]r(av rols /xeXi/co?s rb TIJS fj.6\ca$(as \iyvpbv epycKTajueVwj/. — I do not know what this means exactly. Menard translates : quand les joueurs de fldte ont exprime les finesses de la melodic ; Patrizzi gives : melicis organis melodice dulcedinem.
3 Or perhaps "he," meaning the judge of the contest.
4 Ttf TTt>c6fJ.aTl.
VOL.|II. 19
our audience for the weakness that inheres in body, blame impiously our Kace.1
Nay, let him know God is Unwearied Spirit2 — for ever in the self-same way possessed of His own science, unceasing in His joyous gifts, the self-same benefits bestowing everywhere.
4. And if the Pheidias — the Demiurge — is not responded to, by lack of matter to perfect His skilfulness, although for His own part the Artist has done all he can, let us not lay the blame on Him.
But let us, [rather,] blame the weakness of the string,3 in that, because it is too slack or is too tight, it mars the rhythm of the harmony.
5. So when it is that the mischance occurs by reason of the instrument, no one doth blame the Artist.
Nay, [more ;] the worse the instrument doth chance to be, the more the Artist gains in reputation by the frequency with which his hand doth strike the proper note,4 and more the love the listeners pour upon that MusicaicdfjLaTov p.4v Iffn irvevfjLa 6 6<-6s. Compare John iv. 24: irveG/xa 5 ge£s — God is Spirit.
1 The Race of the Prophets, or Gnostics — the Race of the Logos.
2 Referring to the "inspiration" or "breath" above, — &s
3 The metaphor has become somewhat mixed by the introduction of Pheidias, who was a " musician " in marble and ivory and gold, and not on strings and pipes.
4 rfjs Kpovfffws •TroAA.cOas irpbs rbv rAvov e/x.ire(roi/<njs.
maker, without l the slightest thought of blaming him.
So will we too, most noble [Sirs], set our own lyre in tune again, within, with the Musician !
6. Nay, I have seen one of the artist-folk2 — although he had no power of playing on the lyre —when once he had been trained for the right noble theme, make frequent use of his own self as instrument, and tune the service of his string by means of mysteries, so that the listeners were amazed at how he turned necessitude into magnificence.3
Of course you know the story of the harper who won the favour of the God who is the president of music-work.
[One day,] when he was playing for a prize, and when the breaking of a string became a hindrance to him in the contest, the favour of the Better One supplied him with another string, and placed within his grasp the boon of fame.
A grasshopper was made to settle on his lyre, through the foreknowledge of the Better One, and [so] fill in the melody in substitution of the [broken] string.1
1 Reading exoi/res for
2 Meaning presumably prophets.
3 It is difficult to follow the exact meaning of some of the writer's rhetorical sentences, even if our text is sound ; here, however, the text, even after passing through Eeitzenstein's hands, is still very halting, and so I venture on this translation with all hesitation.
And so by mending of his string the harper's grief was stayed, and fame of victory was won.
7. And this I feel is my own case, most noble
[Sirs] !
For but just now I seemed to make confession of my want of strength, and play the weakling for a little while ; but now, by virtue of the strength of [that] Superior One, as though my song about the King had been perfected [by Him, I seem] to wake my muse.
For, you must know, the end of [this] our duty will be the glorious fame of Kings, and the good-will of our discourse (logos) [will occupy itself] about the triumphs which they win.
Come then, let us make haste ! For that the singer willeth it, and hath attuned his lyre 2 for this ; nay more, more sweetly will he play, more fitly will he sing, as he has for his song the greater subjects of his theme.
8. Since, then, he3 has the [stringing] of his lyre tuned specially to Kings, and has the key
1 The song of the cicala was so pleasant to the ear of the Ancients, that we frequently find it used in poetry as a simile for sweet sounds. Plato calls the grasshoppers the " prophets of the Muses."