Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

In this Third Book it is probable that " The Perfect Sermon " was included in Cyril's Corpus. This sermon, which is the longest we possess, was evidently originally addressed to Asclepius alone, for its alternative title is par excellence " The Asclepius," and my conjecture that the introduction of the " holy three " — Asclepius, Tat and Ammon — is due to a later editor, is amply borne out by all the evidence. We may thus well conclude our list with :

" The Perfect Sermon."

For the fragments of the lost Greek original of this important tractate, see Lactantius :

Fragg. v., viii., ix., x.

This Sermon is to be taken in close connection with
" The Key " which sums up " The General Sermons "
to Tat.

To AMMON

Stobseus ascribes eight of his extracts to a Book or Books of his collection entitled " To Ammon." These excerpts, however, would seem to be more appropriately classified under " Sermons to Tat." As, however, Johannes distinctly so describes them, we will append them here.

Exx. xii, xiii.

Exx. xiv.-xix. — " Of Soul," i.-vi.

Exx. xvi.-xix. follow one another in the text of the Excerpts by Stobseus ; as Ex. xviii., however, refers to "The General Sermons," it therefore would make us suppose that either we are here dealing with " The Expository Sermons" to Tat, or that the Ammon-grade had already had communicated to them " The General Sermons."

The above are the four types of Trismegistic Sermons proper, and we next turn to the writings of the Disciples of Hermes,

OF ASCLEPIUS

It is remarkable that Asclepius, the most learned of the Three, writes his treatises and letters, not to philosophers or priests, or students, nor yet to his younger brother Tat — but invariably to the King or to Kings. He invariably writes to "Ammon"; and the once existing literature of this class was a very rich one, if we can believe the writer or redactor of C. H. (xvi.). The fragments that remain, however, are by no means numerous, and include :

• C. H. (xvi.).—" The Definitions of Asclepius." l Frag. iv. — Probably from the lost ending of above.
• C. H. (xvii.).— "Of Asclepius to the King."2 Ex. xxi. (?) — which may, perhaps, be more correctly headed " Of Asclepius to the King " instead of with Stobaeus " Of Isis to Horus."

To neither Tat nor Ammon are tractates assigned ; for when Tat is perfected he becomes in his turn Hermes, and so writes as Hermes, while Ammon is the man of action and affairs who does not teach. May we further from these phenomena conclude that " Asclepius " was the man who was skilled in theory and intellectual grasp, but was not capable of direct illumination as was Tat ?

The next class of literature falls under the heading :

OF Isis

Whether or not the forms of this literature which we possess are contemporaneous with or later than the Tat and Asclepius Sermons, we cannot say ; but in any case they are based on ancient types — the " Books of Isis to Horus." To this type we assign :

1 The end is lost.

2 A fragment only from the end of the sermon is preserved.

Ex. xxi.— " Of Isis to Horus."

Though, as we have suggested above, this is an error of Johannes, and should be rather " Of Asclepius to the King."

Ex. xxiii. — " From Aphrodite."

Where Aphrodite probably equates with Isis.

Exx. xxv., xxvi.— "The Virgin of the World."
Ex. xxvii. — " From the Sermon of Isis to Horus."

The remaining class of literature is connected with the name of Osiris as the Disciple of Agathodaimon, the Thrice-greatest, and may be headed as ;

FROM THE AGATHODAIMON LITERATURE

Our fragments are all taken from Cyril's Corpus, and are referred to by him under the heading "To Asclepius." We have, however, not included them under this heading in our tentative classification, because they are plainly not addressed to Asclepius, but belong to a quite different form of literature, most probably throwing back to an ancient type of the same nature as the " Books of Isis." To this class are to be assigned :

Fragg. xiii., xiv., xix., xxi.

This form may be perhaps more appropriately taken with the " Sayings of Agathodaimon " and the " Sayings of Ammon " as Agathodaimon ; both of which pertain to the oldest types of the Trismegistic literature.

Finally, we add the appendix to our Corpus written by a Pcemandrist rhetor and apologist :

C. H. (xviii.).— " The Encomium of Kings."

CONCLUSION

This may be taken with the quotation from the editor of Cyril's Corpus of XV. Books.