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

The second sentence is of great interest, for it refers us presumably to 0. H., x. (xi.), 22: "God's rays, to use a figure, are his energies ; the Cosmos's are natures ; the arts and sciences are man's. " Seeing, however, that " The Key " is an Epitome of the General Sermons to Tat, the statement may also have been made in one of these sermons.

In either case the existence of these General Sermons is presupposed, and, therefore, it may be that our excerpt is, again, one of the Expository Sermons to Tat.

The beginning of the Sermon has clearly been omitted by Stobseus, and apparently the end also.

EXCERPT IX.

OF [THE DECANS AND] THE STARS

(Patrizzi (p. 38b) does not give the first third of the text (§§ 1-5), and his title, " Of the Stars," is evidently incomplete; it is followed by "To the Same [i.e. Tat]."

Text : Stob., Phys., xxi. 9, under the heading : " Of Hermes
from the [Sermon] to Tat," pp. 184-190; M. i. 129-133;
W. i. 189-194.

Menard, Livre IV., No. vi. of "Fragments from the Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," pp. 242-247, under the sub-heading, " Of the Decans and the Stars.")

1. Tat. Since in thy former General Sermons (Logoi1), [father,] thou didst promise me an explanation of the Six-and-thirty Decans,2 explain, I prithee, now concerning them and their activity.3

Her. There's not the slightest wish in me not to do so, 0 Tat, and this should prove the ois e/j.irpoa-t)ci> yevtKois \6yots. Gf. (J. H., x. (xi.) 1 and 7 ; xiii. (xiv.) 1 ; and Ex. xviii. 1.

most authoritative sermon (logos) and the chiefest of them all. So ponder on it well.

2 These are the "Horoscopes" of P. S. A., xix. 3. Cf. also Origen, C. Cels., viii. 58 ; R. 225, n. 1.

3 Or energy.

We have already spoken unto thee about the Circle of the Animals, or the Life-giving one,1 of the Five Planets, and of Sun and Moon, and of the Circle 2 of each one of these.

2. Tat. Thou hast done so, Thrice-greatest one.
Her. Thus would I have thee understand as

well about the Six-and- thirty Decans, — calling the former things to mind, in order that the sermon on the latter may also be well understood by thee.

Tat. I have recalled them, father, [to my mind].

Her. We said, [my] son, there is a Body which encompasses all things.

Conceive it, then, as being in itself a kind of figure of a sphere-like shape ; so is the universe conformed.

Tat. I've thought of such a figure in my mind, just as thou dost describe, 0 father [mine].

3. Her. Beneath the Circle of this [all-embracing] frame3 are ranged the Six-and-thirty Decans, between this Circle of the Universe and that one of the Animals, determining the boundaries of both these Circles, and, as it were, holding that of the Animals aloft up in the air, and [so] defining it.

1 The zodiac ; irtpl rov £a>8m/coC KVK\OV t) TOV £«o0rfpou, — of which the second member is probably a gloss ; but see § 8 below.

2 Or sphere. 3 Qr

They1 share the motion of the Planetary
Spheres, and [yet] have equal powers with the
[main] motion of the Whole,2 crosswise3 the
Seven.

They're4 checked by nothing but the All-encircling Body, for this must be the final thing in the [whole grades of] motion, — itself by its own self.

But they speed on the Seven other Circles, because they 5 move with a less rapid motion than the [Circle] of the All.

Let us, then, think of them as though of Watchers stationed round [and watching] over both the Seven themselves and o'er the Circle of the All, — or rather over all things in the World,

1 That is, the Decans. 2 Or Universe.

3 This refers to the astronomical system underlying the Pythagoreo-Platonic tradition, as, for instance, set forth allegorically and symbolically by Plato in the famous passage in The TimcRus (36 B, c). "The entire compound he (the Demiurge) divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting point ; and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, and the motion of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse" (Jowett's Translation, iii. 454, 455). The X symbolizes the "crosswise," which in terms of motion may be translated as " inverse to."