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

2. And Matter being moved was heated and did turn to Fire and Water, — the one [being] strong and active, and the other passive.

And Fire opposed by Water was dried up by it, and did become Earth borne on Water.

And when it3 was excessively dried up,4 a
vapour rose from out the three, — from Water,
Earth and Fire, — and became Air.

The [Four] came into congress, [then,] according to the reason of the Harmony,5 — hot with cold, [and] dry with moist.

And from the union 6 of these [four] is spirit born, and seed proportionate to the surrounding Spirit.

This [spirit] falling in the womb does not remain inactive in the seed, but being active it transforms the seed, and [this] being [thus] transformed, develops growth and size.

1 0t5<ru simply ; but as there is a play in the original on the words <f>6<ris, <j>6ovcra, <f>vfiv, and <f>vo/j.4vois, I have tried to retain it in translation by a series of allied words.

2 yevefffis. 3 Sc. Fire. 4 vepi^pawo^fifov.
6 Or law of Harmony, — KOT& rbv TTJS apfiovias \6yov.

6 Lit. " breathing with one breath," — IK TT}$ o-y/tn-vofas — a wordplay on vvevna (spirit). For "spirit," cf. G. JET., x. (xi.) 13, Comment., and Exx. xix. 3 ; iv. 2.

And as it grows in size, it draws unto itself a copy of a model,1 and is modelled.

3. And on the model is the form supported, — by means of which that which is represented by an image is so represented.

Now, since the spirit in the womb had not the motion that maintaineth life, but that which causeth fermentation 2 [only], the Harmony composed the latter as the receptacle 3 of rational life.4

This [life] is indivisible and changeless ; it never changes from its changelessness.

It 5 ruleth the conception of the thing within the womb, by means of numbers, delivereth it, and bringeth it into the outer air.

The Soul 6 dwells very near to it 7 ; — not owing to some common property, but under the constraint of Fate ; for that it has no love to be with body.8

Wherefore, [the Harmony 9] according unto
Fate doth furnish to the thing that's born [its]

1 Or image of a figure, — e?5«\oy . .

2 rV 8e ftpaarriK-fiv. 3 Or vehicle, —

4 rrjs SiavoTjTiKris C«T?S, — of the purposive rational life, otherwise called the Harmony.

5 Sc. the Harmony. 6 Reading iJ/ux^J for tyvxy- 1 The new-born babe.

8 Compare Plutarch, Frag., v. 9 (ed. Didot) : " For you should know the intercourse and the conjunction of the soul with body is contrary to nature."

9 It is not easy to disentangle the subjects of some of the above clauses.

10 Sc. the thing's.

rational motion, and the intellectual essence of the life itself.

For that [this *] doth insinuate itself into the spirit, and set it moving with the motion of the life.2

COMMENTARY

Patrizzi is evidently at fault in running this on to Ex. xiv. without a break. The subject again is not so much " Of Soul " as " Of Conception and Birth," but as the general exposition falls in very well with the nature of the subjects treated in Exx. xiv. and xvi., we may keep the same general title, though we may be quite certain that it was not that of the original.

The exposition in § 2 is reminiscent of an apocalyptic style, and seems to be a Greek overworking of Egyptian ideas; for though the details are different and the precise meaning difficult to disentangle, the general point of view may be compared with the embryonic stages of incarnation given in the Pistis Sophia (pp. 344 ff.).

THE EMBRYONIC STAGES OF INCARNATION

"Then the Rulers summon the workmen of their aeons, to the number of three hundred and sixty-five, and hand over to them the soul and the counterfeit of the spirit bound together, the one to the other, the counterfeit of the spirit being outside the soul, and the

1 Sc. the rational movement.

2 CWTJKWS,— this may perhaps have some reference to the circle of lives, or the zodiac.

compound of the power within the soul being inside both, that they may hold together.