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

2. We have the power to choose ; it is within our power to choose the better, and in like way \ [to choose] the worse, according to our will.2

And if [our] choice clings to the evil things, it doth consort with the corporeal nature ; [and] for this cause Fate rules o'er him who makes this choice.

Since, then, the intellectual essence8 in jis js_ Absolutely free, — [namely] the reason that embraces all in thought, — and that it ever is a law unto itself and self-identical, on this account Fate does not reach it* ^WW

Thus furnishing it first from the First God, it5 sent forth the perceptive reason, and the whole reason which Nature hath appointed unto them that come to birth.

With these the Soul consorting, consorteth with their fates, though [in herself] she hath no part [or lot] in their fates' nature.

1 Stck rwv

2 Reading eKovo-lws for the meaningless a.Kov<rlws of the text.

3 Reading v»rj/j.aTiK^ with Patrizzi, instead of <r«/*aT<«^ as with G. W. prefers affdparos (incorporal).

4 Sc. the reason.

6 The Soul, or intellectual essence. The text is very obscure, and Wachsmuth does not seem to have improved it. Cf. G. H., xii. (xiii.) 8.

(Patrizzi (p. 42) adds the following to the preceding; it is not found in Stobaeus, and appears to be a scholium.)

What is necessitated by the interwoven harmony1 of [all] the parts, in no way differs from that which is fated.

COMMENT

I have supplied a temporary heading for the sake of uniformity. Our extract, however, seems to be taken from a lengthy treatise, and was probably one of the Sermons to Tat.

1 Lit. interweaving.

EXCEEPT XXL

OF ISIS TO HORUS

(Title in Patrizzi (p. 45) is " From Isis."

Text: Stob., Flor., xiii. 50, under the heading: "Of
Hermes from the [Sermon] of Isis to Horus " ; G. i. 328 ;
M. i. 265 ; H. iii. 467.

Schow gives another heading, which Gaisford (in a note) thinks is from the Vienna codex, namely : "Of Hermes from the Intercession (or Supplication, — ITpeo-jSetas) of Isis." *

Menard, Livre IV., No. ii. of "Fragments Divers," p.
272.)

A REFUTATION, when it is recognized, 0 greatest King, carries the man who is refuted towards the desire of things he did not know before.

COMMENT

This fragment is clearly not in the style of the excerpt from the "Sermon of Isis to Hermes" (Ex. xxvii.) ; it is far more closely reminiscent of C. H.t xvi. or xvii., and is, therefore, probably from the Sermon of Asclepius to the King.

1 R. (p. 134, n. 3) says simply that the last word (" Horus") is missing in the Vindobonensis, and finds no difficulty in recognizing a type of literature in which King (Ammon) is a pupil of Isia.

EXCEKPT XXII.

[AN APOPHTHEGM]

(Text : W., i. 34, 5.)

HERMES on being asked, What is God? — replied : The Demiurge of wholes, — the Mind most wise and everlasting.

EXCEKPT XXIII.

FROM " APHRODITE "

(Title in Patrizzi (p. 45) is "The Likeness of Children," followed by : " From Aphrodite."

Text: Stob., Phys., xxxvi. 2, under heading: "Of
H«rmes from 'Aphrodite'"; G. pp. 297, 298; M. i. 207,
208 ; W. i. 295, 296.

Menard, Livre IV., No. iii. of "Fragments Divers," p. 273.)

[ ] How, [then,] are offspring born like to their parents ? Or how are they returned l to [their own] species 2 ?

[Aphrodite.~\ I will set forth the reason. When generation stores up seed from the ripe blood being sweated forth,3 it comes to pass that somehow there's exhaled from the whole mass* of limbs a certain essence, following the law of a divine activity, as though the man himself were being born ; the same thing also in the woman's case apparently takes place.

1 diroStooTa*, — referring, presumably, to the idea of metempsychosis.

2 Or families.

3 e£a0«5pou/Aevov. But W. has elo^povjieVev (turned into foam), following the emendation of Usener, based on Clem. Al. Pcedagog., I, vi. 48.

* Lit. body.

When, then, what floweth from the man hath the ascendancy, and keeps intact, the young one's brought to light resembling its sire ; contrary wise, in the same way, [resembling] its dam.

Moreover, if there should be ascendancy of any part, [then] the resemblance [of the young] will favour that [especial] part.

But sometimes also for long generations the offspring favoureth the husband's form, because his decan has the greater influence1 at that [particular] moment when the wife conceives.

COMMENT