Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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2 These are presumably the types of life in the upper world, symbolized by the zodiac.
the all-devising powers and all-contriving procreative breath of all the things which were for ever generally to be.
And He withdrew, with promises to join unto the visible productions of their hands breath that cannot be seen,1 and essence of engendering its like to each, so that they might give birth to others like themselves. And these are under no necessity to do aught else than what they did at first.
14. [And Horus asked :]
What did the souls do, mother, then ?
And Isis said :
Taking the blend of matter, Horus, son, they first looked at the Father's mixture and adored it, and tried to find out whence it was composed ; but this was not an easy thing for them to know.
They then began to fear lest they should fall beneath the Father's wrath for trying to find out, and so they set to work to do what they were bid.
Thereon, out of the upper stuff which had its topmost layer superfluously light, they formed the race of birds ; while they were doing this the mixture had become half-hardened, and by this time had taken on a firm consistency — thereon they fashioned out the race of things which have four feet ; [next they did fashion forth] the race of fish — less light and needing a moist substance of a different kind to swim in ; and as the residue was of a cold and heavy nature, from it the Souls devised the race of creeping things.
1 So Meineke in notes, following Cantor, — instead of the traditional " visible."
15. They then, my son, as though they had done something grand, with over-busy daring armed themselves, and acted contrary to the commands they had received ; and forthwith they began to overstep their proper limits and their reservations, and would no longer stay in the same place, but were for ever moving, and thought that being ever stationed in one place was death.
That they would do this thing, however, 0 my son (as Hermes says when he speaks unto me), had not escaped the Eye of Him who is the God and Lord of universal things ; and He searched out a punishment and bond, the which they now in misery endure.
Thus was it that the Sovereign King of all resolved to fabricate with art the human frame, in order that in it the race of Souls throughout might be chastised.
16. " Then sending for me," Hermes says, " He spake : ' Soul of My Soul, and holy mind of My own Mind,1 up to what point, the nature of the things beneath, shall it be seen in gloom? How long shall what has up to now been made remain inactive and be destitute of praise ? Bring hither to Me now, My son, all of the Gods in Heaven/ said God " — as Hermes saith.
1 Of. Cyril, G. /,, i. 15 (Frag. xvi.).
And when they came obedient to His command,— "Look down," said He, "upon the Earth, and all beneath." And they forthwith both looked and understood the Sovereign's will. And when He spake to them on human kind's behalf, they [all] agreed to furnish those who were to be, with whatsoever thing they each could best provide.
17. Sun said : " I'll shine unto my full."
Moon promised to pour light upon the afterthe-sun course, and said she had already given birth to Fear, and Silence, and also Sleep, and Memory — a thing that would turn out to be most useful for them.1
Cronus announced himself already sire of
Justice and Necessity.
Zeus said : "So that the race which is to be may not for ever fight, already for them have I made Fortune, and Hope, and Peace."
Ares declared he had become already sire of
Struggle, Wrath, and Strife.
Nor yet did Aphrodite hesitate ; she also said :
" I'll join to them Desire, my Lord, and Bliss,
* Qf. Plat. 0»*., 108.
and Laughter [too], so that our kindred souls, in working out their very grievous condemnation, may not exhaust their punishment unto the full."
Full pleased were all, my son, at Aphrodite's words.
" And for my part," said Hermes, " I will make men's nature well endowed ; I will devote to them Prudence and Wisdom, Persuasiveness and Truth, and never will I cease from congress with Invention, but ever will I benefit the mortal life of men born underneath my types of life.1 For that the types our Father and Creator hath set apart for me, are types of wisdom and intelligence, and more than ever [is this so] what time the motion of the Stars set over them doth have the natural power of each consonant with itself."
18. And God, the Master of the universe, rejoiced on hearing this, and ordered that the race of men should be.