Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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"And among creeping things [they will be] dragons, in that this animal will have great strength and live for long, will do no harm, and in a way be friends with man, and let itself be tamed ; it will possess no poison and will cast its skin,2 as is the nature of the Gods.
1 Of. Manetho, cited in the Orthography of Choeroboscus (Cramer, Anecd. Ox., ii. 235, 32 ; JElian, H. A., v. 39, who follows Apion ; R. 145, n. 3). But indeed this queer belief is a commonplace of the Mediaeval Bestiaries, which all go back to their second century Alexandrian prototype, the famous Physiologus, which was doubtless in part based on Aristotle's History of Animals and Pliny's Natural History.
2 taffft 8e KOI ynpd<rav. The reading is corrupt. But if we read yripas for ynpd<rav, we have in the writer's ornate and somewhat strained style lav yripas for the usual yijpas titSvvtiv found in Aristotle (H. V., 5. 7. 10 ; 8. 17. 11) for the changing of a serpent's
" Among the things that swim [they will be] dolphins ; for dolphins will take pity upon those who fall into the sea, and if they are still breathing bear them to the land, while if they're dead they will not ever even touch them, though they will be the most voracious tribe that in the water dwells."
25. Thus speaking God became imperishable Mind.1 Thereon, son Horus, from the Earth uprose a very Mighty Spirit which no mass of body could contain, whose strength consisted in his intellect. And though he knew full well the things on which he questioned — the body with which man was clothed according to his type, a body fair and dignified, yet savage overmuch and full of fear — immediately he saw the souls were entering the plasms, he cried out :
" What are these called, 0 Hermes, Writer of the Records of the Gods ? "
And when he answered " Men ! " — " Hermes," he said, "it is a daring work, this making man, with eyes inquisitive, and talkative of tongue, with power henceforth to hear things even which skin. The phrase " as is the nature of the Gods " may then be explained as referring to the parallel between the anciently supposed rejuvenescence of the serpent and the perpetual growing young of the Gods.
1 Cf. C. H., i. 27 : " This when he'd said, the Shepherd mingled with the powers." Cf. Tim., 42 E: "When the Creator had made all these ordinances He remained in His own accustomed nature."
are no concern of his, dainty of smell, who will use to its full his power of touch on every thing.
" Hast thou, his generator, judged it good to leave him free from care, who in the future daringly will gaze upon the fairest mysteries which Nature hath? Wouldst thou leave him without a grief, who in the days to come will make his thoughts reach unto mysteries beyond the Earth ?
26. " Men will dig up the roots of plants, and will find out their juices' qualities. Men will observe the nature of the stones. Men will dissect not only animals irrational, but they'll dissect themselves, desiring to find out how they were made. They will stretch out their daring hands e'en to the sea, and cutting self-grown forests down will ferry one another o'er to lands beyond. [Men] will seek out as well the inner nature of the holy spaces which no foot may tread, and will chase after them into the height, desiring to observe the nature of the motion of the Heaven.
" These are yet moderate things [which they will do]. For nothing more remains than Earth's remotest realms ; nay, in their daring they will track out Night, the farthest Night of all.
27. "Naught have they, then, to stop them from receiving their initiation in the good of freedom from all pain, and, unconstrained by terror's grievous goads, from living softly out a life free from all care.
"Then will they not gird on the armour of an over-busy daring up to Heaven ? Will they not, then, reach out their souls freed from all care unto the [primal] elements themselves ?
"Teach them henceforth to long to plan out something, where they have as well to fear the danger of its ill-success, in order that they may be tamed by the sharp tooth of pain in failure of their hopes.
" Let the too busy nature of their souls be balanced by desires, and fears, and griefs, and empty hopes.