Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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I may not tell the story of [this] birth l ; for it is not permitted to describe the origin of thy descent, 0 Horus, [son] of mighty power, lest afterwards the way-of-birth of the immortal Gods should be known unto men, — except so far that God the Monarch, the universal Orderer and Architect, sent for a little while thy mighty sire Osiris, and the mightiest Goddess Isis, that they might help the world, for all things needed them.
'Tis they who filled life full of life. 'Tis they who caused the savagery of mutual slaughtering of men to cease. 'Tis they who hallowed precincts to the Gods their ancestors and spots for holy rites. 'Tis they who gave to men laws, food, and shelter.
'Tis they who will, says Hermes, learn to know the secrets of my records all, and will make separation of them ; and some they will keep for themselves, while those that are best suited for the benefit of mortal men, they will engrave on tablet and on obelisk.
1 (Jf. G. h.t xiii. (xiv.) 3 (Com.).
'Tis they who were the first to set up courts of law ; and filled the world with justice and fair rule. 'Tis they who were the authors of good pledges and of faith, and brought the mighty witness of an oath into men's lives.
'Tis they who taught men how to wrap up those who ceased to live, as they should be. l
'Tis they who searched into the cruelty of death, and learned that though the spirit which goes out longs to return into men's bodies, yet if it ever fail to have the power of getting back again, then loss of life results.
'Tis they who learned from Hermes that surrounding space was filled with daimons, and graved on hidden stones [the hidden teaching].
'Tis they alone who, taught by Hermes in God's hidden codes, became the authors of the arts, and sciences, and all pursuits which men do practise, and givers of their laws.
'Tis they who, taught by Hermes that the things below have been disposed by God to be in sympathy with things above, established on the earth the sacred rites o'er which the mysteries in Heaven preside.
'Tis they who, knowing the destructibility of [mortal] frames, devised the grade of prophets, in all things perfected, in order that no prophet who stretched forth his hands unto the Gods,
1 Sc. mummification.
124 THRICE-GREATEST HERMEvS should be in ignorance of anything, that magic and philosophy should feed the soul, and medicine preserve the body when it suffered pain.
38. And having done all this, my son, Osiris and myself perceiving that the world was [now] quite full, were thereupon demanded back by those who dwell in Heaven, but could not go above till we had made appeal unto the Monarch, that surrounding space might with this knowledge of the soul l be filled as well, and we ourselves succeed in making our ascent acceptable [to Him]. . . . For that God doth in hymns rejoice.
Ay, mother, Horus said. On me as well bestow the knowledge of this hymn, that I may not remain in ignorance.
And Isis said : Give ear, 0 son ! 2 contemplative science, face to face knowledge. The Commentary begins at the end of the following excerpt.
EXCERPT XXVI.
THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD [II.]
(Patrizzi (p. 32b) runs this on to the last without a break.
Text: Stob., Phys., ili. 45, under heading: "In the
Same"; G. pp. 420-427; M. i. 299-304; W. i. 407-414.
Menard ; Livre III., No. ii. of " Fragment," etc., as above, pp. 201-208.)
39. Now if thou wouldst, 0 son of mighty soul, know aught beside, ask on !
And Horus said : 0 mother of great honour,
I would know how royal souls are born ?
And Isis said : Son Horus, the distinction which marks out the royal souls is somewhat of this kind.
Four regions are there in the universe which fall beneath a law and leadership which cannot be transgressed — Heaven, and the ^Ether, and the Air, and the most holy Earth.
Above in Heaven, son, the Gods do dwell, o'er whom with all the rest doth rule the Architect of all; and in the ^Ether [dwell] the Stars, o'er whom the mighty Light- giver the Sun holds sway ; but in the Air [live] only souls,1 o'er whom doth rule the Moon ; and on the Earth [do dwell] men and the rest of living things, o'er whom he who doth happen to be king holds sway.