Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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After the above-mentioned comes the " Overseer 3 of the Ceremonies," bearing the cubit of justice and the libation cup [as his symbols]. He must know all the books relating to the training [of the conductors of the public cult], and those that they call the victim-sealing4
Ko.v6va. ; this must mean a hollow wooden case shaped like a ruler.
3 a-ToXiffT^s, called also i(p6<rro\os. This priestly office is usually translated as the " keeper of the vestments," the " one who is over the wardrobe." But such a meaning is entirely foreign to the contents of the books which are assigned to him. He was evidently the organiser of the ceremonies, especially the processions.
4 fjioa-xofftppayiffTiKa — that is to say, literally, books relating to the art of one who picks out and " seals calves " for sacrifice. The literal meaning originally referred to the selection of the sacred Apis bull-calf, into which the power of the god was supposed to have re-incarnated, in the relic of some primitive magic rite which the conservatism of the Egyptians still retained in the public cult. Its meaning, however, was later on far more general, as we see by the nature of the books assigned to this division. Boulage, in his Mysteres d'Isis (Paris, 1820, p. 21), says that "the seal of the priests which marked the victims was a man books. There are ten of these books which deal with the worship which they pay to the gods, and in which the Egyptian cult is contained ; namely [those which treat] of (17) Sacrifice, (18) First-fruits, (19) Hymns, (20) Prayers, (21) Processions, (22) Feasts, and (23-26) the like.
After all of these conies the " Prophet " clasping to his breast the water-vase so that all can see it ; and after him follow those who carry the bread that is to be distributed.1 The " Prophet/' as chief of the temple, learns by heart the ten books which are called " hieratic " ; these contain the volumes (27-36) treating of the Laws, and the Gods, and the whole Discipline of the Priests. For you must know that the " Prophet " among the Egyptians is also the supervisor of the distribution of the [temple] revenues.
Now the books which are absolutely indispensable 2 kneeling with his hands bound behind his back, and a sword pointed at his throat, for it was in this attitude that the neophyte received the first initiation, signifying that he agreed to perish by the sword if he revealed any of the secrets revealed to him." This he evidently deduced from Plutarch's De Is. et 0s., xxxi. 3.
for Hermes l are forty-two in number. Six-and-thirty of them, which contain the whole wisdom-discipline2 of the Egyptians, are learned by heart by the [grades of priests] already mentioned. The remaining six are learned by the "Shrine- bearers"3; these are medical treatises dealing with (37) the Constitution of the Body, with (38) Diseases, (39) Instruments, (40) Drugs, (41) Eyes,4 and finally (42) with the Maladies of Women.
1 ol rV fKirffjL^iif rwv &pruv 0affTd£ovres. The "Prophet" belonged to the grade of high priests who had practical knowledge of the inner way. As the flood of the Nile came down and irrigated the fields and brought forth the grain for bread, and so gave food to Egypt, so did the living stream of the Gnosis from the infinite heights of space pour into the Hierophant, and he in his turn became Father Nile for the priests, his disciples, who in their turn distributed the bread of knowledge to the people. A pleasing symbolism, of which the bread and water of the earlier ascetic schools of Christendom, who rejected wine, was perhaps a reminiscence. Nor has even the General Church in its older forms forgotten to sprinkle the people from the water- vase and distribute among them the bread.
2 This seems to suggest that there were others, the knowledge of which was optional, or rather reserved for the few. There may perhaps have been forty-nine in all.
THE GENERAL CATALOGUE OF THE EGYPTIAN
PRIESTLY LIBRARY