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

1 Argos, according to the many ancient myths concerning him, was all-seeing (Trav6irTTjs\ possessed of innumerable eyes, or, in one variant, of an eye at the top of his head. Like Hercules, he was of superhuman strength, and many similar exploits of his powers are recorded. In the lo-legends, Hera made Argos guardian of the cow into which the favourite of Zeus had been metamorphosed. Zeus accordingly sent Hermes to carry off his beloved. Hermes is said to have lulled Argos to sleep by means of his syrinx, or pipe of seven reeds, or by his caduceus, and then to have stoned him or cut off his head. See Reseller's Ausfuhr. Lex. d. griech. u. rom. Myth., s.v. "Argos." It is to be noticed that instead of Argum, four MSS. read argentum, which is curious as showing a Medieval Alchemical influence. See n. 4 to Ciceronis Opera Philosophica (Delph. et Var. Clas.), vol. ii. (London, 1830).

2 Pheneatce, — Pheneus was a town in Arcadia, that country of ancient mysteries. (It is remarkable that Hermas is taken by the " Shepherd " in spirit to a mountain in Arcadia. See Shepherd of Hermas, Sim. ix. 1.) Cicero begins his description of the fifth Hermes with this statement, and Lactantius has thus awkwardly misplaced it. Pausanias (viii. 14, 6) tells us that Pheneus itself was considered as a very ancient city, and that its chief cult was that of Hermes. This cult of Hermes, moreover, was blended with an ancient mystery- tradition, for Pausanias (ibid., 15, 1) tells us that :

" The Pheneatians have also a sanctuary of Demeter sumamed Eleusinian, and they celebrate mysteries in her honour, alleging that rites identical with those performed at Eleusis were instituted in their land. . . . Beside the sanctuary of the Eleusinian goddess is what is called the Petroma, two great stones fitted to each other. Every second year, when they are celebrating what they call the Greater Mysteries, they open these stones, and taking out of them certain writings which bear on the mysteries, they read them in the hearing of the initiated, and put them back in their place that same night. I know, too, that on the weightiest matters he was [really] a man, still he was of such high antiquity, and so deeply versed in every kind of science, that his knowledge of [so] many things and of the arts gained him the title of " Thrice-greatest."

He wrote books, indeed many [of them], treating of the Gnosis 1 of things divine, in which he asserts the greatness of the Highest and One and Only God, and calls Him by the same names as we [do] — God and Father.2 And [yet], so that no one should seek after His name, he has declared that He cannot be named, in that He doth not need to have a name, owing, indeed, unto the very [nature of His] unity.3 His words are these 4 :

FKAGMENT II.

But God [is] one ; and He who's one needs not a name, for He [as one] is The-beyond- all-names.

THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE HERMETIC
TRADITION

For Lactantius, then, Hermes was very ancient; moreover, he was one who descended from heaven and had returned thither. When, however, Firmianus attempts the historical origins of the Hermetic tradition, as was invariably the case with the ancients, he can do nothing better than refer us to a complex though most of the Pheneatians swear by the Petroma." Frazer's Translation, i. 393 (London, 1898).

2 Cf. P. S. A., xx. (p. 42, 16, Goldb.) et pass. ; C. #., v. (vi.) 2.

3 Compare with Epitome 4 below.

4 Lactantius here quotes in Greek. Cf. P. S. A., xx. (p. 42, 27-
43, 3, Goldb.).

interesting myth, and to a legend of it devised to flatter the self-esteem of its Hellenic creators : A Greek god, whose cult, moreover, was known to be intimately connected with an ancient mystery-tradition, was the originator of the wisdom of Egypt. Of course ; and so with all nations who had any ancient learning — their special tradition was oldest and best and originator of all others !

For the rest, Lactantius knows nothing historically of the tradition which he esteemed so highly, and the mention of the Latinized name Thoyth1 and of Hermopolis 2 does but throw the paucity of his knowledge into deeper relief. What Lactantius does know is a large literature in Greek and its general tendency.

The sentence he quotes is not found textually in any of the extant Trismegistic literature.3 ii. Ibid., i. 11, 61 ; Brandt, p. 47; Fritzsche, i. 29, 30.

URANUS, CRONUS AND HERMES, ADEPTS OF THE
PERFECT SCIENCE