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

In the course of his remarks the Bishop of Hippo quotes at length from a current Latin version 2 of " The Perfect Sermon " or " Asclepius " (though without himself giving any title), which we see at once must have been the very same text that has come down to us in its entirety. It is precisely the same text, word for word, with ours ; the variants being practically of the most minute character.

1 Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. xxx.
(Imp. Acad. of Vienna). The date of the writing of the treatise,
De Givitate Dei, is fixed as being about 413-426 A.D.

2 Hujus dEgyptii verba, sicut in ndstram linguam interpretata sunt.

First of all Augustine quotes from P. S. A., xxiii. 3, xxiv. 2. This " prophecy " of the downfall of the Egyptian religion Augustine naturally takes as referring to the triumph of Christianity, and so he ridicules Hermes " [qui] tarn impudenter dolebat, quam imprudentur sciebat."

ii. Ibid., xxiv. ; Hoffmann, i. 396.

The Bishop of Hippo begins his next chapter with a quotation from P. S. A., xxxvii. 1, 2, on the same subject, and proceeds scornfully to criticise the statements of the Trismegistic writer.

iii. Ibid., xxvi. ; Hoffmann, i. 402.

After quoting the sentence, from P. S. A., xxiv. 3, in which Hermes says that the pure temples of Egypt will all be polluted with tombs and corpses, Augustine proceeds to contend that the gods of Egypt are all dead men, and in support of his contention he quotes P. S. A., xxxvii. 3, 4.

IX.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA1

i. Contra Julianum, i. 30 \ Migne, col. 548 A.2

CYRIL'S CORPUS OF XV. BOOKS

(CYRIL, after claiming that Pythagoras and Plato obtained their wisdom in Egypt from what, he professes, they had heard of Moses there, proceeds :)

And I think the Egyptian Hermes also should be considered worthy of mention and recollection — he who, they say, bears the title of Thrice-greatest because of the honour paid him by his contemporaries, and, as some think, in comparison with Hermes the fabled son of Zeus and Maia.

This Hermes of Egypt, then, although an initiator into mysteries,3 and though he never ceased to cleave to the shrines of idols, is [nevertheless] found to have grasped the doctrines of Moses, if not with entire correctness, and beyond all cavil, yet still in part.

1 The date of Cyril's patriarchate is 412-444 A.D.

2 Migne (J. P.), Patrologice Gursus Completus, Series Graeca, torn. Ixxvi. (Paris, 1859). 8. P. N. Gyrilli ... Pro Christiana Religione adversus Julianum Imperatorem Libri Decem. The text is also given R. 211, n. 1.

For both [Hermes] himself has been benefitted [by Moses], and reminder of this [fact] has also been made in his own writings by [the editor] at Athens who put together the fifteen books entitled " Herma'ica." [This editor] writes concerning him [Hermes] in the first book, putting the words into the mouth of one of the priests of the sacred rites :

" In order then that we may come to things of a like nature (?), — have you not heard that our Hermes divided the whole of Egypt into allotments and portions, measuring off the acres with the chain,1 and cut canals for irrigation purposes, and made nomes,2 and named the lands [comprised in them] after them, and established the interchange of contracts, and drew up a list of the risings of the stars, and [the proper times 3] to cut plants ; and beyond all this he discovered and bequeathed to posterity numbers, and calculations, and geometry, and astronomy, and astrology, and music, and the whole of grammar ? "

This Corpus of XV. Books is evidently the source of Cyril's information, and he takes the above quotation from the Introduction, which purported to be written by an Egyptian priest (as is also the case in the treatise De Mysteriis, traditionally ascribed to Jainblichus), but which Cyril says was written at Athens, by presumably some Greek editor.4 ii. Ibid., i. 31 ; Migne col. 549 B.

1 " Acres," lit. = areas 100 Egyptian cubits square ; and " chain," lit. = measuring cord.

2 Or provinces ; Migne's Latin translator gives this as " laws " !

3 Sc. of the moon.

4 o <rwTtOeiKt>s 'Afl^vTjcn, — a phrase which Chambers (p. 149) erroneously translates by " which he [Hermes] having composed for Athenians " ! R. (p. 211, n. 1 ) thinks this redactor was some Neo-platonist.

THE INCORPOREAL EYE
Thrice-greatest Hermes says somewhat as follows :