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

2 This seems to be taken not from a different place in the " To Asclepius," but from another sermon, or group of sermons, most probably from the " First Expository Sermon to Tat " — as may be seen by comparing its phrasing with Frag. xxii. See also Fragg. xi., xii, xiii., xv., xxii., xxiii., xxiv. (?).

the Lord of all, through His Creative Holy Word.1

"LET THE SUN BE!"

In like manner also in the " First Expository Sermon to Tat," he says:

FKAGMENT XXII.

Straightway the Lord of all spake unto His own Holy and Intelligible — to His Creative Word (Logos) : Let the Sun be !

And straightway with His word (logos), the Fire that hath its nature tending upward,2 — I mean pure [Fire], that which gives greatest light, has the most energy, and fecundates the most, — Nature embraced3 with her own Spirit, and raised it up aloft out of the Water.4

(After referring to Genesis i. 6: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," — Cyril proceeds :)

vii. Ibid., ii. 57 ; Migne, col. 588 c. THE FIRMAMENT Moreover the Hermes who is with them5 Thrice-

This is evidently an immediate continuation of Frag. xix. above. Cf. R. 126, n. 1, where the texts are reproduced.

2 See Frag. xiii. below, concerning the pyramid.

3 Embraced the Fire.

4 Sc. the Water-Earth, one element, not yet separated, according to G. H., i. 5. For other probable quotations from this " First Expository Sermon to Tat," see Fragg. xi., xii., xiii., xv., xx., xxiii., xxiv. (?).

5 Sc. the philosophers.

greatest mentions this [that is, the firmament] again. For he describes God as saying to His creations :

FRAGMENT XXIII.

I will encompass you with this Necessity, you who are disobedient to me,1 which hath been laid on you as a Command through My own Word (Logos) ; for him ye have as Law.

This quotation also is probably taken from the same source as the previous passage — that is, from the " First Expository Sermon to Tat." The idea and setting, however, should also be compared with the parallel in the K. K Excerpt (Stob., Phys., xli. 44; Gaisf., p. 408) : " 0 Souls, Love and Necessity shall be your lords, they who are lords and marshals after me of all," — where the " after me " (/uer' que) might perhaps confirm the " up to me " in the preceding note as the more correct rendering.

viii. Ibid., ii. 64 ; Migne, col. 598 D.

FROM THE "To ASCLEPIUS"

For Hermes, who is called Thrice-greatest, writes thus to Asclepius about the nature of the universe :

(Here follows with a few slight verbal variants the text of C. H., xiv. (xv.) 6, 7, beginning: "If, then, all things have been admitted to be two.")

1 TOIS &r' £pc, — lit. " against me," or it may perhaps be " up to me." Migne's Latin translator gives " qui in mea potestatis estis" and Chambers (p. 153), "those from me" ; neither of which can be correct.

And some lines after he proceeds in warmer language, setting forth a striking argument, and says :

(Then follows §§8, 9 of the same sermon, except the third sentence, and § 10 omitting- the last sentence.) l

The same treatise must have lain before Cyril as that contained in our Corpus in the form of a letter with the heading, " Unto Asclepius good health of soul ! " — for the Archbishop says that Hermes " writes thus to Asclepius." 2 ix. Ibid., iv. 130; Migne, col. 702.

THE SOLE PROTECTION

(After quoting Porphyry as warning against participation in blood-rites for fear of contamination from evil daimons, Cyril proceeds :)

And their Thrice-greatest Hermes seems also to be of the same opinion ; for he, too, writes as follows, in the [sermon] " To Asclepius," concerning those unholy daimons against whom we ought to protect ourselves, and flee from them with all the speed we can :

"The sole protection — and this we must have — is piety. For neither evil daimon, yea nor Fate, can ever overcome or dominate a man who pious is, and pure, and holy. For God doth save the truly pious man from every ill" 3

1 Cyril also twice omits the words " ignorance and jealousy "
after "arrogance and impotence" in § 8, and also the words
" and yet the other things" in § 9.

2 Cf. Frag, iv., Comment.

3 Gf. P. S. A., xxix. 1. A comparison of this with Frag, iv., quoted by Lactantius (ii. 15), and the Commentary thereon, shows clearly that Cyril has strengthened the original text by interpolax. Ibid., viii. 274 ; Migne, col. 920 D. THE SUPREME ARTIST

Moreover, their Thrice-greatest Hermes has said somewhere about God, the Supreme Artist 1 of all things :

FRAGMENT XXIV.