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

Moreover, as perfectly wise He established Order and its opposite 2 ; in order that things intellectual, as being older and better, might have the government of things and the chief place, and that things sensible, as being second, might be subject to these.

Accordingly that which tends downward, and is heavier than the intellectual, has in itself the wise Creative Word (Logos).3 xi. Ibid. (?).

AN UNREFERENCED QUOTATION

(Chambers (p. 154) gives the following, " Gyrill. Contra Julian. , citing Hermes" but without any reference, and I can find it nowhere in the text :)

FEAGMENT XXV.

If thou understandest that One and Sole God, thou wilt find nothing impossible ; for It is all virtue.

tions. Cyril's quotation (v. 176) from Julian, in which the Emperor refers to Hermes, is given under " Julian."

C, — an epithet applied by Pindar (Fr. 29) to Zeus.

3 This seeins somewhat of a piece with the contents of the
" First Expository Sermon to Tat." See Fragg. xi., xii., xiii., xv ,
xx., xxii., xxiii.

Think not that It may be in some one ; say not that it is out of some one.

It is without termination ; it is the termination of all.

Nothing contains It; for It contains all in
Itself.

What difference is there then between the body and the Incorporeal, the created and the Uncreated ; that which is subject to necessity, and what is Free ; between the things terrestrial and things Celestial, the things corruptible and things Eternal ?

Is it not that the One exists freely and that the others are subject to necessity ?

X.

SUIDAS1

Lexicon, s.v. 'Ep/x^s 6 Tpioy>uyio-Tos ; Im. Bekker (Berlin
1854).

HERMES SPEAKS OF THE TRINITY

Hermes the Thrice-greatest. — He was an Egyptian sage, and flourished before Pharaoh. He was called Thrice-greatest because he spoke of the Trinity, declaring that in the Trinity there is One Godhead, as follows :

"Before Intellectual Light was Light Intellectual;
Mind of mind, too, was there eternally, Light-giving.
There was naught else except the Oneness of this [Mind]
and Spirit all-embracing.

" Without this is nor god, nor angel, nor any other being. For He is Lord and Father, and the God of all; and all things are beneath Him, [all things are] in Him.2

(The source of Suidas, or of his editor, is manifestly

1 Date uncertain ; some indications point to as late as the twelfth century ; if these, however, are due to later redaction, others point to the tenth century.

2 He is above them as Lord and Father, as Mind and Light ; and they are in Him as Lady and Mother, as Spirit and Life.

Cyril, C. J., i. 35 (Fragg. xvi., xvii.), of which a very garbled edition is reproduced. The same statement and passage is also quoted by Cedrenus, John Malalas, and the author of the Chronicum Alexandrinum. See Bernhardy's edition of Suidas (Halle, 1853), i. 527, notes.) Suidas then continues without a break :)

" His Word (Logos), all - perfect as he was, and fecund, and creative, falling in fecund Nature, yea in fecund Water, made Water pregnant." x

After saying this he has the following prayer :

AN ORPHIC HYMN

" Thee, Heaven, I adjure, wise work of mighty God ; thee I adjure, Word2 of the Father which He spake first, when He established all the world !

"Thee I adjure, [0 Heaven], by the alone-begotten Word (Logos) himself, and by the Father of the Word alone-begotten, yea, by the Father who surroundeth all, — be gracious, be gracious ! "

This is not a prayer from Hermes, but three verses (the last somewhat altered) of an Orphic hymn excerpted from Cyril, ibid., i. 33 (Migne, col. 552 c), — lines also attributed to " Orpheus " by Justin Martyr. The last half of the prayer seems to be a pure invention of Suidas, or of his editor, based partially on Cyril's comments.

1 This is again, and this time almost verbally, taken from Cyril ibid., i. 33 ; Frag. xii.

XI.

ANONYMOUS

AND here we may conveniently append a reference to the Dialogue of an ancient Christian writer on astrology — a blend of Platonism, Astrology, and Christianity— entitled Hermippus de Astrologia Dialogus,1 from the name of the chief speaker.

This writer was undoubtedly acquainted with our
Corpus, for he quotes (p. 9. 3) from G. H., i. 5 ; (p. 21,
5) from C. H., x. (xi.) 12 ; (p. 70, 17) from C. H.y x.
(xi.) 6 ; in a general fashion (p. 24, 25) from C. H.,
xvi.; and phrases (p. 12, 21 and p. 14, 13) from C. H.,
xviii.

1 Kroll (G.) and Viereck (P.), Anonymi Ohristiani de Astrologia
Dialogus (Leipzig, 1895). Of. R. p. 210.

Ill

References and Fragments in the Philosophers

I.

ZOSIMUS

ON THE ANTHROPOS-DOCTRINE