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

1 Porphyry (De Abs., ii. c. 55) mentions a Seleucus whom he calls a "theologist" ; Suidas says that Seleucus of Alexandria wrote a treatise On the Gods, in 100 books or chapters.

2 Reading Sia\a&6vres instead of 8ta&d\\ovTts.

3 Ibid., viii. 1.

pose that it took 20,000 volumes to set forth the main outlines of the cosmic system. Jamblichus would seem to mean that in the library or libraries of the books treating of the sacred science, the general scheme of the cosmos was set forth, and that the details were filled in very variously by many writers, each according to the small portion of the whole he had studied or speculated on. As to the number of books again we should not be dismayed, when we reflect that a book did not mean a large roll or volume but a division or chapter of such a roll. Thus we read of a single man composing no less than 6000 " books " !

But on further reflection this view does not seem satisfactory. The ghost of the very precise number 36,525, which Jamblichus substitutes from Manetho for the vague total 20,000 of Seleucus, refuses to be laid by such a weak-kneed process.

We see at once that 365-25 days is a very close approximation to the length of the solar year. We know further that 36,525 years was the sum of 25 Sothiac cycles (1461 x 25 = 36,52s),1 that most sacred time-period of the Egyptian secret astronomy, which was assigned to the revolution of the zodiac or the Great Year. Now supposing after all that Jamblichus does mean that Hermes actually did write the scheme of the cosmos in 36,525 "books" or "chapters"; and supposing further that these "chapters" were not written on papyrus, but in the heavens ; and supposing still further that these "chapters" were simply so many great aspects of the real sun, just as the 365-25 days were but aspects of the physical sun— in such case the above favourite passage, which every previous writer has referred to actual books superscribed with the name of Hermes, and has dragged into every treatise on the Hermetic writings, will in future have to be removed from the list, and one of the functions of the real Hermes, the Initiator and Recorder, will become apparent to those who are " wise in greater things."

1 See Georgius Syncellus, Chron., i. 97, ed. Dindorf. Also Eusebius, Chron., vi.

THE MONAD FROM THE ONE

In the next chapter, after first speaking of the God over all, Jamblichus refers to the Logos, the God of our system, whom he calls " God of gods, the Monad from the One, prior to being and the source of being." And then continues :

"For from Him cometh the essence of being and being ; wherefore is He called Father of being. For He is prior to being, the source of spiritual existences ; wherefore also is He called Source of spiritual things. These latter are the most ancient sources of all things, and Hermes places them before the sethereal and empyrean and celestial gods, bequeathing to us a hundred books on the history of the empyrean, and a like number on that of the sethereal, but a thousand of them concerning the celestial." *

I am inclined to think that there is a mistake in the numbers of these books, and that we should have 10 assigned to the first class, 100 to the second, and 1000 to the third. In any case we see that all are multiples of the perfect number 10 ; and that thus my theory is still supported by the further information that Jamblichus gives us.

THE TRADITION OF THE TRISMEGISTIC LITERATURE

We next come to a passage which deals directly with our Trismegistic literature. Jamblichus tells Porphyry that with the explanations he has already 1 Op. tit., viii. 2.

given him, he will be able to find his way in the Hermetic writings which have come into his hands.

"For the books in circulation bearing the name of Hermes contain Hermaic doctrines, although they often use the language of the philosophers, seeing that they were translated from the Egyptian by men well skilled in philosophy." 1