Thrice-Greatest Hermes - Volume 1

by G.R.S. Mead

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p. viii

p. ix

Contents

Preface	v
I. The Remains of the Trismegistic Literature	1-16
Writer and Reader	1
The Extant Trismegistic Literature	3
The Original MS. of our Corpus	6
Texts and Translations	8
II. The History of the Evolution of Opinion	17-46
The Chief Points of Interrogation	17
The Opinions of the Humanists	18
The First Doubt	20
The Launching of the Theory of Plagiarism	21
The Only Argument Adduced	22
The Theory of Hilgers	25
The German Theory of Neoplatonic “Syncretismus”	26
The French Theory of Egyptian Origin	27
The Views of Ménard	27
English Encyclopædism	33
Chambers’ Opinion	34
German Encyclopædism	35
A Recent Article by Granger	36
Reitzenstein and the Dawn of Right Views	40
A Key to Egypt’s Wisdom	44
The Answers to our Questions	44
III. Thoth the Master of Wisdom	47-81
Thoth-Teḥuti	47
Thoth according to Pietschmann	48
The Three Grades of the Egyptian Mysteries	50
Thoth according to Reitzenstein	51
Thoth according to Budge	52
His Deific Titles	53
His Symbols and Name	54
The Shrine of Thoth	56
Thoth and his Company of Eight	57
The “House of the Net”	58
Thoth the Logos	63
The Words of Thoth	63
Thoth and the Osirified	65
Thoth the Measurer	66
The Title “Thrice-greatest”	66
The Supremacy of Thoth	67
The Views of a Scholar-Mystic	68
The Spiritual Nature of the Inner Tradition of Egyptian Wisdom	69
The Holy Land of Egypt and its Initiates	70
Thoth the Initiator	71
Some of the Doctrines of Initiation	73
The Temples of Initiation	74
The Mystery of the Birth of Horus	75
“The Book of the Master”	77
The Steps of the Path	79
An Illuminative Study	80
IV. The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult in the Greek Magic Papyri	82-98
The “Religion of Hermes”	82
i. An Invocation to Hermes as the Good Mind	84
ii. An Invocation to Lord Hermes	86
iii. An Invocation to Lord Hermes	87
iv. An Invocation to Thoth as Logos	90
v. An Invocation to Hermes as the Spiritual Light	90
vi. The Mystic Rite of the Flame	93
vii. A Prayer of Consecration	97
V. The Main Source of the Trismegistic Literature according to Manetho High Priest of Egypt	99-127
Hermes at the Beginning of the Hellenistic Period	99
Petosiris and Nechepso	100
Manetho the Beloved of Thoth	102
The Letter of Manetho to Ptolemy Philadelphus	103
The Importance of Manetho’s Statement in his “Sothis”	105
Is “Sothis” a Forgery?	107
The Arguments of Encyclopædism refuted	108
The Seriadic Land	110
The Stelæ of Hermes	112
The Sons of Seth-Hermes	113
The Epithet “Thrice-greatest”	116
The Clue of Griffiths	118
The Earliest Trismegistic Literature	121
Philo Byblius	122
Are his “Phœnician Histories” a Forgery?	123
Sanchuniathon and the “Books of Hermes”	124
VI. An Egyptian Prototype of the Main Features of the Pœmandres’ Cosmogony	128-138
The Higher Criticism of the “Pœmandres”	128
A Prototype of its Cosmogenesis	129
A Praise-giving to Ptah	131
Ptah-Thoth the Wise One	132
Egyptian Syncretism 1000 B.C.	135
The Doctrine of “Pœmandres” Compared with that of its Prototype	136
The Man-Doctrine	138
VII. The Myth of Man in the Mysteries	139-198
The Gnostic Tradition	139
The “Philosophumena” of Hippolytus	140
The Naassenes	141
Analysis of Hippolytus’ Account of the Naassene Document	142
Hippolytus’ Introduction	146
The Material for the Recovery of the Original Hellenistic Document	148
Hippolytus’ Conclusion	186
Conclusion of Analysis	192
The Hellenist Commentator	193
The Jewish and Christian Overwriters	194
Zosimus and the Anthropos-Doctrine	196
Philo of Alexandria on the Man-Doctrine	197
VIII. Philo of Alexandria and the Hellenistic Theology	199-254
Concerning Philo and his Method	199
The Great Importance of his Writings	204
Concerning the Mysteries	205
Concerning the Sacred Marriage	216
Concerning the Logos	225
The Son of God	226
The True High Priest	227
The Elder and Younger Sons of God	229
Yet God is One	230
The Logos is Life and Light	231
The Divine Vision	233
The Sons of God on Earth	233
The City of God	235
God’s Shadow	236
The Mother-City of Refuge	237
The True Shepherd	238
The Apostles of God	239
The Ladder of the “Words”	239
The Logos the Spiritual Sun	241
The Disciples of the Logos	243
The River of the Divine Reason	244
Jerusalem Above	245
The Logos is as Manna and Coriander Seed	246
The Logos is the Pupil of God’s Eye	247
“Man shall not Live by Bread Alone”	248
The Logos-Mediator	249
The Yoga of Plotinus	251
The Race of God	253
IX. Plutarch: Concerning the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris	255-368
Foreword	255
Concerning Isis and Osiris	261-366
Address to Klea concerning Gnosis and the Search for Truth	261
The Art of Knowing and of Divinising	262
The True Initiates of Isis	263
Why the Priests are Shaven and wear Linen	265
Of the Refraining from Flesh and Salt and Superfluities	267
On the Drinking of Wine	268
On Fish Taboos	269
The Onion and Pig Taboos	271
The Kings, the Riddles of the Priests and the Meaning of Amoun	273
Of the Greek Disciples of Egyptians and of Pythagoras and his Symbols	274
Advice to Klea concerning the Hidden Meaning of the Myths	276
The Mystery-Myth	278
The Undermeaning, a Reflexion of a Certain Reason	291
Concerning the Tombs of Osiris	292
Concerning the Theory of Evemerus	295
The Theory of the Daimones	298
Concerning Sarapis	301
Concerning Typhon	304
The Theory of the Physicists	307
Concerning Osiris and Dionysus	310
The Theory of the Physicists Resumed	312
The Theory of the Mathematici	318
The Theory of the Dualists	328
The Proper Reason according to Plutarch	333
The Symbolism of the Sistrum	344
The True “Logos” again according to Plutarch	345
Against the Weather and Vegetation God Theories	346
Concerning the Worship of Animals and Totemism	353
Concerning the Sacred Robes	361
Concerning Incense	363
Afterword	367
X. “Hermas” and “Hermes”	369-386
An Anticipation	369
The Higher Criticism of “The Shepherd of Hermas”	370
The Introduction of the “Pastoral Hermas”	370
Comparison with our “Pœmandres”	371
The Popular Symbolic Representation of the Shepherd	372
The Name “Hermas”	374
An Early Form of the “Pœmandres”	374
The Holy Mount	375
“Gnostic” Elements	376
The Vices and Virtues	377
The Early Date of the Original “Hermas”	378
The Dependence Theory to be used with Caution	379
The Visions of Crates	380
The General Christian “Many” and the Gnostic “Few”	382
The Story of Abbot Olympius	384
A Final Word	385
XI. Concerning the Æon-Doctrine	387-412
The Scope of our Essay	387
The Orphic Tradition of the Genesis of the World Egg	388
Commentary	392
The Sethian Gnosis	393
The Mithriac Æon	399
Probable Date of Origin of the Hellenistic Æon-Doctrine	401
Abraxas	402
The Feast of the Æon	403
The Quintessence and the Monad	403
The Æon in Plato	404
Concerning the Hellenistic Origin of Æonology	405
The Æon the Logos	406
The Roman Sæculum Cult derived from Egypt	407
The Æonic Immensities of Egypt	407
A Song of Praise to the Æon	408
The Demiurgic Æon	410
The Æon in Theurgic Literature	410
XII. The Seven Zones and their Characteristics	413-428
Macrobius on “The Descent of the Soul from the Heights of Cosmos to the Depths of Earth”	413
The Tradition of Servius	418
Criticism of the Evidence	419
The “Ophite” Hebdomad	421
The Simpler Form of the Trismegistic Gnosis	423
Concerning Leviathan and Behemoth	423
The “Fence of Fire”	427
XIII. Plato: Concerning Metempsychosis	429-436
The Soul and her Mysteries in the “Phædrus”	429
Plotinus on Metempsychosis	434
Proclus on the Descent of Souls into Irrational Natures	435
XIV. The Vision of Er	437-449
Er Son of Armenius	437
From the Mysteries	438
The Cylinder	439
The Vision	440
Commentary	448
XV. Concerning the Crater or Cup	450-456
The Crater in Plato	450
In “Orpheus,” Macrobius, and Proclus	451
The Vision of Aridæus	452
The Origin of the Symbol to be sought in Orphic Tradition	456
XVI. The Disciples of Thrice-Greatest Hermes	457-481
Ptah, Sekhet and I-em-ḥetep (Asclepius)	457
Nefer-Tem	458
Imhotep-Imuth-Asclepius	459
Thāth-Tat	461
The Incarnations of Thoth	463
The Disciples of Lord Hermes in Petosiris and Nechepso	464
Tosothros-Asclepius	465
Imuth-Asclepius the Master-Mason and Poet	466
Æsculapius the Healer	467
Asclepius in Trismegistic Tradition	469
Concerning Ammon	471
Prophet and King	472
Amenhotep-Asclepius	473
The Sacred Group of Four	474
James, John and Peter	475
The Triad of Disciples	476
Chnum the Good Daimon	477
Osiris Disciple of Agathodaimon the Thrice-greatest	478
Logos-Mind the Good Daimon	478
Chnum Good Mind the Æon	480
Isis, Lady of Wisdom, Disciple of Thrice-greatest Hermes	481