THE
WAY
OF
HERMES Nw Te Copus Heneticum
Te Dnitions Hermes Hermes ismestus to Ascle ius
CLEMENT SALN, DORINE VAN EN WLLIAM D WHARON, JEAN-PIERRE AH
r d R Vr
Inner Traditions Inteational One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 wInnerTradtions.com
Contents
Frst US edton pubshed n 2000 by Inner Tradtons Internatonal Frst pubshed n 1999 by Gerad Duckworth & Co Ltd, London Cus Heetium transaton © 1999, 2000 by Cement Saaman, Dorne van Oyen, and Wlam D Wharton e itis Hees Hees Tsmeistus t sepius translaton © 999,4000 y Jean-Perre Mah A rghts resered No part of ths book may be rproduced or utzed · n any form or by any means, electronc or mechacal, ncudng photocopyng, recordng, or by any nformaton sorage and retreva system, without permsson n wrtng om the pbsher Lbrary of Congress CatalogngnPbcaton Daa Cous Hermetcum Engish The way The way of Hermes : translatons of The Cous Hermetcum and The dentons of Hermes Trsmegstus to Asclepus / [transated by] Clement Salaman '" et alst US ed p cm Orgnaly pubshed London Duckwort & Co, 1999 Includes bblographca references and ndex ISBN 0892887 (ak paper) 1 Hermetsm Hermes, Trsmegstus Deons of Hermes Trsmegstus to Ascepus II Salaman, Clement II Tte BF1600 C673 2000 1355dc21 Prnted and bound n the Unted States
99086338
T Preface by Professor Gilles Quisel Aknowledgements Translators' Foreword Translators' Note TNSLATION Aeord Notes on the Greek Text Bibliography Index
9 2 13
6 7 79
89 93 95
T f Introduction TNSLATON Notes Bibliography
9 8 23
Pates between ages 48 and 49
0 9 8 7 6 5 3 2 s boo was peset n aramond BE Regular
5
That Light whose smie kindes the univese, That Beauty in which a things wok and move, That Benediction which the ecipsing Cuse Of bith can quench not, that sustaining Love Which, tough the web of being bindy wove By man and beast and eah and ai and sea, Bus bight o dim, as each ae mios of The e fo which a thist, now beams on me, Consuming the ast couds of cod motaity. Sheey, Adonais
6
Th Crpus Hrmticum
·aad by C Saaa va Oy Wa Wha
7
Preface the year 46 a mok brought a Greek mauscript to Florece The mok Leoardo of Pistoia was oe of the agets that the citys ruler Cosimo de' Medici had set scour Europes moas teries for forgotte writigs of the aciets ad what he ow brought his patro was a codex cotiig fourtee treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus a aciet Eptia sage This works arrival caused a great stir because Hermes idetied with the bis god Thoth was held to be older that Plato ad Moses ad the uderlyig ispiratio of all philosophy ad religio that followed him Cosimo immediately istructed his scholar Marsilio icio to susped his project of traslatig the complete dialogues of the divie Plato so that he might udertake a traslatio of this eve more sigicat work This mauscript cotaied the ucleus of the Corpus Her eticu also falsely called Piander aer the rst treatise Poiandres. Alog with some astrological ad alchemical works also amed aer Hermes these tracts became the dametal writigs of the Reaissace together called Hermeticism whereas the doctrie of the Corpus Hereticu is called Her metism. The texts of the Corpus are preserved i Greek ad appear to have bee produced betwee the rst ad third cetu ris i Alexadria Egypt 64 the Swiss Calviist from Geeva Casaubo proved that the Corpus Hereticu was ot as old as it preteded to be but should be dated aer the begiig of the Christia era er ts Hermetic writigs lost their geeral fasciatio but lived o i secret societies such as the Freemasos ad the Rosicrucias The discove of Hermetic writigs i oe of the thirtee codices foud ear Nag Hammadi i Egypt i 945 chaged this situatio completely They cotaied a b�tter versio i Coptic of pas of the Hermetic Ascleius preserved i Lati amog he works of Apuleius ad moreover the itegral text of a ukow writig 9
The Corpus Hermeticum
Preface
cd On h Ogdod nd Ennd This work shows hou ny doub h h Hrmic bivr ws iniid ino svr grds bfor rnscnding h sphr of h svn pns nd h hvn of h xd srs (h Ogdod) Thn h woud bhod h God byond nd xprinc Himsf I is now compy crin h hr xisd bfor nd r h bginning of h Chrisin r in Axndri scr sociy o Msonic odg Th mmbrs of his group cd hmsvs brhrn wr iniid hroug bpism of h Spiri grd ch ohr wih scrd kiss cbrd scrd m nd rd h Hrmic wriings s diing riss for hir spiriu progrss Morovr h criicisms of Csubon os much of hir forc For vn if h Corpus Hermeticm ws wrin down rhr is concps coud siy b v od nd Epi And in fc h bsic princips of mnion of h word s ovrow from God d of m s ry of sunigh ( is on is from h n) ar ypicy ncin Egypin Nor shoud h iunc of soric Judism b ngcd Thr xisd h im in Axndri nd Psin Thron Mysicism in which h iniid ros hrough h svn pcs of Hvn o bhod h Kbod h uminous go of God in h shp of Mn This mysicism ws inspird by ision of Ezekiel 1 hron crd by four iving bings bov which ws gur ik h pprnc of Mn si ody h foundion of Jwish mysicism bou Adm Qdmon rchyp Mn n h Poimandres God brings foh h Anhropos M who d scnds o cr nd fs ino mr Th chos h min hm of soric udism n h cnu bfor Chris h inuni Soic phiosophr Posidonius ugh h h Cosmos ws domind by h symp hy of hings' (srs nd vns on rh) h God ws Spiri which prvdd h A nd h mn ws consubsni wih God bcus h hd Spiri A h sm im crin Eudorus Ponis ws ching in Axandri srssing h rigious mns ik rincion in Po nd ing o rconci Po wih Ariso Th Hiss foowd hs gurs in using piosophic ng o xrss fundmny rigious ch ings Thus Hrmic Sudis hv b compy rnwd Thr for h im hs com for nw rnsion which ss h Grk
x in h igh of h nw discovris d nds n dqu wording in modrn idiom no ind by h prjudics of od fsond rionism
Gis Quisp Profssor Emrius Urch nd Hrvrd
Acowledgements
Translators' Foreword
We would lke to thnk ll those who hve sssted in t he prep rtion of ths ed iton Pr of essor G lles Quspel k ind ly suppor ted our eorts nd contrbuted the pref ce. Pr ofessor Jen-P ierr e Mh ws lso most gener ous in gree ing to publ ish s trnsl ton of the Defnitions wth n introd uct ion n ts volume The f oowng pr ovd ed re ia be and entusast ic hep in the transaton: Mrtn Block, K eth Hernd on, K enneth Lr sen, K thleen Lehmann, Ed th Murph y, John Mur phy nd Dne Whrton Meta Cushng was of g reat assstance in pr eparing notes and the text f or pu b icaton. Others have gven the ntr od uctoy sectons and aeord thought scr ut in y , and to them we ar e most g rat. We also thank a those who, before pu bicaton, read or heard the tr nslion, nd who, b y their enthus ism, hve encourg ed . us In our wor k Above ll, we r e inde bted to the lte Leon McLr en, who in itited nd insp ired ths tr nslt ion, wh ich we
The heart of the Hermetc tecng contned in ths book is the restion tht the ndvidu is fundament no dierent from the Supreme This reston gnosis, singe, immedte event, chrctersed s second bih This techng outnes the spiri tu pth tht prepres the wy for ths gosis, whch is not chieved b n eo of th ord mind The words of the techer work independent of the dscipe's thnng The point of these tretses s not to rgue the truth of ther propostons; their mening s the chnge they eect in the hes of their reders or steners n wkenng them to the tuth We fee tht there is need for new trnston whose n guge reects the insprtion intent of these writings t s not enough to prode terl trnston, however ccurte, for uness it reproduces something of the music nd poet of the orn, it wi not touch the sme emotion chord Our m s to crete n Engsh version whose crit nd cdence evoke the transforming connection with the scred tht drew the origin isteners together A further reson why we hve embrked on new trnstion is becuse we fee tht the mnuscript trdition coud nd shoud be foowed fr more cosey, where t cn be, wthout dmge to the sense or ogc of the Greek At times this pproch seems to open up the text in esh nd nterestng ws We hve primary consulted the foueenthcentu mnuscpt Lurentinus 733 d the sxteenhcentu Bodeinus 337 s wel s the sixteenth centu edtion of Adrien Tuebus, cose reted to Vndobonen ss ph 2. We hve so reied on the critic edition of AD Nock nd AJ Festugire There re some pces where it hs not been possbe to foow the mnuscpts becuse the simp do not mke sense For those pssges we hve foowed Nocks Greek text For simpicity's ske we hve ncuded textul notes onl on those occsions when we hve deprted from Nocks text We hve
now ded icate to h im.
2
3
The Copus Heeticu
Tanslatos Foeod
aso kept explanatory notes to a minimum to allow the translation to speak for itself. s we prepared our translation we spoke with JeanPierre Mah of the Sorbonne about his work on the Denitions ofHees Tisegistus a Greek manuscript which was found in Oxford's Bodleian Libra and brought to light by J Paramelle in 99 (see Mah, Extraits Hermtiques', p 9). Our conversation led to Mah's most generous agreement to include his translation of that work, along with hs introduction, in ths edition We feel fortuate to be able to present his valuable insights into the nature and composition of this teaching, as well as the Denitions aphorisms which, as he argues, formed the basis of the Copus and other Hermetic writings Recent arguments for greater Eptian inuece on the Copus (see Pfessor Quispel's Preface a d our· Aerword) dsposed us to approach our task with particular care The temptation was to abide by the traditional renderings of the Greek philosophcal vocabula, but such a decision would have given the traslation a cast that was at times excessively Platonic, Aristotelia or Stoic For example, we geerally preferred nature' or essence' to the Aristotelian substace' for usia. We usually le Nous untranslated, feeling that intellect' or mind' were inadequate for the pure, conscious light of Book 4 or the creative intelligece of the cosmos of Books and with most tes, however, we were by no means inexible i our decisions when the context suggested discursive thinking, mind' seemed the best choice The term that prompted most dscussion was to agathon the word with which Plato denoted the supreme Form, the spiritual analoe to the Sun in the visible orld When, as in Book 6 agathon is discussed in contrast with kakon the darkess or ignorance of evil, we decided to stay with the convetional good' or goodness' Occasionally, where some paicular aspect of to agathon seems o be meant, we have used another translation appropriate to the context, but in these very few instances we have inserted to agathon in parentheses immediately aer the term used When the context suggested reference to the supreme reality itself, we felt that good' or goodness' wuld imply little more than a moral judgement We decided in the end to follow Ciceo, who translated to athon into the Latin Suu Bonu the Supree Good We hope this will suggest to the reader the hghest reality
i the cosmos; the te identity of every person and indeed of everything in the creation We have endeavoured to give the translation a freshess ad vigour that will illuminate for today's reder the way these works drew and inspired lsteners in antiqity nd the Renaissance We hope thus to open the mind to the eteal questions that these treatises address What am I? What is ths world around me? What is my relation to it?
4
5
March 999 Clement Salaman Dorine van Oyen William D Wharto
Translators' Note
The Corpus Hermetium
In the translaton that follows, lettered note references a, b, c, etc refer t the Notes on the Greek Text on pp 8992 Numbered references , 2 etc. refer to the notes at the end of each book of the translaton There s no Book 5 (see below, p. 85).
Book ! Poimandres to Hermes Trismegistus
1 Once, when mnd had become ntent on the thngs whch are, and my understandng was rased a great heght, wle my bdly senses were wthdrawn as sleep, when men are weghed down by too much food or by the fatgue ofthe body, t seemed that someone mmensely great of nnte dmensons happened to call my name and sad to me What do you wsh to hear and behold, and havng beheld what do you wsh o le and kow? 2. Who are you?' sad He sad, I am Pomandres the Nous of the Supreme I know what you wsh and I am wth you evewhere. 3. I wsh to le,' sa I, the thngs that are and understand ther nature and to know God. 0 how I wsh to hear these tngs! He spoke to me agan. Hold n your Nous all that you wsh to learn and I wll teach you 4 When he had thus spoken, he changed n fo and forthwth upon the nstant, all thngs opened up before me and I beheld a bounless vew All had becoe lght, a gentle and joyous lght and I was lled wth longng when I saw there had coe to be n one part a downward movng darkness, fearful and loathsome, whch I experenced as a twstng and enfoldng moton. Thus t appeared to me. I saw the nature of the darkness change nto a watery substance, whch was ndescrbably shaken about, and gave out smoke as om re, culmnatng n an unutterable and moul echo There was sent foh from the watery substance a loud, nartculate c the sound, asI thought, was of the lght•
16
7
The Corpus Hereticu Book 1
The Corpus Hereticu Book 1
Out of the light came foh the Holy Word which entered into the wate substance, and pure re leapt from the wate substance and rose up te re was insubstatial, piercing and active. The air, being light, followed the breath, and mounted up till it reached the re, away from eah and water, so that it seemed to be suspended om the re The eah and water remained in their own place mingled together, so that they could not be distinguished, and they were kept in motion by the breath of the Word, which passed over them within hearing.
'Nous God, being male and female, beginning as life and light, gave bih, by the Word, to another Nous the Creator of the world; he, being the god of re and air, foed seven powers who encompass i n their circles the sensory world, and the goveance ofthese powers is called destiny.
6 Poimandres spoke to me and said Have you understood what you have seen and what it means? I shall come to know it, I said. That light, he said, is I, Nous your God, who was before the wate substance which appeared out of the darkness; and the clear Word from Nous is the Son of God How can this be? said I. 'Know this, he said 'That which sees and hears withn you is the Word of the Lord, and Nous is God the Father. They are not separate from each other, for their union is life.'
Thank you, I said. But perceive the light and know it, said Poimandrs.
7 And when he had thus spoken, he looked at me l in the face for a long time, so that his form made me tremble. When he had looked u, I saw in my own No us that the light was in innumerable powers, havng become an innite wold. I saw a re encompassed by a mighty power, being under command keep its place I was intent upon these things, seeing them by means of the word of Poimandres. As I stood amazed, Poimandres spoke again to me, saying: 'ou saw in Nous the rst form, which is por to the beg of the begi ningless d endless. Thus spoke Poimandres to me. 'Then, I said, 'whence did the elements of nature have their 8.
origins?
He answ�red: 'From the will of God, which, holding the Word and seeing th om her own constituent elements and the o spring of souls
8
Immediately, the Word of God leapt forth from the downward moving elements to the pure work of the Creator, and was united with the Creator Nous (for he was of the same substance) and the downward moving elements of the creation were le behind, with out the Word, to be matter alone . 'Nous the Creator, together with the Word, encompassing the spheres and spinning them round wt a rushing motion, caused those things he had made to revolve and he allowed them to revolve from no xed beginning to an end without limit, for it begins where it ends The rotation of these spheres, as Nous willed, brought foh from the downward moving elements livng beings wthout speech (for they did not contain the Word) and the air produced winged creatures and the water swimming creatures The earth and the water were separated from each other, as Nous willed, and the earth brought foh from herself what she possesses, fourfooted animals, reptiles, beasts; wild and tame. 12 'Nous the Father of all, who is life and light, brought foh Man, the same as himself, whom he loved as his own child, for Man was v e beautil, bearing the image of his Father It was really his own form that God loved, and he handed over to him all his creation. 3 hen Man had obsrved in the Father the creation of te Creato he himself wished to create; and he was ve permission to do so by the Father, being begotten in the sphere ofthe Creator, he observed carelly the creations of his brother om which he obtained eve power The Father and the brother loved him, and each gave him of their own authorty. Having acquired knowledge oftheir essence and partaking in their nature, he wished to break through the circumference of the spheres and to come tocosos know the e beautil made one exactl power of him who was set in authority over the re
9
The Corpus Hermeticum Book 2
The Cous Hermeticum Book 1
themselves over to the path of death; others begged to be in structed, having thrown themselves at my feet. Liing them up, I became the gde of the race teaching the words of God, how they could be saved. I sowed in them the words of wisdom and they were nourished by the water of immortality the eveing came and the rays of the sun began fully to set, I bade them to thank God; when they had fully given thanks each reted to hs own bed
Book 2 Hees to scepius
1. H Is not evething that is moved, 0 Asclepius, moved in something and by somethng? A -Ceainly
H- Must n ot that in whch somet hin g is moved be gr eat er t han
what is moved ?
30 I engraved in myself the benecent kindness of Poimandres and having been lled with what I desired, I was delighted For the sleep of the body became the sobety of the soul, the closing of the eyes became true sion, my silence became preant with the Supreme Good, and the utterance of the Word became the genera tion of rches. All this came to me who had received it from my Nous that is to say from Poimandres, the Word of the Supreme. I have come, divnely inspired by the tth. Wherefore, I give praise God the Father wth mywhole soul and strength: 31 Holy is God the Father of all Hoy is God whose will is accomplished by hs own powers Holy is God who wills to be known and is own by those that are his own. Holy a thou who by the Word has united all that is Holy art thou of whom all Nature became an image Holy art thou whom Nature has not created. Holy art thou who is stronger tha all power Holy art thou who art h igher than all preeminence Holy a thou who surpasses praises Receive pure oerings of speech oered you by inner mind and heart, thou who a unutterable, vast, beyond description, who art spoken of by silence )
A-It must H-Must not the mover be more powerful than the moved? A -Denitely more powerl. H And must n ot that in which movemen t occurs have a nature opposite to t hat of the moved ?
A-Yes, indeed
2 H-Now this cosos is vast Surely there is not a greater body than this? A-Agreed. H-An d it is d ense? For it is flled with man y ot her g reat bod ies,
or rather with bodies that eist. A That is so H-s the cosmos a body? A-It is. H Is it moved? 3 A-Certaily
H -Then how lar ge ust be t he space in which the cosmos is moved and what is the nat ure of that space? Must it n ot be much larger, in ord er to accommodate the con t inuous course of t he movement of the cosmos and to pr even t it s mot ion f rom bein g
hindered by its connement? A -It must be something huge, 0 Trismegistus
32. I beg you that I may not fall from the knowledge that leads towards our essence, and endow me with vitality; by this grace, I shall enlighten those of the race who are in ignorance, my brothers and your sons Wherefore, I have faith and I bear wtness. I go to life and light You are blessed, Father He who is your man wants to share in your holiness, as you have given him all authority
4 H What is it like? Must it not be of a opposite nature, Asclepius? And the nature opposite to body is ilss A-Aeed
24
25
H-The space t hen , is bodiless. The bod iless is either divin e or it is G od. I understan d 'divine t o mean n ot 'beg otten but 'unbegot
ten'
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 2
The Corpus Hereticu Book 2
5 If th bodilss is dvin it is ndowd th bing if it is God it stands apat om bing othws it would b pcptibl Fo us God is th highst pcption but not fo Him Fo that which is pcivd is pcivd by th sns� of th pciv thfo God is not pcivd by Himslf Howv in that H is not oth than that whch is pcivd H dos pciv Himslf
ows but th countaction of ft and hands povid stability fo th man so that h is not caid down stam A A v cla xampl Tismgistus H-All movmnt thn is poducd in that whch dos not mov and by that whch dos nt mov Thfo th movmnt of th cosmos and of all vng matial tus out no to as om what coms om outsid th cosmos but om what is within whch movs outwa om th soul fom h bath of lif o fom anoth incopoal bing Fo a body dos not mov a body that has a soul no in gnal any body vn if it ha no soul
6 To us H is somthing spaat and it is bcaus of ts that w pciv Him But if th spac in which th cosmos is movd is pcivd it is not God but simply spac If th spac is God it is no long spac but that which ncompass& all actity l that is movd is not movd in what is movd but in what is ovd Th mov is still it is impossibl fo Him to b movd A -How thn 0 Tismgistus a ths things h movd by thos which mov thm? Fo you hav said that th planta sphs a movd by th xd stas H-It is not th sam movmnt 0 Asclpius but a movmnt in th opposit dction fo thy a not movd in th sam way but in a way opposit to ach oth This countmovmnt has a poin fo its movmnt that is xd 7. Fo countmovmnt is th bing of stillnss• Now th plantay sphs a movd in th opposit diction to th xd stas Thy a movd by ach oth in opposition Thy a movd ound thi opposit by a point which is xd and it cannot b othwis Thos two Bas [th constllations which you s] nith st no s and a tud about th sam point do you think thy a movd o a xd? A -Thy a movd 0 Tismgistus H -With what kind of movmnt Asclpius? A With a movmnt that tus aound that point H -Th cicula movmnt is a movmnt about that point govd by that which is still fo volution ound that point pvnts any digssion dgssion is pvntd if th volution is stablishd Thus th movmnt in th opposit diction is stabilising and is Xd by th pincipl of countmovmnt 8. I shall giv you an xampl upon ath und you v ys Look at motal bings fo instanc a man swimming Th wat
26
A How can you say this Tsmgstus? Caot pics of wood stons and oth thngs that hav no soul mov bodis? H-Not so Asclpius Whn body movs somthing without a sou it is that withn not th body whch movs both th ba and what is bo Hnc a body with a soul whn it movs movs that whch is in• Thfo you s th soul is wighd down whnv on its own it cas to bods Claly thn thngs which a movd a movd in somthng and by somthng
10. A-Must objcts b movd in somthing 0 Tismgistus? H Thy must Asclpius Nothing whch is is a void oy nonxstnc is void bing foign to xistnc F can nv b void A -But a th not som things which a void 0 Tismgis tus such as an mpty ja an mpty pot a whol iv bd and oth simila thngs? H -What a hug mistak Asclpius! What is totally full and quit nomousO you hav simply takn as mpty 11 A -How can you say this 0 Tismgistus? H Is ai a substanc Asclpius? A It is H Dos not this substanc pvad all that xsts and in pvadng all dos it not ll it? Is this substanc not a mixtu of substancs? Thfo a not all things which you say a void lld with ai? Thfo thos things which you say a void on should call hollow not void Th fact is that thy a ll of ai and th bath of lif 27
The Corpus Hereticu Book 2
The Corpus Hereticu Book 2
12 Your words are irretable, 0 Trismegistus. So what shall we
and never become good The Supreme Good is not at all alien to God; it is inseparable om Him, as i is God Himself All the other immoal gods are honoured by the name of God. However, God is good, not by being honoured, but by his nature. For the nature of God is one: supreme goodness; God and goodness are one generative power, from which come all generations. He who gives all and takes nothing is good. God gives all and takes nothing So God is the Supreme Good and the Supreme Good is God.
say is the space in which evething s moved? H It is bodiless, Asclepius. A But what is the bodiless? H Nous the Word, emerging out of that which is whole, entire and complete; Nous containing itself, nembodied, steadfast, unaected, and impalpable, itself standing by itself, containing and reserving all beings, whose glories are the Supreme Good, truth, the origin of breath, the origin of soul. A What then is God? H He is not any one of these, but He is the cause of their estence, the ause of the existence of everything and of eve individual.
1 He has le no space for the unreal. All that is has come from the real and ot om the unreal. The quality of the unreal is that it cannot come into existence, indeed i cannot become anything. Again the real never has the nature of the unreal. 14. AWhat do you mean by: never has the nature of the unreal? H God is Nous and the cause of existenc; He is not breath, but the cause of the breaths existence; He is not light, but the cause of the lights estence. Thus one should worship God by these two names (Nous the cause of existence), since they belong to Him alone and to no one else. No other beings spoken of as gods, men or divine powers can be even in the slighest degree good, but God alone God is this alone and nohing else All other things are contained" within the nature of the Supreme Good, for they are body and soul, but themselves have no place to contain the Supreme Good
1 . The other name is that of the Father, by virtue of Him being the author of all things; for the Fathers nature is to create. Therefore, the raising of children2 is held in the greatest esteem in life and most blessed by rightthinking people; and the greatest misfortune and impiety is when omeone depas om mankind without children, for he suers punishment aer death from the divine powers. This is the retribution: that the soul without children is condemned to a body that is neither male nor female, and is cursed by the sun Therefore, Asclepius, do not congratulate anyone without children but rather take pity on his misfortune, knowing what punishment awaits him. Let this much be spoken as a foretaste to the understanding of the nature of the All. *
16. Eveone uses the term good, but what it is, not eveone perceives. On account of this , God is not perceived by everyone, but in ignorance they call gods and certain men good who can never be
Tr is substantia vinc tat a portion of t opning of Book of t orpus Hrmum as wl as an ntir intrvning book av bn lost from t manuscripts n manuscripts tat contain tits for iniviua tratiss, Book is labll A Ursa Tah ofHrms o Ta. Wat follows in t manuscripts, owvr, is arss to sclpius, suggsting tat at an arly point, a tratis was lost. itional vinc for omission coms from Joanns Stobaus, wos A 00 antolo of ancint wisom an itratur for is sons ucation contains xtnsiv xcrpts from tis tratis n xcrpt of som twntyv ins ns wit a phas intical wit t rst lin of t manuscripts Book 2 is ars sclpius, an matcs t rst of t tratis in subjct mattr. Tis fragmnt is, trfor, gnrally rgar as four Book captrs tat prc t opning xtant in t manuscripts. t is aso unliky tat t abrupt bginning of t Stobaan xcrpt corrspons to t opning of t origina tratis f on assums tat pags wr lost btwn t origina Book 2 Ursa Tah ofHrms o Ta an t manuscripts' Book (Hrms to sclpius) on can also assum tat t origina bginning of Book was also ost or a fulr iscussion of
28
29
1. The greatness of this good is such that it is the reality of all beings; of thebodily and of the bodiless, of the senso and of the subtle. This is the Supreme Good, this is God. Therefore, do not call athing else good since then you blaspheme, and do not ever call God anything but good, since then again you blaspheme.
The Corpus Hereticu Book 4
The Corpus Hereticu Book 4
Plunge into tis bowl if you can having faith that you ll rise to him that sent down the bowl realisingwhy you came into being' Those who heard the proclamation merged with Nous partook of higher knowledge and became perfect and complete since they had received Nous. Those who missed the proclamation had the Word but had not received Nous ignorant as they were as to why they were bo and om whom.
obstct others so these men merely process through the universe led by the pleasures of the body.
5 The perceptions of these people are like those of dumb animals having a mixture of rage and lust they do not value things worthy of their attention but u to the pleasures and appetites of the body believing that man was bo for that reason. Those who partook in the gi of God 0 Tat are immortal rather than mortal if one considers their works They comprehend all in their Nous whatever is o earth in heaven and eyond heaven Having thus raised themselves they see the Supreme Good and realising that they regard tme spnt here as a misfortune. Disregarding the gross and the subtle they hasten to the One alone. 6 This Tat is the knowledge of Nous and the ision of what
comes from God It is the prception of God since the bowl is of God T I also wish to be immersed in Nous 0 father H If you don't rst hate your body son you cannot love your Self. Ifyou love your Self you will have Nous and having Nous you ll partake of knowledge T Why do you say that father? H For son it is impossible to be goveed by both by the mortal and by the divine There are two kinds of beings the embodied and unembodied in whom there is the moral and the divine spirit. Man is le to choose one or the other ifhe so wishes For one cannot choose both at once when one is diminished it reveals the poer of the other. 7 Thus this power the choice of the better not only happens to be the most glorious for him who chooses in that it unites man with God but it also shows reverence to God. The inferior choice has destroed man Noting oends God but this: as processions passing in the road cannot achieve anything themselves yet still
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8. These things being so Tat the things of God have always belonged and will always belong to us May what comes from us accord with that and may there be no delay Since God is not the cause of evils we are to blame preferring these things to what is good o you see 0 son how many bodies we have to pass through how many bands of demons through how many series of repetitions and cycles of the stars before we hasten to the One alone All this has be crossed the Supreme Good is unlimited and it has no beinning and no end But to us it appears that knowledge has a beginning · 9. Knowledge then is not the origin of the Supreme Good but for us it provides the origin of what is to be known. Let us therefore take hold of the origin and pass over evething else with speed; for it is a path full of tangles when leaving the familiar and present to retu to the ancient and original For what appears the eyes delights us and what is unseen makes us mistrust. To those who have eyes eil is most evident and the Supreme Good is hidden For the Supreme Good has no orm and leaves no mark Thus it is like to itself but unlike all else What is unembodied can never be seen by a body 10. This is the dierence between the like and the unlike and the inferiority of the unlike compared to the like For the One is the origin and the root of all and nothing is without origin The origin ases ony om itself becase it is the origin of all other tings; for it is ielf becase it ds not come om another oriin Therefore the One is e ogin and comprehends ' by number without being comprehended by any nmber and being e producer of all ings by number is not itself poduced by any other number. 11. Evething that comes into being is imperfect and undeter
mined; it may be increased and diminished but no such thing happens to the perfect. And what can grow grows by virtue ofthe One but is overpowered by its own weakness no longer able to give way to the One This is the image of God 0 Tat that has been drawn for you as far as it an be. If you observe it clearly and 33
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 5
reect upon it with the eyes of the heart, believe me, my son, you will nd the way to higher things In fact the image itselfwill guide you For sight of the image has a special quality of its own It dwells in those who have already seen it and draws them upward, just as they say a magnet draws up iron Book Hees to Tat This teaching also I shall fully epound to you, 0 Tat, so that ou are not shut o from God who is too geat for a name Understand that what appears uafest to many will becoe most evident to you, for it would not eist if it were not mafest to you Evething that is manifest has been brought into being; for it has been bought to light Hoever, the unmanifest ests always; it does not need to appe, for it eists always and it makes evething else manifest, though it itself is unmanifest since it always is That which makes manifest is not itself made manifest, for it has not been brought foh But it brings all images to the min in imagination Things that are begotten belong only to imagination For imagination is nothing but begetting
2 It is plain that the One is unbo and not imagined and it is unmafest, but it appears as all kinds of images, through all and in all and chiey to those to whom it wishes to appear My son, Tat, ray rst to the Lord and Father; he is single, but not the One, apart from whom is the One Pray that through grace you will be able to perceive God as so great that evenjust one ray of Him may shine in your mind. For pure perception perceives the unmanifest, as it is itself also unmanifest If you are strong enough, He will appear to the eye of Nous 0 Tat For the Lord appears in His bounty throughout the whole universe Can you see pure perception and tae hold of it with these hands and contemplate the image of God? But if you cannot see what is within, how can God who is Himself within you appear to you through your eyes?
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 5 ing and master He, who is so great, greater than the eah and the sea, supports the tung stars He has them above him athough they are smaller than himself Does he stand in awe of any one? Does he fear anyone, 0 son? Does not each of those stars which are in heaven, follow a similar if not identical course? Who has ordained to each the direction and sie of its course?
4 This Great Bear tus around its lf, and carries the whole universe along with itself. Who has acquired that as an instrument? Who has thrown boundaries round the sea? Who has set the earth in place? For there is someone, 0 Tat, who is the creator and master of all these things. It is impossible that the place, the number and the measure be presered, without him who created it For all order is created, and what is out of place and out of measure is not created; but not even that, my son, is without a master For if the disorder is in need of order, when so to speak, it stops the normal working of order, it is nevertheless under a master, albeit one who has not yet brought it within the bounds of order 5. 0 that you could grow wings and y up into the air, and that, poised between earth and heaven, you might see the rmness of earth, the liquiity of the sea, the course of the rivers and the ee ow of the air, the piercing re, the revolution of the stars, the swiness of the heavenly movement encircling all these things What most blessed vision, 0 son, to behold all that in one moment; the unmoving being moved, the unmanifest being made manifest through what it creates! This is the very order of the universe and this is the beauty of the order.
3. If you wish to see Him, consider the sun, the course of the moon, the order of the stars. Who watches over this order? For all rder sets a limit by number and place The sun is the greatest od of the gods in heaven, for whom all heavenly gods give way as to a
6 If you also wish to see God through moal beings who are on earth and in the sea, consider, my son, man being formed in the womb and eamine carefully the skill of Gods work, and understand wh creates this beautiful and godlike image of man? Who has outlined the eyes? Who has pierced out the nostrils and ears? Who has opened the mouth? Who has stretched and fastened the sinews? Who has conducted the veins in their channels? Who has strenhened the bones, and covered the esh with skin? Who has separated the ngers? Who has widened the soles of the feet? Who has bored the passages thrugh the bod, who has stretched out
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The Corpus Hereticu: Book 5
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 6
the pleen? ho ha hape the hea like a pyrami an joine the inew toether? ho ha broaene the liver? ho ha hollowe out the lun an mae the tomach capaciou? ho ha fahone the mo honourable par o that they ma be een an conceale thoe part which are uneemly?
come om you You ive evethin an take nothin. For you have evetn an there i nothin you o not have.
7 See how many kill arie from one ubtance an how many form are mae by one impreion an all thn beautiful, all thin meaure, all thin varie. ho mae all thee? at mother, what father, f not the unmanifet o, who create all thn by Hi own will? 8. No one ay that a tatue or a portrait ha come into bein without a culptor or a painter then a thi work come into bein withQut a creator? hat blinne! hat acrilee! hat min le arroane! My on Tat, never eprive the work of creation of their creator. He i reater than anythinthe name of Go implie, o reat i the Father of all for He i inle an Hi work i ut thi: to be Father 9 If you force me peak more bolly, it i Hi nature to conceive all thin an create them an a wthout the Creator nothin can come into eitence, o He woul not eit eteally if He ha not alway been creatin all thin in heaven, in air, in earth, in the ea, everywhere in the univere, everywhere in the All, in what i an what i not. There i nothin in all thi which i not Himel. Both the thin that are an the thin that are not are hmelf For the thin that are, He ha mae manfet an the thin that are not He contain within Himelf. 10 Thi i Go, reater than a name He i anifet, yet He i mot manifet He can be perceive by Nous; He can be een by the eye. He i bile, yet He ha many boie, or rather eve boy. Nothin i which He i not. For He i all that eit an He ha therefore all name, becaue all name come om one Father, an that i why e Himelf ha no name, for he i the Father of all. How can you be praie to other or to yourel An where hall I look to praie you: above, below, inie or outie? For you there i no irection, no place, nor any other bein All i within yu, all
36
11. hen hall I i your praie? For it i not poible to n your hour or your eaon For what hall I praie you? For what yu have create or for what you have not create? For what you have reveale or for what you have hien? An why hall I praie you? Becaue you are of my own nature? Becaue you have what i your own? Becaue you are other? But you are whatoever I am; you whatever I o; you are whatever I peak You are all thin a there i nothn ele Even what i not you are. You are all that ha come into bein you are what ha not come into bein You are Nous an what i appreene by Nous; you Father a you create, Go a you are in eve action, the Supreme Goo a you are the caue of all.
The net pa of matter i air, of air, oul, of oul, Nous of Nous Go. 1 *
A prayrlik foa, wic is rpat in ook
Book 6 Hees to sclepius
1. The Supreme Goo, 0 Ac1epiu, i not in anythn, if not in Go aone, rather, the Supreme Goo i alway Go Himelf If thi i o, it i the real nature of all movement an of all eneration Nothin i bere of thi real nature which ha an ener that bn thin to ret roun itelf It i not in want an ha no ece it i completely full an upplie all nee it i in the beinnin of all thn For in ayin that the provier of evetn i oo I am ayn that it i alway oo in eve way Thi Supreme Goo belon to nothin ele but to Go alone.
For He lacks nothing, lest any desire to possess anything may render Him eil, nor can anything be lost to Him which woud make Him grieve, for grief is the heritage of eil. No being is mightier than God, by whom He could be treated as an enemy, nor is it possible for Him to suer any iustice by anyone and there-
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The Corpus Hereticu Book 6
The Corpus Hereticu Book 7
fore He will love eveone No being is disobedient to Him which would provoke His anger nor is any being ser which would provoke His jealousy
od the unliited goodness or rather goodness the limitless God For the excellencies of beautiful things are round His true nature and appear in some way even mre pure and simple for they are of od One must have courage say 0 Asclepius that the essence of God if indeed He has an essence is beauty but no beauty and goodness are to be found in the things of the cosmos For al things wch fall uder the eye are images and as it were pantings But what does not fall under the eye s chey the ecellence f beauty and goodness And just as the eye cannot see od so it cannot see beauty and goodness For these are the attbutes of God perfect and complete belonging to Him alone they are His ve own inseparable and most beloved either God loves them or they love God
2 Snce none of these aictions belong being what is le but the Supreme Good alone? For just as none of them belong to being so ts Good will not be found in any of these aictions. But l hese other aictions exist in eve being in the small and in the great in indidual creatures and in that living being hi �self (the cosmos) which is greater and more powerl than all begs and all thngs What is bo is full of suering for bih itself is suering and when there is suering the Supreme Good is never there and when tis Good is there there is no suerng at all Whe;e there is day there is no night where there is ght there s no day Therefore the Supreme Good cnnot be in what s begotten but only in what is unbegotten Just as there s proision of everything in the physical world likewise the Supreme Good permeates abundantly n this way the cosmos is good as it creates all things t is good with regard its creative aspect but in everything else it is not good For it is subject to suering and movement and is the producer ofbeings who are destined to suer 3 Within man the Supreme Good is limited by the measure of evil For in man just a little evil is counted as good Good for him is the smallest portion of evil Therefore for hm good cannot be ee from eVil For in man goodness is illused and when it is illused goodness no longer remains and when it does not remain evil is born Therefore the Supreme Good is only in God or rather God himself is this Good Thus 0 Asclepius there is only the term good' for men never its reality for that is impossible The gross body allows no room for it bound fast evewhere by evil toils pains desires passions deceits foolish opinions And Asclepius the worst of all is that each of these things which have just been mentioned are in man considered to be the greatest good whereas in fact each is an unsurpassable evil. Greed the root of all evil is the error of man it is the absence of goodness.
5. f you can perceive God you will perceive beauty goodness (to agathon and splendour illumined by God That beauty is incom-
parable and that goodness inmtable as is God Himself Thus insofar as you perceive God you must perceive beauty and goodness These are not shared by other livng beings as they are nseparable om God If you seek aer God you also seek aer beauty There is one way leadng to that beauty devotin with kowledge
6 Thus the ignorant and those not on the way of devotion dare to speak of a man as beautil and god however man in his dream can by no means see if anything is good but he takes eve evil to himself believing evil to be good and thus using t for himself he becomes insatiable and fearl of being robbed of it he struggles for everything not onl to have it but to increase it. Such things are good and beautiful to men 0 Asclepius and we can neither escape them nor hate them The worst thing of all is that we have need of these thngs and we cannot live without them. Book 7
1 Whther are you being carried 0 men as you are having
4 And I am thankful to God for putting een a taste of he knowledge of the Supreme Good into my Nous because this ood
cannot exist in the world. For the world is the sum total of evl �
swallowed neat the word of ignorance wch you cannot keep down but are aready vomiting up? Stop be sobe ook up with the eyes of the heart and if all of you cannot at least those who can. The evil of ignrance oods the whole earth and completely
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The Corpus Hereticu : Book destroys the soul conned to the ody not allowing it to e rought a safe harour. 2 Therefore dont e cared down y the great ood ut make use of the tide. Let those of you who can nd the safe harour ring your sp in and seek one who will lead you y the hand the gates of the knowledge in your hea. There is the right light clear of darkness where no one gets , ut all are soer looking with he hea to Him who wills to e seen. He cannot e heard He cannot e uttered n or seen th eyes ut y Nous and the hear. First you have to strip o the garment which you are wearing the we of ignorace the faric of evil the kot of destruction the girdle of darkness the living death the sentient corpse the porale tom the roer in your house him who hates tough what he loves and ears malice through what he hates.
3 Such is the hatful garment you wear which inds you down in itself lest when you look up and see the eauty of truth and the Supreme Good which lies within you should hate the eil of this garment and realise its treachery. This has ensnared you making the seeming senses which are not acknowledgd insensile; for it has locked them up with much gross matter and l led them with loathsome pleasure so that you do not hear what you should hear and do not see what you should see. Book S Hees to Tat
1 Now my son we must speak aout the soul and the ody: in what way the soul is immortal and what is the activity which forms the ody and dissolves it. Morality has nothing to do with this. The concept comes om the word immoal. Either moality is a meaningless word or it has lost its rst syllale as it is pronounced mortal instead of immoal. Morality is a kind of destruction ut nothing in the universe is destroyed. If the second God is the cosmos an immoal eing it is impossile for any par of an immoral eing to die. Evthing in the cosmos is a par of the cosmos ut especially man the living eing with speech.
The Corpus Hereticu Book
of all. The second God is in the image of the rst. H is egotten yim and he is within im and y Him he is sustained and made immortal; thus y his own Father he is everliving as an immor tal. at goes on living is distinct from the eteal. The eteal was not egotten from another. You might ay that He was egot ten from Himself if so He was never egotten ut He is always coming into eing He is the eteal. Because of Him the All is eteal. The Father is eteal ecause of Himself ut the cosmos is eternal and immoral ecause it is egotten of the Father. 3. And however much material there was it eing suject to His disposal the Father tued it all into a ody. H raisd it up and made it spherical coferring this quality on what He had wrought namely an immoral and eteal ateriality. When He had sown erain kinds of causal forms into he sphere He enclosed them as within a cave As He wished to ado the material within Himself with all qualities He invstd th whole ody with im mortality so that this material would not wish itself separate from its composition with the ody ad thus dissolv into its own udierentiatd stat. When this material was not a ody it was undierentiated my son. In this word other small things such as growth and iminution which mn call dath ar nvlopd y this matrial. 4 This udierntiated stat xists in respct of arhly eings. The odies of the celestias hav on order which was assiged to them y th Fathr in th egining and this indstructil ordr is kept unroken y the periodic retu of ach ody in the cosmic cycle. ithin that cycle earhly odis are foed eturned and dissolved into ois that ar indestructile that is immortal. Thus ther is deprivation of the senses ut no destruction of odies.
2 The rst God of all is in fact eteal unegotten and the Creator ·
5. The third living eing man has een egotten in the imag of the cosmos ut as the Father willd not liing like other earthly creatures. Not oly does he have aity with the second God ut also a conception of the rst. perceives the seond Gd as a ody the rs he conceives as without a ody and as Nous that is th Supreme God. T Then does this eing an not die?
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The Corpus Hereticu : Book 9
movig t1em. At · oe ad the same time He is space ad the Creator of life. 7 The bodies made from matter are diverse Some are om eah some from water some om air some from re. All is compouded of pas some more complex others simpler. The more complex are heavier ad the simpler lighter. The rapid motio of the tg cosmos produces the varied qualities of beigs. The bast of air from this is cotiuous ad leds qualities to bodies as wel as the abudace of life.
8 od is the Father of the cosmos the cosmos is the father of those
withi the cosmos the cosmos is the so of od ad those withi the osmos have bee created by the cosmos. The cosmos has bee aptlyamed order; for it gives order to all thigs through the diversity of their origi ad the cotiuity of life through utirig activity ad the speed of desire through the shadow of the elemets ad the givig of order to what comes ito beig. That it shoud be called order is both ecessary ad ttig. Thus the ses perceptio ad uderstadig of all that lives come i from outside. They breathe by meas of that which cotais them but the cosmos receives sese perceptio ad uderstandig oce ad for all at the time it was bo ad haig received them from od it keeps them. 9 t od is ot as some will think without sese perceptio ad
without uderstadig. Through their very piety such me bas pheme; for 0 Asclepius all thigs that exist are i od. They have bee brought forth by od ad deped upo Him. Some work through bodies others make thigs move through the soul; some led ife through breath others receive the dead remais. All this is just. I shoud rather say that od does ot cotai these beigs but tell the truth He is them a. He does ot take them i from outside but issues them out. This is the sese perceptio ad uderstadig of od ever to move all beigs ad there will ever be a time whe anythig will be le without Him. Wheever I speak of beigs I speak of od for od supports beigs ad othig is outside Him and He outside othig.
The Corpus Hereticu Book 10
stand them but if you remai igorat they are beyod beief. To uderstad them is to take them as tre ad ot to uderstad them is to take them as utrue. My discourse leads to the truth; the mid is great ad guided b tis teachig may arve at the tth. Whe he mid has compreheded all thigs ad foud them to be i haoy with what has bee expouded by the teachig it takes them to be true ad comes to rest i that beautil truth. Those who uderstad through od hold what has just bee spoke to be true but hose who do ot uderstad do ot believe it. Let this much be said about uderstadig ad sese perceptio. Book 1 Hees to Tat
1 I imparted yestedays disourse to you 0 Asclepius so today it is right to give it to Tat especially because it is a abridgemet of the geeral8 teachig addressed to hi. od Father ad the Supreme ood have the same ature or rather power. The ame of ature also meas growth as it coces beigs wich chage ad which are both movable ad immovable: it coces the divie ad the human both of which od wills ito beig. We have discussed power elsewhere ad also other divie ad huma mat ters which have to be kept i mid o this subject. 2 The power of od is is will ad ods essece is to il all thigs to be. What is od Father and the Supreme ood but the exist ece of all thigs eve those tha are ot hat ese but the very substace of all that is? Tis is od this is Father ad this is the Supreme ood; without a fuher additio. Although the cosmos ad the su are father to them that partake of them they are ot i the same maer the cause of the Supreme ood i livig beigs or of their life. If they are father they are wholy cotrol ed by the will of the Supreme ood without which othig ca be or become.
1. 0 Asclepius these thigs will seem true to you if you uder-
3. The father is the cause of his childre both of their geeratio ad their ourishmet havig received the desire om the Su preme ood through the su for tis ood is the creative pci ple. This canot be preset ayoe but that Oe aloe which
The Corpus Hereticu Book 10
The Corpus Hereticu Book 10
takes nothing but wills all thngs to be. I do not therefore say at that the One creates for over a long period of time the creator is defective in that sometimes he creates and sometimes he does not. ometimes he is defective in quality and at other times in quan tity. ometimes he creates many things of a paicular nd and sometimes their opposite. But God Father and the upreme Good are there for the existence of all
0 father? H. Eve separate soul goes through transfoations my son . hat do you mean by separate'? H Have you not heard in the general teaching that all the souls which wander around the whole cosmos as if separate are om a single soul the soul of al? Indeed there are many transformations of these souls some more forunate others less. hose which are reptiles are changed into aquatic creatures auatic creatures into those of the earh those of the earth into fowls of the air the airborne into man. he human souls which gain mmortaity are transformed into spirits and thence to the cho rues of the gods. here are two choruses of the gods one is of the gods that wader and the other of those that do not move.
4 hese things are so for the man who is able to see; God wills this and so it is; indeed it is or ths mans sake. One might even say all other things exist for hs sake. It is the nature of the upreme Good that this Good should be nown 0 at. . 0 father you have lled us with a good and most beautiful vision so that my minds eye is almost aaid of such a sight. H. It does not like the rays ofthe sun which are ery blaze on the eyes and make them close. his is the ision of the upreme od it shines forth in such a way that the man who has the power can as far as possible perceive the owing light of pure perception. Not only does it come down to us more swily but it is harmless and is wholly immoal. Indeed those who are able to drink in more of this vision oen lose awareness of the body in this most beautil sight as happened to our ancestors Ouranos and ronos May that happen to us 0 father! H. May it indeed my son. But as yet we are too weak in sight and are not strong enough to open the eyes of the mind and to behold the b�auty of that upreme Good incorruptible and incomprehensible. hen you have nothng to say about it then you will see it; for the experience of it is the silence of God and the withdrawal of all the senses.
6. He who has perceived it cannot perceive any other; he who has contemplated it cannot contemplate any other he cannot hear of any other he cannot even move the body. easin from all bodily movement and sensation he stays still. hen it has illumined the whole mind and the whole soul it ames up again and draws the entire man out of the body and transforms him into his essential being. It is impossible my son for "the soul who has behed the beauty of the upreme Good to becoe God while in the body. 46
. What do you mean by become God'
8. his is the most perfect glo of the soul. When the soul which has entered a human body emains eil it does not taste immor tality nor paake of the upreme God Being draged away it tu back on its journey to the reptiles and that is the condem nation of the evl sul. he eil of the soul then is ignorance; for the soul knowing nothing of beings or of their nature or of the upreme Good is blind and shakes with bodily pans. he evil spit iorant of itself becomes a slave to monstus and mise ble bodies It carries its body as a burden and does not command but is commanded. uch is the evl of te soul. 9. On the other hand the excellence of the soul is understanding; for the man who undstands is good devoted and already godlike. . hat sor of man is this 0 father? H. Oe who does not speak much nor gives heed to many things. He who busies imself in giving and listening to speeches my son is beating the air. God Father and the upreme Good cannot be spoken of or heard Al beings have senses because they cannot live without them but understanding is ve dierent from sense; for sensation arises om the objects of sense which gove men while understandig is the fullent of knowledge and knowledge is the gi of od. 10. All knowledge is incorporeal using the mind as an instrument just as the mind uses the body. Both then come into the body mind
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The Copus Heeticu Book 10
and matte. All things must be composed of contast and opposition it cannot be othewise. T. What then is this mateial God? H The cosmos beautil but not good fo it is mateial and easily aected, and although it is st among things that change, it is second among things that ae and it is incomplete At some time it was ceated, and yet it always eists it eists in ceation, and it is always being ceated iceates quality and quantity and it is subject to movement Ceation is the movement of all matte.
11 . The unmoving Nous moves matte thus: since the cosmos is a sphee that is a head and thee is nothing mateial above the head, as thee is nothing mental below the feet, whee all is matte so Nous is the head and is itself moved as a sphee that is, in a manne appopiate to a head. Theefoe all that is united to the tisse of this head is the soul and is immoal by natue. Just as eV the body is made in the soul so all that is united to the head has fa moe soul than body. What is futhe away fom the tissue of the head is moal, having within it moe body than soul Evey living being like the cosmos is composed of matte and Nous 12. The cosmos is the st but man is the second living being ae the cosmos He is the st among ceatues that die but like othe living beings he has a soul Still, he is not only not good, but in as much as he is moal he is coupt Now the cosmos is not good in as much as it can be moved, but not coupt as it is immotal while man is coupt as he both can be moved and is moal 13. The soul of man is caied in this way: Nous in the Wod the Wod in the soul, the soul in the body he beath passing though veins aeies and the blood sets the living being motion and in a mann suppos it. Theefoe some people think that the soul s the blood but they ae mistaken about its natue They do not ealise that once the beath has to withdaw into the soul, the blood congeals the veins and ateies become empty and then the living being is emoved and this is the death of the body 14. All things depend upon onest cause and this depends u pon the One alone. The st cause is set in motion so that it again 48
One of a par of oelisks naming King Nectanebo II
of he 30t Dyasy, c. 350 Be. According o e
vca nscpons Necaneo se up hs obeisk and s ellow at e doorway o the sanctary of e emple ofToth Hemopoi Duing he 18 centry ey were moed o a posiion i on of one of Caio's mosques. Brsh Museum (Gf of King George II) .
Stele wih Toh as baboon, ibis and ibisman 1 s . cetury Aard Peson Museum Amsterdam. Toh he ibisheaded scribe of he gods sadg befoe he alcoheaded su-god ReHoakhty Papus ofNesanebsheu 2s Dynasty 950 Be Bish Museum
The Corpus Hermeticum Book 10
To as a oon sco h snae (ahos Daimon) on his ead, and as is 1s eny A Aad Peson Msem Amsedam
Aexandian see snae as ahos Daimon 332-50 Be Aad Pieson Msem, Amsedam
beomes a ause Only the One remains still and does not moe So there are these three rsly God Father and the Supreme Good; seondly the osmos; and thirdly man od ontains the osmos and the osmos man The osmos is the son of God man the son of the osmos and as it were grandson of God
15 God does not ignore manhe knows him fully s God also wishes to be known This is the only salation for man knowledge of God Ts is the asent to the highest abode of the gods Thus the soul beomes wholly good but it is not good foreer for it beomes orrupt whih happens from neessity T Why do you say that 0 Trismegistus? H Look at the soul of a hild my son that has not yet aepted its own separation Its body is not yt grown and as not fully deeloped How beautil it is behold in ee way Not yet soiled by the experienes of the bod still irtually depending upon the soul of the osmos But when the bdy has grown large and drags the soul don to its grossness the soul separates itself forets and does not partake of beauty and goodness Forgetting beomes her orruption 16. This also happens to those leaing the body hen the soul rets to itsel the breath withdraws into the blood and the soul into the breath but Nous being freed om oers and being godike by ature takes on a body of re and ranging eerywhere leaes the soul to the judgement and justie it deseres T How an ou sa 0 father that Nous is separated from the soul and the soul from the breath when you hae said that the soul was the oering of Nous and the breath is that of the soul? 17. H The listener 0 on shold be of one mind and sol with the speaker and his hearing should be iker than the oe of the speaker The formation of these oers my son takes plae in the arthy body Nous annot be seated by itselin suh a body without oering The eahy body annot sustain so great an immortality nor a suh exellene bear ontat with a body subjet to suering Therefore Nous hs taken the soul as a oer and the soul being itself diine uses breath as re and the beath goes liing beings 49
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 10
The Corpus Hereticu Book 10
1 Whenever Nous is separated om its earthy body, it immedi ately puts on its own cloak of re which it could not have in its earthy body, for earh cannot bear re t is all bt up, even by a tiny spark. Therefore water is spread round the earth as a defence or a wall to hold o the ames of re Nous being faster than all divine thought and faste than all elements has re as a body Being the Creator of all, Nous uses re as an instrument of his creative activity The uversal Nous creates evething, the Nous of man only earthly things Stripped of re Nous in man can create nothing divine, being human by reason of where it dwells
insolent through sleep, but blesses all men, setting all things right in wod and deed, since it is the image of its Father
19 The human soul, that is not every human soul, but a pious one, is spiritual and divine When such a soul has freed itself from the body and passed the test of piety, which is to know God and to harm no man, it becoes pure Nous. But the impious soul remains in its own substance, resticted by itself, seeing an earthy body, that is to say I human body into which it may enterV. No other body has room for a human soul; and it is not lawful for a human soul to fall into the body of an irrational creature t is the law of God to protect the human soul om such an outrage 2 T - How then is the human soul punished, father? H - What greater punishment is there forthe human soul than impiety? What re makes greater ames than impiety? What savage beast mutilates the body as impiety mutilates the soul? Do you not see how many evils the ungodly soul suers? How it calls for help and shrieks I am on re; am ablaze I dont know what say or what to do. Wretch that I am, I am being consumed b the evils wch possess me. I cannot see; I cannot hear!' e they not the voices of a soul which is being punished? Or do you believe, as most do, my son, that the soul at the moment it leaves the body enters that of a beast? This is a ve great error. 21 For the oul is punished in the following way. When Nous becomes a divine power, it is obliged to receive a e body to serve God; and it enters the impious soul and tortures it with the torments belonging to those that e. icted by these the impi ous soul ts to murder, outrage and blasphemy and eve ind of violence by which men aront justice But when Nous enter the pious soul it leads it to the light of nowledge. Such a soul is never 50
22 Wherefore my son, when giving thanks to God, you shoud pra for a mind that is noble. Then the soul (an pass to a better state, not to a worse There is a communion of souls and those of the gods communicate with those of men, those of men with creatures. The strongertake care ofthe weaker, gods of men and men of creatures and God of al; for He is stronger than all; and all are weaker than Him Thus the cosmos is subject to God, man to the cosmos and the creatures to man. God is aboe all and around alL he powers of God are like rays, as are the atural powers ofthe cosmos, and the ars and sciences of men he powers act thoughout the cosmos and upon man through the rays of its nature the powers of nature act through the elements and men through as and sciences 23. This is the goveance of the all, depending on the nature of the One, goveng though the Nous of the One Nothing is more divine or eective or more able to unite men to the gods and the gods to men than this Nous This is the spiit of the Supreme Good Blessed is the soul which is wholly lled with it, wretched is the soul which is devoid of it T How can you say this again, father? H. - Do you believe, my son, that evey soul has Nous, the Supreme Good? For that is what we speak of now, not aout the serant, of which we have spoken earlier, which was sent down to punish 24 Without Nous the soul cannot say anything or do anything'. 1 Oen Nous leavesY the soul and at such a time the soul neither sees nor hears, but is like a dumb creature; such is the power of Nous But it leaves such a sou tied to the body and suocated by it here below Such a soul, my son, has no Nous. Therefore such a one should not be called a man; for man is a divine being and is not to be counted amongst the other creatures on earh but amongst those in heaven cled gods Indeed, if we have to speak the tuth boldly, the tue man is above the gods, or at least y their equal in power 25. Not one of the heavenly ods will leave the boundaies of 51
The Corpus Hermeticum Book 11
The Corpus Hermetcum: Book 1 1
open to your vision and contempate deepy its beauty its body without taint Nothing is more ancient It is ever new and ever in its prime indeed it eceeds its prime.
that of a dumb creature For a ivng bodies have a sou whereas those whch not aive are simpy matter ikewise sou by itsef present with the Creator is the cause ofife But He who is the cause of the immoals is the whoe cause ofife How is it that He creates other iing creatures om mortas? How can what is imoa and creates immoality not create what beongs to ing creatures?
7. See how the seven words arranged in an etea order ie beneath it ling out eteity by their dierent courses A is l of ight yet nowhere is there re for ove and the bending of opposites and dissimiarities has given birth to ight which shines forth by the power of God source of eve good being principe of a order ruer of the seven words See the moon forerunner of them a instment of nature transforming matter beow See the eah set in the midst of a ed foundation of the beautifu cosmos nourisher and nurse of earthly creatures Consider the vast mtitude of beings both immoa and morta and how between them the moon pursues her round 8. And a beings are of sou and are moved by it some around heaven others around the earth those on the right do not move to the e nor do those on the e move to the right ikewise those above do not move down nor do those beow move up And that a these hings have been brought into being most beoved Hermes you no onger need to ea om me For they are bodies have a sou and are moved hese things coud not merge into one without that which causes them to merge. herefore there ust be such a cause which is one aone 9. Since the movements are mutpe and dierent and the bodies are not aike yet one constant speed has been ordained for al therefore there cannot be two or more creators One order coud not be kept by many creators Where there are many there is jeaousy of the more potent I i epain to you if there were another creator of changeabe and mortal beings he woud have wished to create immoas just as the creator of the immortas woud wish tocreate moas But consider since there is ony one matter and one sou if there were two creators which of them woud take charge of creation? If both to whom woud fa the greater part? 10. But understand this that every iving body consists of matter and sou whether that body is of an immorta or a morta beig or
54
Ceary there is a Creator of tese things and it is very evidet that there s ony one For sou is one ife is one and matter is one Who is He? o ese but the one God? o ese coud give iving creatres a sou bt the one God? erefore God is one It is quite ridcuous that you acknowedge the cosmos to be everasting the sun to be one the oon to b one and te divine nature to be one yet you think God to be one of a sees
12 s one God makes evething a puraity of gods woud be absurd Is it surprising that God creates ife and soul immortaity and ransformation when you yoursef do so many things? For you see and speak hear and sme touch wak about think and breathe here is not one who sees and another who hears one who speaks and another ho touches one who smes and another who waks one who hinks and another who breathes there is a singe one who does a these things But none of this is possibe without God For just as if you cease doing these things you are no onger a iving being so if God ceases from these things though it is ipous to say it He is no onger God 13 For if it coud be shown that without doing these things you cannot est how much more is this true of God? For if there is anythng he does not create then disgracefu though it be to say it He is not perfect. And since He is not ide · but is perfect He creates a things Give me your undivided attention for a wie 0 Hermes and you will easily understand how the work of God is one to brng all thngs into being those that are those that have once been and those that wi be 55
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 11
This is life, my beloved; this is beauty, this is the Supreme God, this is God
14. And if you want to understand this in practice, watch what happens when you desire to beget But it is not the same with Him; for He does not eperience the pleasure, since He has no paner For working by Himself He is always in His work, for He is what He creates If He were separated from it, all would collapse, and all would by necessity perish, because life would be no more Since everything is alive and life is one, God is also one. If again everything is alive, both in heaven and earth, and there is one life for all which comes into eistence through God, God is also that life. All then is made by God and life is the union of Nous and soul. Death is not the destruction of what has been put together but the dissolution of the union. 15 . Eteity is the image of God; the cosmos, of eteity; the sun,
of the cosmos; and man, of the sun People call transfrmation eath, because the body is dissolved, but in fact life withdraws into the unmafest. I shall ell you, as you are listening with such reverence, my beloved Hermes, that all these things that have been thus dissolved and indeed the cosmos, are transformed Each da a part of the cosmos withdraws into the unmanifest, but the cosmos is never issolved This is what happens to the cosmos, these are its cycles and its mysteries The cycles are a continual rotation an the mystery is the renewal
The Corpus Hereticu: Book 1 1 sharpy, but they are actally smooth and at If you consider hat I have said, e could formulate it even more boldly and truly just as man cannot live without life, so God cannot live without emanating the Supreme Good This is, as it were, the life and movement of God, to move all things and to make them live
18 Some of the things being said need special attention. Under stand what I saying All is within God; but not as if lying in a place For a place is not only a body, but an immovable body, and what lies in a place has no motion Within God evething lies in bodiless imagination Think of Him who contains it all. There is nothing to limit the incorporeal, there is nothing quicker or more powerful It is absolutely without limit, the quickest and most powerful of all. 19. Consider this yourself Command your soul to go anywhere, and it will be there quicker than your command Bid it to go to the ocean and agan it is there at once, not as ifit had gone from place to place but was ready there. Order it to y up heaven and it will need no wings, nor will anything impede it, neither the re of the sun, nor the ether, nor the whirwind, nor the other heavenly bodies, but cuttg through them all it will soar up to the last body And if you wi&h to break through all this and to contemplate what is beyond (if there is anything beyond the cosos), it is in your power
17. And dont be amazed if there is a bodiless form, for it is li fe the form of a word In paintings mountain peaks appear to stand out
20. See what power you have and what speed ou can do all these things and yet God cannot? Reect on God in this way as having all within Himself ideas the cosmos, Himself, the whole. If you do not make yourself equal od you cannot understand Him Like is understood by like. Grow to immeasurable size. Be ee from eve body, transcend all time Become eteity and thus you will understand God Suppose nothing to be impossible for yourself. Conside yourself immortal and able o understand everything: all arts, sciences and the natue of every living cr ature. Become higher than all eights and lower than all depths Sense as one within yourself the entire ceation re, water, the d and the moist Conceive yourself to be in all places at the same time in earth, in the sea, in heaven; that you are not yet bo, that you are within the womb, that you are young, old, dead; that you are
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16 The cosmos assumes all forms, it does not hold constant the fos that are within it but it changes them within itself Since the cosmos is omniform, of what form would the Creator be? For He cannot be without a form And ifHe is omniform He will be like the cosmos But if He has one form, He ll be inferior to the cosmos Wht then shall we say of Him, if we are not to bring our discussion into diculty? And we cannot conceive a diculty about God If He has any form, He has one form which is not visible and is bodiless and reveals all forms by means of bodies
J
The Corpus Hereticu Book 12
The Corpus Hereticu Book 12
beyond death Conceive all things at once: times, places, actions, qualities and quantities then you can understand God
2 Now wherever there is soul, there also is Nous; likewise, wher ever there is lfe, there also is soul However, in irrational crea tures the soul is life devoid of Nous. Nous is the benefactor for human souls, for it moves them the upreme Good n irrational creatures it works in the nature of eah, whereas in men's souls it counteracts that nature For eve soul on being bo in a body is immediately corrupted by both pain and please Since the body is composed of dierent pars, both pleasure and pain seethe within it like juices in a stew, and the soul, when it enters into these, is drowned
2 But if you lock up your soul in your body, abase it and say
understand nothng can do nothing am aaid of the sea cannot reach heaven do not know who was nor who shall be' What have you to do with God? For you cannot conceive anything beautl or good while you are attached to the body and are evil For the gatest evil is to ignore what belongs to God To be able to ow and will and hope is the straight and easy way appropriate each that will lead to the Supreme Good When you take that road this Good will meet you evewhere and will be expeenced evewhere, even where and when you do not expect it when awake, asleep, in a ship, on the road, by nght, by day, when speaking and when silent, for there is nothing which it is not 22 Now do you say that God is invisible? Be carel Who is more
manifest than He? He has made all things for this reason: that through them you should see Him T�s is the goodness (to athon of ; this is His excellence: that He is made manifest through all Though you cannot seewhat is bodiless Nous is seen in the act of contemplation, God in the act of creation : hese things have been made clear to you Hermes thus far Reect on all other thngs in the same way withn yourself and you will not be led astray Book 1 Hees Tat
1 H Nous 0 Tat, comes om Gods essence, if indeed He has essence What so of tng this essence is, He alone knows fully n fact, Nous is not separate om God's true essence, but is, as it were, spread out om it just like the light of the sun n men this Nous is God thus some men are gods and then humanity is akin to divinty in fact, athos Daion called gods immoal men, and men moal gods. But in irrational creatures there is just nature.
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3. n souls where Nous goves its light is revealed acting in opposition to all they have previously acquired Just as a good physician causes pain by big or cutting the body that has been gripped by disease, in the same manner Nous causes pain to the soul by awing it away from pleasure, from which every disease of the soul is bo.
The gret disease of te soul is denial of God, next is belief in appearances, and accompanying these a�e all evils and nothing good. But then Nous, acting in opposition to the disease, secures good for the soul, just as the physician secures ealth for the
body.
4 Human souls that are not goveed by Nous suer the same as the souls of irrational creatures, for Nous merely powers these souls ad gives them up to desires. The souls are carried to desires by the force of appetite which leads to loss of reason Just as it is with the unreasonable nature of beasts, such souls do not cease being unreasonably angered and unreasonably desirous, nor can they have enough of these eils For anger and desires are evils without reason, without limit and it is for these souls that d set up the law as a punishment and as a test 5 T - Father, then the previous teaching that you gave me about destiny risks contradiction. For if it is decreed by estiny that someone commits adultery or sarilege or some other evil, is he who has done the deed under destiny's compulsion also punished? H - Evething is the work of destiny my so, and apart from that nothing of the physcal realm ests, nor do good and evil 59
The Corpus Hermeticum: Book 12
The Corpus Hermeticum Book 13
See his, my son, that each of the living creatures retus again and ag to one part of the cosmos aquatic creatures t the water terrestrial creatures to the eath, and winged creatures to the air But man makes use of all these eah, water, air, re - and he sees heaven, and touches even this with hs mind God is both aroud all and , through all, he is activty and power, and so to expeence God s presence is not dicult, my son
Bow down before this teaching, my son, and worship it There is one way to worship God be not evil.
20
:
21 If you wish to contemplate Him, behold the arrangement ofthe cosmos and the ne order of ts array, and behold how all that is visible is so by necessity, how all that has happened and now happens is through providence Obsere matter, most ll of life, ths god of such magnitude, being moved with all that is good and beautil; gods, spits and men T - But what you are describing, father, are actiities H - If they arejust activities, my son, by whom are they set in motion? By another god? Or do you not know that just as heaven ater, eath and air are pas of the cosmos in the same manne life, immotality, blood, necessity, provide ce nature soul and 0us are His limbs; and that the permanence f all th se is hat alled the Suprme Good? So there is nothing that comes into beg or has come to being anywhere that is not God.
d
I
;
T - He is in matter then, father? H Yes, for if matter, my son, is apa frm God, then what so of place wll you give it? What do you thi it could be other than a formless heap if it is not set in motion? But as it is in motion, by whom is it set in motion? For we said that activity is an aspect of God So by whom are all living creatures brought t life? By whom are immortals made immoal? By whom is the changing changed? Wheher you speak of matter, body or essence, know that these are themselves activities of God that he acti ty that is matter is His material nature, the activit� hat body �s His bodily nature, and the activity that is essence H essental nature and ths is Go the All 22 .
�
*
1 For Aathos Daimon see Aterword,
p.
79 blow.
Book 13 Heres to Tat
1 T - In the general lectures, 0 father, you spoke in riddles about te dine nature without shedding any light You haven't re vealed anything when you say that nobody can be saved before rebih er you had spoken to me when we were crossing" the desert, I sought your help and asked to lea the teaching on rebirth, for ths, above all I did not know, and you sai: When you are ready to become a stranger t the world, I shall bestow it upon you. I am redy now and my mind is set rmly away from the beguilement of the world Full your promise to me in which you said you would set before me either opely or in secret the way in which rebih is bestowe For I o not know, Trismegistus from what so of womb or from what knd of seed man is born H - 0 son, spiritual wisdom lies in the womb of silence and the se is truth and the Supreme Goo T By whom is the seed sown, 0 father? I am entirey at a loss H. - By the will of God, 0 son. T And what kind of man is bo, 0 father? For he has nothing in common with me either in nature or mind H - He who is bo from Go is of a dierent kin he is a son ofGod and himself God, in all he is the All, composed of all powers T. - You speak in ries, 0 father, not like father to son H - This kind of knowledge is not taught, 0 son, but through God it is remembered, whenever He wills
2
23 And in the All there is nothing that is not And so there is neither size, place, quality, shape nor time outside G, for He is I All; and the All perades and encompasses evething
T. - 0 father, you are giving me answers which are impossible and contrived I woul like to make a frank reply to this I have become a stranger in my fathers family! Do not refuse me, father; I am your tue son; tell me fully the way of rebirth H - What shall say, m son? I have only this to tell I see within me a formless vision born by the mercy of God. I have come
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3
The Corpus Hereticu Book 13
The Corpus Hereticu Book 13
out of my former self into an immortal body. I not now what I was before For I have been bo in Nous. Such a ting is not taught, nor can it be seen by the physical body So I have no interest in my former physical form, for I am without colour and cannot be touched or measured; I am a stranger to these Now you see me with your eyes, as somethig wich you understand through body and sight, but I not now beheld with these eyes, son
spirt will be bo. Cleanse yourself om the torments of the material world which arise from the lack of reason. T. Do I have toentors within me, 0 father H. - More than a few, 0 son. In fact there are many and they are fearsome T - I not aware ofthem, 0 father H - This ignorance, 0 son, is the rst of these tormentors. The second is sorrow; the third is intemperance; the fourth lust; the h injustice; the sixth greed; the seventh deceit; the eighth envy; the ninth treache; the tenth anger; the eleventh recklessness; the twelh alice. These are twelve in number, but besides these there are many others, my son They compel the inner man who dwells in the prison of s body to suer through is senses These tormentors depart one by one from the man who receives Gods mercy. This constitutes the maer and teacng of rebirth.
4. T. - 0 father, you have cut me to the quick, and destroyed my faculties; for now I do not see myself. . H - I wish that yo� had now stepped out of yourself, my son, ke those who dream n sleep and yet are awake T. - Tell me tis also, who is the author ofrebih? H - The son of God, man complete, and this by God's will. 5. T I a dumbstruck and bere of my wits, 0 father, for I see that your size and your features remain the same H - In this you are deceived. The moal form changes day by day, wth the tuing of time it grows and decays, its reality is a
deception.
6. T What then s tre, Trsmegstus
H - The untroubled, unlimited, colourless , formless , unmoving, naked, shining, selfknowing, the unchanging good without a body. T - 0 father, I a tly beside myself. I expected that through you I would have become wise, but the powers of the mind have been blocked. H. - So be it, 0 son. There is that which rises like re and fals like earth, and is moist like water and breathes like ar, but how can you perceive by means ofthe senses thatwhch is neither solid nor liquid, which cannot be grasped or released, is apprehended only by its power and activity? Ts requires the ability to understand birth in God.
T. I am incapable of tis, 0 father
8 For the rest, be still, 0 son, a�d keep silence thus Gods mercy for us shall not cease. Rejoice now, 0 son, being thoroughly cleansed by the powers of God, you are thus united with the Word Knowledge of d has come to us, and therefore ignorance has been banished. Experience of joy has come to us, and therefore, 0 son, sorrow will ee to those who give place to it 9. er joy, the power I summon is selfcontrol; most welcome
power, let us most gladly receive her too, my son; on her arrival see how she drives o intemperance. Now I call the fouh, stead fastness, the power opposed to lust This next step, 0 son, is the seat of justice. See how without trial she has chased out injustice. With iustice gone we become just I summon the sixth power, generosity, opposed to greed With greed gone, I next summon tth, deceit ees, and truth is present See how upon the arrival of truth the Supreme Good arises; envy has ed far om us. The Supreme Good, together with life and light, has followed upon tth, and te torments of darkness no longer fall upon us, but conquered, they all y o with a sh of wings.
H - May it not be so, 0 son; withdraw into yourselfand it sal come Will and it is so Make idle the senses of the body and he
10 You know now, 0 son, the manner of rebirth. And with the arrival ofthese ten, spiritual bih is complete and it drves out the twelve, and by ts birth we have become divne. Whoever, then, by Gods mercy attans a dine birth is freed om the bodily
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The Corpus Hermeticum: Book
14
he himselfis invisible. Thus he creates, so a s not to be seen8• He is always creating, and so he is always invisible 4; This one should understand, and having understood one should wonder and having wondered one should count oneself blessed for having come to know the Father For what could be sweeter than a true father? ho is he? And how shall we come to know him? Is it right to give to him alone the name of God? Or that of Creator or of Father, or of all three? He is God because of his power� Creator because of his activity and Father because of the Supreme Good As he is that power, he transcends all created things, as he is that power in activity he comes to be all things. Let us give up long and useless discourse. We must come to know these two: the created and the Creator; for between them there is no third 5. In all you thik and all you hear, be mindful of these two and realise these two are all do not be perplexed about anything; what is above or below, what is divine, or subject to change, or what lies deep wihin; for all things are these two, the created and the Creator; but it is impossible to separate one from the other, for there cannot be a Creator without that which is ceated; both are in fact the same thing. Therefore one cannot be dvided om te other, anymore than it can be divided from tself. 6 For ift�e Creator is nothing other than the creative principle, sole, unmxed, uncompounded, ths principle must create by itself As coming into being is the work of the Creator, and all that has come into being cannot have come by itself, it follows that it is caused by another and that without the Creator the created could not have been bo nor exist For if either of these were without · the other, it would lose its own nature, through being deprived of the other If on accepts these two, the created and the Creator then they are one in their union, one being rst, the other follow ing The one who is rst is God the Creator, and the created follows, whatsoever it may be 7. And do not be wa of the ful variety of creation, for fear that you will abase God and extinguish His glory. For He has only oe glo, which is to create evething; this is as it were the body of 72
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14
God, creation. Nothing evil or shameful can be ascribed to the Creatr Thse are aictions which follow upon coming into being, like the green on copper and dirt on the body. For the coppersmith does not make the geen, nor the parents the dir on the body, nor does God create evil But the continued existence of creation causes evl like a kind of ulcer and therefore God brought about transformatio, to cleanse the impurity of birth 8. If one and the same painter can create heaven and gods, the earth and sea, men and all dumb creatures, and inanimate things, could not God also create these things? To deny this shows great folly and ignorance of God! People who tnk this are in a most strange stte hile they pretend to e holy and to worship God, in refusing to attribute to Him the creation of evething, they are not only ignorant of God, but they insult His greatness by ascribing aictions to Him: contempt and impotence For if He does not make all things, He does not make them either from contempt or om impotence To think this is sacrilege. 9. For God has only one attribute, gooess (to agathon). An he who is good is neither contemptuous nor impotet. For God is the Supreme Good: all power to make everything. Al that has been brought into being has been brought to bih by God, that is to say by the Supreme Good and by the power which can do everyhing If you want to understad how He creates and how things are brought to birh, you can. Look, I will give you a most beautiful and lifelike image. 10. Behold, a farmer scatters his seed upon the eah, here wheat, there barley, elsewhere other seeds. The same man plats a ne, an apple and oter trees. So God sows immortality in heaven, transformation on earth, life and movement in all. The things He sows are few and easy to count; four in a d the there is God Himself ad also generatio in these are a t which exist.
3
The Corpus Hermeticum: Book
Book 16 lepius to Kg Amon
sclepus to Kng mmon conceng: God; matter; evl; fate; the Sun; sprtual substance; dvne nature; Man; the law of that whch lls the unverse; the seven stars; the mage of man 1 My Kng, I a sendng you an mportant letter whch crowns and recalls to mnd all the others It does not accord wth common opnon, ndeed t retes what most people thnk In fact t wll appear to contract some of the thngs that I have prevously sad For my teacher, Hees, oen used to say to me prvately and also n the presence of Tat, that the composton of my books would appear most smple and clear to those who read them He added, however, that they are obscure and keep the meanng of the words dden He sad they would become even more obscure later when the Greeks decde to translate our language nto thers, whch wll lead to even greater dstorton and obscurty 2 When expressed n ts orignal language, the text preserves the pure sprt of the words For the ve qualty of the sound and the pronuncaton of the Eptan lanage carres n tself the power of what s beng spoken Th�rfore, 0 Kng, as far as t s n your power, and your power . unlmted, please ensure that ths text s not translated, n order that these mysteres do not reach the Greeks For the arrogant, loose and showy style of the Greek language, wll sap the mesty and strength of our own whch presees the power of the words The Greeks, 0 Kng, use empty words whch produce mere dsplays That s the phlosophy of the Greeks: a nose of words We do not use such language but sounds full of power
3 . Here I shall begn my letter by nvokng God, the Lord, C �eator and Father, who encompasses everythng He, beng all thgs, the One and beng one, s all thngs The totalty of everythng s one an d s n One There s no second here, for both are one May you remember ths prncple, 0 Kng, for the rest of my letter For f anyne were to attack that whch seems to be the ll an the One, whch are the same, takng the term 'All to be separate
74
The Corpus Hermeticum Bok
16
16
is om the One and to be a plurality, not a fullness - which bring will impossible - he will sever the All from the One, and thus is the ll to naught. For of necessity all things are one, since there be totality the lest one be to in fact a One which never ceases dissolved.
See how n the central parts of the earth there are many sprngs of water and sources of re rsng up; and n one place you can see the three natures re, water and eah, dependent on one sngle root Hence there s beleved to be a storehouse of all matter, which gves forth ts own abundance and receves n retu the substance om above 4.
Even so the Creator, that s to say he Sun, ever lnks heaven to earth, sendng s substance down from above, and rasng up matter from below He draws everythng around himself and nto hmself, and om himself gves all to all, bestowng hs lght n abundance For t s he whose benecent powers not only pervade the heavens and the ar, but reach down to the lowest depth n the earth and abyss of the sea 5
If there s a sprtual substance, then t s the body of the Sun, whch his lght contans The Sun alone beng near to hmself n place and nature knows of what hs substance s made and whence t ows We caot see hm, but by systematc eos we can understand hm 6
7. The son of the Sun, however, does not nvolve eo, for the brllance of hs countenance shnes throughout the entre cosmos, both above and below Wearng the cosmos as a crown he sts at the centre Lke a skilled drver he safely gudes the charot of the cosmos bndng the rens to hmself, so that t does not n amok Hs rens are lfe, soul, breath, mmortalty and generaton He slackens the rens so that the charot can r eely, but not too far om hmself; n fact t stays wth hm
In ths way everythng s created The Sun bestows on the mmortals ther everlastng lfe and he nourishes the eteal regons of the cosmos wth the ascendng lght sent forth from the sde that faces heaven; wth the descendng lght that llumnes
8
75
The Corpus Hermeticum: Book
16
the entire holow ream of water, earth and air, he enlivens and sets in motion birh and death 9. The creatures in this region- of the cosmos he remakes and reshapes in a cyclical movement, exchanging one for another, kind for kind, form for form In so creating he acts just as he does with the celestial bodies Change is constant for all bodies: for immortals without dissolution, for mortals with dissolution Thus the immortal diers from the mortal and the mortal from the immortal
10. Just as his light is continuous, so also he creates life continu ously, ithout interruption everywhere, and in abundance Around him are many choirs of spiritual powers like many dier ent armies They dwell together, and are not far om the immor tas Assigned to the region of men, they oversee their aairs They car out the cmmands of the gods with tempests, hurricanes, whirlwinds; with volcanoes and earhquakes, avenging impiety with famine and wars 1 1 Irreerence is mankinds greatest oence against the gods; for the gods work is to do good, mens to show reverence, and for the spiritual powers to serve atever else men have the audacity to undeake through error, recklessness, compulsion (which they call destiny), or ignorance, the gods will hold them giltless. Only irreverence comes under judgment 12 Eve kind of creature is sustained and nourshed by the Sun As the spiritual world embraces the physical and lls it out with eve dierent kind of form, so the Sun also embraces everything in the cosmos, raising up and strenghening all generations And when they are spent and ebbing away he receives them back 13 . The choir of spirits, or rather choirs are placed under the command of the Sun; 'choirs because there are many dierent kinds of powers They are set in formation under the stars, and are equal in number to them Thus arrayed they sere each of the stars Some of these powers are good and some are evil by nature, that is to say in their activity For the essence of a spiritual pow�r
The Corpus Hermeticum: Book
is its activity There are also some who are a mixture of good and evil 4. All these spirits have been given authority over aairs pon earth and over turbulence there They cause a vaety of dsor ders both publicly in cities and among nations, but also in the life of indviduals For they shape our souls after themseles and arouse them by residing in our sinews, in our marrow, ves and arteries, and even in our brain, penetrating as deep as our very entrails
15. The spirits who are set as attendants ben ath each star according to what each birh merts8, take possessn of each one of us at the moment we are born and are ven breath Never stationary but turning about they change places from moment to moment Now when these spirits enter the two pars of the soul through the body, each agitates the soul according to its own activity But the rational par of the soul stands free of the tyranny of these powers and remains t to receive God 16 When by way of the Sun that rational part in a n is ilumined by a ray of light (and such men are few), the sptual powers cease to aect them For no spirit or god has any power against one ray from the supreme God But all other men are boe and led, both soul and body, by the powers, whose actvities they deay love It is their thinking which is misled and mslads, not the love Thus the powers have control over all our aars upon earh through the instrments of our bodies This control Hermes called destiny 17 Thus the spiritual world depends upon God and the physcal world on the spiritua, and through the spiritual and phys ca world the Sun receives from God a ow of consciousness, that s of creative power [tu agathou). Around the Sun are the eght spheres, who depend on it rst is the spher of the xed stars, then the six of the planets and the one that enrcles the earh �h spiritual powers depend on the spheres, and men upon the sp tual powers Thus all things and all men are dependent upon God 18
76
16
Wherefore the Father of al is God, the Creator is the Sun, and 7
The Copus Hemeticum Bk 1 7 the cosmos is the instrument of his creative power His spitual substance goves the heavens the heavens gove the gods and the powers whic are appointed by the gods gove men his is the host of gods and powers 1 hrough these instruments God by Himself creates all this and all things partake of God; since this is so they are God. hrefore in creating all things he creates Himself; and He can never cease create for He Himself never ceses to be. As God has no end so His handiwork has neither beginning nor end. Book 17 Tat to a
- " if you consider it 0 King there are bodiless tings in bodies' K. - Of wat kind?' asked the king. . Do the bodies which are reected in miors not seem unembodied to you?' K - Cetainly at what good thinking' said the king. Are tere not other bodiless thingsfor example forms which although bodiless appear in bodies; not only in bodies with souls but also those without?' K. - You do speak well at' . - hus the bodiless are reected in bodies and the bodies in the bodiless that is to say the physical world is reected in the mental and the mental in the physical. hat is why you should worship the statues because they contain the forms of the mind of the cosmos' hen the king rising from is seat said: he time has come for me prophet to look aer my guests; we shall speak about the gods tomoow.'
/
78
trword t
he work now known as the Copus Hemeticum consists of a colletion of seventeen short philosophical treatises composed in Greek and of vaing length some of which have not survived intact hese writings as well as a slightly longer Latin treatise the Ascleius were believed from antiquity up the beginning of the seventeenth centu to be translations of ancient Egyptian wisdom the teachings of thrce great Hermes' or Hermes ris megistus. Hermes was the name that Greeks of the classical and Hellenistic periods gave to the Ibisheaded Egyptian god hth for simply put they considered the latter and their own god Hermes to be one and the same. It is now generally greed that the language of these texs points to production between te rst and third centuries in exandria a city then ruled by Rome but culturally a cosmopolitan mix of Greek Egyptian Jewish and other traditions. As Gilles Quispel points out in the Preface these texts were central to the spiritual practice of Hermetic circles in late antique Alexandria he teachings generally take te form of dialogues betwen teacher and disciple In the rst book a gure who intoduces himself as Poimandres the Nous of the Supreme' teaches Her mes. In Book 1 athos Daimon a shadowy dinity whom the fourthcentu B Egyptian priest Manetho considered a First ynasty kng is also porayed as a teacher of Hermes. In most of te other books Hermes is teacher to Asclepius a healer identi ed with the gyptian Imhotep or to his son at a gure unknown outside the Hermetic writings Books 16 and 1 are the only examples of a disciple and a son of Hermes Asclepius and at actig themselves as teachers. hus the Copus Hemeticum pre sents three generations of the teacherdisciple relationsip Whle the language of the texts reects the diverse religious intellectual and cultural traditions of the Alexandrian community in which they were produced and more specically of the Her
The Corpus Hermetcum
Aerword
metic circles that produced them, the sources of their teachings have been the subject of considerable debate Many modern scholars view these works as a potpourri of Hellenistic philo sophical and religious speculation ascribed to an ancient Ep tian sage3 As Gilles Quispel notes in the Preface, others have seen connections with Egyptian tradition Jean-Pierre Mahs Introduction throws additional light on the Corpus composition by making some very persuasive suggestions about its relation ship to the aphorisms of The Dentons ofHermes Trsmegstus and the nature of spiritual teachings in general 4 The transla tors see these texts anities with earlier Egyptian thought as evidence of strong connections with that tradition though their origins and lineage are admittedly impossible to pinpoint A brief outline of the histo of the Hermetic writings and their interpretation will give a sense of the backandforth shis in the eorts of clerics, philosophers and scholars to resolve the enigma of the Corpus
resolve this cousion Garth Fowden says 'at some point the Hermetists began propagate the idea that there had been two Eptian Hermeses grandfather and grandson In the Peect Dscourse Asclepus Hermes Trismegistus refers to the tomb of hs grandfather and namesake Hermes in Hermoupolis Clearly the author envisages Hermes I to be identical with Thoth8 Fow den goes on to outline how there emerged in the Hermetic tradition a picture of a younger Hermes, grandson of Thoth, as the transla tor of the Hermetic tets into Greek 9 It was accepted by the church fathers that the Hermes who was the author of these texts was of extreme Eptian antiquity In the early h centu Austine thought that the elder Hermes was a contempora of Moses (fourteenth century ). The second centu Jewish writer Artapa had earlier imagined that Hemes and Moses were one and the same person When the text of the Corpus Hermetcum was rediscovered and translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino, its authorship by a con temporary of Moses was taken for granted12 The 48 pavement in Siena Cahedral near the main west door depicts a large image of Hermes apparently instructing men from both East and West On the oor below Hermes are inscribed in Latin the words Hermes Trismegistus, the contemporary of Moses It was gener ally considered that Hermes had either instructed Moses, or been instructed by him, or both Thus in the Renaissance Hermes was considered to be a kind of founng father of the Judaeo-Christian tradition But Artapanus had also written that Moses-Hermes had been the preceptor of Orpheus, the earliest of the Greek philosophers3 Thus Hermes came to be viewed also as the inspiration of the philosophic tradi tion that, according to Ficino, ran through Aglaophemus, Pythagoras and Phlolaus to Plato This view of Hermes gave the Platonic tradition almost equal authority to the tradition of the Hebrew prophets Following the completion of his translation and commenta of Hermes, Ficino wrote 'lawl Philosophy is no dierent from true religion, and lawful religion exactly the same as true Philosophy.14 Hermes thus was a central gure in the Renaissance vision of a perennial philosophy uniting reason and faith5
Hermes and the Hermetic tradition om Antiquity to the Renaissance The earliest surving instance of Hermes triple title comes from the Ibis shrine in Sakkara, Egypt. Records there of a meeting of the Ibis cult in 172 B mention, both in Demotic Eptian and Greek the name megistou kai megistou theou megalou Hermou , 'the greatest and the greatest god, great Hermes.5 The epithet thrice-greatest' thus reects the intensifying repetition of the Eptian adjective6 �hoth was the god of the moon, of writing and of leaing, depIcted from early Egyptian times as ibisheaded - his bill was sometimes shown as a writing implement or as a baboon repre senting intelligence . Plato lists arithmetic , geometry and astronomy aong his inventions. He was also the messenger god and the conveyor of souls In the Phaedrus Plato recounts how at one point Thoth had oered his invention of hieroglyphs to Thamos the god, who refused the gi on the grounds that it would debilitate the memo of his subjects7 By late antiquity there was some consion about the precise identity of Hermes. In the Egyptian tradition he was a god, but the Alexandrian Greeks considered him to be a human In order to
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80
8
The Crpus Hermeticum
Aerwrd
spea of God as b th male and female, the Leiden Papyrus provdes strong eVdence for a native Egyptian dervation of both the appellation and the description of the creator as beyond gender30 Finally, Gilles Quispel has pointed out connections between the Crpus and Egyptian temple music Books 1 and 13 contain strikin hymns of praise to d sung by the discple and eacher following spiritual elightenment Quispel quotes Demetrius of Alexandra rst century When the priests of Egypt sin their hymns to praise their gods they utter the seven vowels in the prescrbed order, the sound of these seven vowels is so beautil that people prefer this music to the ute or le' Quispel continues, The seven vowels correspond to the seven notes of the octave which were related to the seven planets' He later concludes tha the esoterc songbook of the Hermetic communty in Alexandra contained Egptian hymns with Egyptian music in the Greek language'31 Such music plays a central role at the moments of awakenin described in the Crpus A balanced vew of the Crpus wll recognze its indebtedness the vocabula of its milieu One can imagine men and women of diverse backgrounds joing Hermetic associations in Aexan dra Widely read in the philosophical literature of the day such was the collector of the fourhcentu Nag Hammad libra members of a Hermetic society would nd in Plato, the Gospels, the Trah, and other works echoes that would for them and their circle conrm the universality of the ancient teachn at the hea of their programme In tu, they might consciously make use of the languae �f those other traditions to attract to their group a der followg Thus contemporary idiom and imaery were brought into the formulation of the teaching This may have been particulary true if, as Mah suggests, the treatises were developed as narrative settings for the aphorisms But the contemporary idiom in no way precludes acknowledgng that the teaching was fundamentally rooted in the religious tradtion of Egypt
as alchemy and magic while the latter, of which much the most important examples are the Crpus and the Asclepius dealt with the religous or philosophical framework into which the rest tted 32 In late antiquty the text of the Asclepius was translated into Latin, reputedly by Apuleius Its contents were known in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, but the Greek text from which it was translated dd not survive the destruction of the Roman Empire At least substantial elements of the Crpus Hermeticum were known to the church fathers Lactantius and St Augustine33 However, it cannot be proved that the vaous treatises that now compose the Crpus existed as a single work in classical times It is possible that ths compilation was put together by the eleventhcentury Byzantine scholr and latonist Michael Psel lus34 The collection did not reach Weste Europe until Leonardo of Pistoia discovered a manuscript in Macedonia and delivered it to Florence, where it was translated by Marsilio Ficino Ficino's Greek manuscript, now in the Laurentian Libra in Florence, only contains Books one to fourteen His edtion was publshed in 1471 and by the middle of the sixteenth centu had n into two dozen editions Other manuscripts appeared aer Ficinos which contained the books that are now taen to comprise the Crpus One of these manuscripts the sixteenthcentury editor Adrien Tuebus used to prepare his prnted edtion35 The sixteenthcentu editor Flussas added fragments from other sources as a eenth book, which later editors deleted Thus the books in mode editions are numbered from oe to eighteen but een has continued be omitted By 146 Nock was able to nd twentyeiht manuscripts to consult in the preparation of his edition We have adhered to the enumeration of modern editors, but have included neither the fragments comprising Book 15 nor Book 18 Scott and NockFestugire agree in regarding the latter as not belonging to the Crpus It is manifestly inferior to the other books, both in content and in style Festugire refers to it as Cette insipide morceau de rhtorique'}37 No real single theme develops, but erely disconnected remarks relating to the praise of kings and of God n addition to this there are so many gaps in the manuscripts as to render many pas saes unintelligible The Crpus has been translated into English a number of times
t
e text d translaton of the
Hermetic texts seem to have circulated fairly widely in the Roma Empire They have been categorised by scholars as popuar and theoretcal texts, the former ofwhich dealt mainly in subjects such .
84
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he Copus Hemetium
Aewo
The rst transation was by Dr John Everard in 650. he work was not then transated again unti the ate nineteenth centu when renewed interest in ancient siritua wisdom ed to the transations of JD Chambers (882), WW Westcott (894) and GR Mead (906). Eary in the twentieth century new academic interest in ancient reigion brought about the edition and transa tion of ater Scott (9246), based on his heavi atered te schoary Engsh version was roduced by Brian Coehaver in 992, based on the 946 edition of Nock and Festugire Our transation aims, as we exain in the Foreword, to rovide the genera reader with a new version, based on reiabe texts and faith to the sirit and beauty of the origina
23 Ma 2, 1982, pp. 97102. 24 Fwden, pp. 289. 25 See belw, Denitions p. 115 and ntrductin, pp. 145. 26 Denitions 6.23 adapted frm Ma. 27 Zanee p. 126. 28 Ammonhymn of Kairo Papyrus Kair 58038 VI, 2.3, cite
Notes
(see Bibiograhy and bbreviations on 94) 1 See Copehaver pp 164-5 2 Cpenaver, p xiii 3 See fr example Lewitz pp 1004 . See bew Denitions, pp 10 I 5 Cpenaver xiiixv Bea, p. 139 cites a tirdcentury appearance f te epitet at Esna 6 Sctt 1 p 5 Phaedr 274D 8 Fwden p. 29 9 Fwden pp 2931 10 City of xviii 39 11 Eusebis PE 927 cited in Gren p 158 Kisteer 1979 pp 2045 . Ficin Opera Omnia preface t te translatin f Mercurii Trismegisti Liber quted by Cpenaver, p xviii 14 Ficin, Letters 1 p 187. Kisteer 1965 pp 989 16 ee Sctt 1 pp 413 and Cpenaver, p See as Beal pp 162 . Sctt 1 p: 10 18 Lewitz, p 101 . See Ma 1978; 1982 Quispe, and Zandee. 2 See Fwden c 1, n te drability f te Eptian traditin in te Aexandrian reigius practice and pp. 724 n its relatin t te Hermetic traditin in particuar 21 Papyrus �e�lin 050 V, 1 cited in andee p 11 I · 22 Fr te dstctn between te practca and pspca texts, see pp 845 Cpenver pp xiixl and Fwden, c 3. 86
in Zandee, p 126 29 Papyus Leien 344 vers 1, cited in Zanee p. 120. 30 Fr Gnstic prtrayals f te creatr male and female, see Eunostos the Blessed 76, and The Sohia of Jesus Christ 4 in Rbinsn p. 228. See als he Gose o the Etians .42 in N p 29. . Quispe 1996 p. 274. 32 See abve, n. 22. 33 See Yates, pp. 612. . ctt 1, p 29 and Cpnaver pp. x. 35 ctt 1, p. 33 and Cpenaver, p. x. 36 Sctt 2, p 461 and 2, pp 2445. 3. 2, p. 244
87
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Bea Martn Blak Ahea: The oaa Roo of Claal Cvl zao (Rutger 1989) Cpenhaver Bran Hermea: The Greek Crpu Hermetcum ad he La Acepu a ew Eglh ralao wh oe ad rodu o (Camrge Engan 199) Fcn Leer 15 Fcn Mar The er ofMarlo Fo v 15 Language Dept the Sch Ecnmc Scence Lnn tran (Lnn 19751994) Fcn Mar Opera Oma Marl F ore g phlo oph plao med aque heolog larm opera oma e quae haeu exere (reprnte Bae 1959) Fwen Garth The Epa Herme (Prncetn 1986) Gruen Erch S Herage ad Hellem (Berkeey 1998) Krteer Pau Okar Reaae Though ad Soure (New Yrk
w/m
1979) Kteer Pau Okar Reaae Though ad he Ar (Prncetn 1965) Lewtz Mary No Ou ofAa How erm Beame a Exue o Teah Myh a Ho (New Yrk 1996) Ma JP Herm e Haue Epe v 1- (Queec 1978; 198) Ma J-P Extrat Hermtque nt an u manucrt Oxr Revue de Eude Gre 104 1991, 109-39 Ma JP Nuvea parae gec ax Dtn Hermtque mnenne Revue de Eude Aee 199091, 115-34 1-4 Nck AD an Fetugre AJ e an tran Corpu Her meum v 1-4 (Par 94654) N Rnn Jame The NagHammad Lb Eglh (New Yrk 1990) Qupe Ge e an tran The Alepu (Amteram 1996) Sctt 1-4 Sctt W Hermea: he ae Gek ad La wg whh oa lgou or phlooph eahg arbed o Herme megu v 1-4 (reprnte Btn 1985-93, 1t e Or 194
36) van en Brek R an Qupe G e an tran Corp Hermeum (Amteram 1996)
92
9
The Copus Copus He Hemeticum meticum ates Franes A, Goano Buno and the Hemet adton (Chiago 1964) Zanee, Jan Heetism an Anient Ept', De Hemethe Gno n de loop de eeuwen O uispe, e (Ba 1994)
Index
For an exhaustie iography n the Copu an Hermeti stuies, see Copenhaer, pp xiiIxiii xiiIxiii
Act, Actin, Active, Activity, 1.5, 9, 22, 26; 6; 3; lI; 8.; 2, ,
9; 6, ; ; ; 8, -5; 2, 7, 9; 10.56, 10.56, , , , 5-2, 2; 11, 6, , , 5 56, 6, 2; 2; 1212, 7, 22; 13., 7, , 25; 25; 147; 16, 9, 56; 1 45; B (c. Birth), 15, 9, 27-2, 45; 2, ; 2, 9; 11.2; 12, , ; 13-, 7, 2, ; 146; 1.5 Breath, 15, 7; ., 2, ; 3.2; 4; 9; 10, 6-7; 139-2; 139-2; 1.7, 1. 7, 5
5, 6, ; 10, 22; 22; 11.2, 56, 2, 2, 22; 22; 1, 5, 6, , , 6, 2, 22; 136, 2; 14; 1.9, , 5, 6 1, , 9 9,, o Don 1 Ages, 17; 3.; 15 4.; 5, 9, ; , 1.5, 9, ; . ; 3.2; 4.; .7; 10, 9; 1, 2, 2; 136, , 2; 15, .9; 82; 1.6, 22, All, the, 1.27; .7; .9; 2; 12, , 7-9; 1. Authri, 1, 5, 2; 1
Change, changeable (c Mve), 1,
2; 10, 7, ; 112, , 9, 6; 1-, 1 -, ,, , 22; 135; 145; 145; 19, 1 9, 5
Beautil, beauty, 1, 2, , 27; 57; 6; ; ., ; 10.-6, , 5; 11.2,, 6, 7, ,2; 12 12;; 13.5; 149 Beginning,beginningless, 1-, 7; 4.; .; 8.; 1.6; 1.9 2; Bet, betr, begtten, 1 , 2; .2; 8.2, 5; 11 6, ; .; .; .2; 1.7; 132 Behld, 1.; .5; 10.5, 5; 116; 1.2; 13.2; 14
Crpreal Crpr eal,, 12. Csms (c Universe), 1, 5 5,, 9,
25-26; 2-, 6, ; 3.; 4.-2; .2, ; 8.2, 5; .; 102, 7, 2, 5,, 22, 25; 1127, , 5 , 56, 56, 92; 16, 16, , 2 22; 2; 137 2; 17-9, 2, ; 1 Cnsciusness, 49; 11.; 17 Creatr, 1.9-, ; 4.-2; , -9; 82; 5-6; 10., 10., ; 1 15-6, 9, , 6; 137, 9; 14.7 14.7;; 1., 5, 2;; 8.5; 8.5; 107, 2, Creatures, 1. , ; 2 9, 22,2; 11, 7, -, -, 2; 112 , , 6 , , , 2 2 , 6, 6, 2 2 , 2 2 ; 13, 7, 2; 14 149; 9; 12 12
Being beinbeings, 2, 5; 32; 4, 6; ; -2; 8.; .6-7, 9; 10, -9; 11, 7; 139 brin�cme int, 1.; 39; 4.6, , ; ., , ; 82; .; .; 10; 11�, ; 1.6, 2; 14.67, 14.67, 9 as essence, .5; .2; ., 5; 106 102 immrtal/divine, 3; 4.2 8; 102 2 ; 2, 2, 5; 8, 5; living, 1, 5, ; 42; .; 10.2, , 7; 11.2; 15 mrtal, ; 4.2; 6; 8; 11 .9- spiritual, 1, Bih (c Rebirth), 1.9; 2; .; 11, 7; 16 167, 7, ; 17, , 5; 5; 14.2, 7, 9; 1, 5 Bliss, 112-
Darkness, dark, 1., 6, 92, 2, 2; 3; .2; 139,
229; 9; 7; Death, dead, 1.2, 22, 22
2; 8.; , 9; 10; 112, 5, 5, 2; 167, 5-6, ; 1
Demns (c Divine pwers, Spirits, Spiritual pwers), 4; , 5 Destiny (c Fate), 19, 5, 9; 3; 125, 125 , 9; 1., 6 Devtin, devut, 122; 56; Disease, 12.3 Divine, divinity, 1, 2-5; 32; 46;
Bdiless (c Incrpreal, Unem bdied), 5, 2, 5; ;
, ; 10, 10, 7-9, 22 22; ; 11.5 ; 12., 9; 13, , , ; 14.5; 1
116-, 22; 136; 136; 1
22, 2, Bdybdily, 1 , 5, 7, 92, 22,
; 2, , 9, , 5, 7; 4-2,5
94
95
Th Corpus Hermeticum Divine Div ine owe ower, r, 1 2; ; 102 2; 13; 13; 14; 1 1 6 ; Drunk, drunkenness 12; 72 17 Go, goodness (t agathon, cf. Su Earth, earth earthly, ly, earth earthy, y, 15 - 5 6; 6; 3; 4 ; reme Go),), 2-2 2-2; ; .; 3 ; 42 5; -6 .-6;; 10- 9 2 5; -6; .-6 9; 7; 8-5; ; 10 9 11 2-22; 1 5 2; 136 225; 11 - 2; 1 2 22; 14.9 ; 17 2; 136 2; 14 ; Grac, Gra c, 12; 2 15 5 66- Gross (cf. Bodily, Physical, Sensory), Elements, 1-; 3-2 ; 10 22; 45; ; 7; 105 1 Emotions, 1.2 Harmo Har mony, ny, 16 9 25; . Endless, 1 Hear, He ar, 1 5 6 6 2 2 26 26 2; Ener (cf. Power), 1; ; 1; 4 ; 72- 72-;; 10.6 9 2 13. 2; 112 2; 1; 1356 2; Essence Essen ce (cf (cf.. Being), Being), 1 2; ; 10 2; 145 11.2; 1 9 22; 1 Hear He art, t, 1; 4 ; 6; 7.2; 132 eteity, y, 9; 8.2- ; 1 125 Eternal,l, eteit Eterna Holy Ho ly,, 15 ; 3; 14. 5 2; 1. 5; 13.2; 1 Human, humanity (cf. Man), 126; Ether, 1; 119 10 2; 115; 1 1 2 9 6 Ev, 1222 25; 3; 4-9; 7-; 5; 10 2; 112; 1 Ignore, ignorance, iorant, 1.2 2 2; 14; 14; 1 1 2 2; 6; 4; 6; 72; ; Excellence, excellent, .; .5; 109 10 5; 112; 1.; 13-; ; 11 22; 1. 14; 1 2 Esnce, Esn ce, -; 9; 10.2; 11 . Imag Im age, e, 12 ; 4; -2 6; ; ; 14 82 5; 102; 102; 11 5; 16; 14.9; 1 Faith, Fai th, 12; 4 Imagination, ; 11 Fate (cf DestiY), 3; 1 Immortal, immortality, immortality, immortals, Father, 16 2-6 222 262 2-29;; 6; 42 42 5; 15 2 2-29 82-5; 2; ; .2 - ; 82-5; 10 - 2 25; 8 5; 10 ; 10 10 9 2; 1. 1. 5; 112-5 112 -5 9 9 22; 1 1 2 13 2-22; 14; 14; 1 1 9 2 22; 13 22; as address to the Hermes, 4. 6; 14; 1 105 9 6 2 2; 1 2 105 Incororeal (cf. Bodiless, Unem 13 2 5 5 6 2 22; 13 bodied), ; 10; 11.; 1 5 222 5 Intelligent (c Nous) 3 Fire, 15 9 2; 32; 4; 5; ; 106- 106- 2; 11 9 1-2 6 22; ; 3; Know, 1-2 2; 12; 136 2; 1. 49; 10 10 225; 112; 1 Form, 1. 2 2; 32; 42; 9 222; 13 -5; 1.6 9 ; 8.; 11 6-; 13 5 2; Knowl Kn owled edge, ge, 1 2 2; 46 9; 5; 1.9 1. 9 2; 17 2; 109; 132 Formless, without form, 49; 122; higper/tr higp er/tree know knowled led,, 1.2 1.26; 6; 4 4;; . 13 13 6 know owledg owledgee of God, 1 ; 42; ; 105 105 9; 13 22; 14 od (cf. Father, Creator), 1. 6 the Sureme od, ofthe of -92 92 2626-2 2 2929-; ; -6 -6 2 2 light of knowled, 102 1 02 ; 3-; 42 ; 6-; of self, 136 22 5; 8-5; . ; 10- 9 5 9 222 222;; 11 2 22; 2; Langage (cf. Seech, Teaching, 1 -9 2-6 9-2; 132Wrd) W rd) 12 6- 6- - - -22; 22; 14 14 ;; Life (cf Living ings, Creatures), 16 1 5 1 59 9 9 2 2 222; god� go d�ods ods,, 112; 1 2 56 56 32 ; 69; 102; 102; 11 2 5 5
Index Oerings, 1; 6; 139 2 ; 12 56 2-22; 139 One (c (cf f Unio Union), n), 6; 4-2 5 l 2 - -9; 9; 149-; 149-; 1.- 1.- l 2 ; 6; 10- 2 igh i ght, t, 1- 1- 9 2 2 2 2; ;; 25; 115 9 - 6; 1 5; .-2;; 10. 2; 11; 1 3-2; .-2 13.2 ; 142 142 56 -9; -9; ; 13 9 2 9; 1.5-6 1.5-6 1 6 Origin, original, originate, 1 2; rd r d 16; 2; 11 ; 13 2; 1 2; 3; 4 9-; ; 12 ve, v e, 12- 6 22; 46; ; 72; 16 Passion (cf Change, Suer), ; 16 Percetion, erceie Man, me n (cf (cf Human, humanity), humanity), 1 ureof ure of od (noesis, noetos), 1.6; 52 2 2 22 22 2 2 252 22; 6 6; 46; 2 ; 5; 10 6 6; 3-; 3-; 42 5-; 5-; 6; sense (cf. See), 1; 5; 45; 85; 6; 8 5; -2 -5 9; 10 5; 1; 13.6 6- 9 26- 2- - -9 9 22-225; 225; Perfect, 4. ; ; 10; 11 11 5 ; ; 1. 6- 2 9 92; 2; 13-2 13 -2 2; 14 14;; 1 6 6 Physical (cf. Bodily, Gross, Sensory), . 15 ; 13.; . 13.; 12 ; 17 mankin man kind, d, ; 1.; 13 2; Powe, owers (cf. Sirits, siritual 1 owe o wers) rs),, 1 9 6 2 2 26 26 Mani Ma niffest est,, 5 9 ; 1122; 142 2 2 66- ;; S.l ; 7;; ; Matter, 1. .; 3 I; 7 46; 2; 10.-2 2-22 2; 2; 10 -; 11.- 9-; 111.2 5 2; 1 6 2; 5 22 222; 2; 1 5 5 132 13 2 6 - -2 2 5 5 9 9 2; Mind (cf Nous) 1. 2 ; -2; 14 9; 12 5 ; ; 10 6 6 22; 112 Praise, Prai se, 1262 -; ; ; 13512; 13-2 13-2 6; 1.; 17 2 Moon, ; 11 Presence, resent, 122 26; 4; 10.; Mortal, mortals, mortality, 1-5; 11 ;; 19 19 2; 13.9 13.9 ; 1 ; 4.2 5-6; 6; 8 ; 102 25; Punish, unishment (cf Torment), 11 9; 1 2; 135 5 ; 19 19 ' ; 102-2 2; 1-5 Move, movement, motion (cf Change), Pe, P e, 15 22 ; ; ; 109; 12 1 5 2; 6 2; 3; 5; -2; . 9; 106 -; Real, reality (cf Being), 15; 112 9 9 ; 1 12 2 6 6- - 2 2 5; ; 13.5 13.5 22; 14; 1.9 Realise (cf Percetion, Know), 1 2 ; Myste, 16; 11.5 4-5; 4 -5; 7; ; 10; 16 9; 145 Name Na me,, 1; 6 6; ; 3; 3; ; Reason (logos, cf Word, Nous), 16-; ; 10; 14 132 Natu Na tu, , 1 6 6- - 2 2 2 2 lack lac k of(cf Un Unason asonabl able), e), 1; 13. 2; 6 6- -;; 3 Rebir Reb irth, th, 322 ; 9 ; ; ; ; 10 Remember, remembered, 122; 22 2; 11.5 6 22 11.; 132; 1. 2; 1- 2-22; 132 2 2 ;; 14 14 6; 1 1 Sea, .-6 9; 112-2; 14; 15 6 16 22; 9; 45 9 9 ; See, 16 Noble, 122; 1022 2- 5- ; 6; 72-; 10. Nous No us,, 1.2 62 6 - - 22-2; 2; 5 2 2 2;; 11 2 2 2 22; 12 2 ; 3; 3; 42-6; 42-6; 2 ; 2; 135 9 5; 14.; .; 7.2; 85; ; 10 61 6 1 9 2 22 22; ; 11 22; 22; Seed, 3 ; :-6; 132; 14 1. -9 2; 13 -5 -5 Seek, 5; 72; 109; 132 9 222 Self 46; 13 Number Num ber,, 4; -; 15; 13 2; selfcontrol, .; 139 14; 1 selfknowing, 136
96
97
.
The Cos Hemeticum Sense senses cf Perceve) 1 . 9 22 22 2 25; 8.4; . 2 5 10.5 9 11 .2 13.6 Sensry cf Bdly Grss Physcal), 1.9 2 2 2 5 Slence slent 1 . 6 105 11.2 13.2 6 6 22 10.2 10.2 11. 2 1 Slee 1. 52 Sber 1.2 2 Sn 1.2 . 10. 13.2 address t Tat 4. 6 .26 5 10. 10.5 5 6 9 9 5 2 222 11.2 1.5 9 6 22 13.2 6 2 5, 6 2 22 22 1 Sul suls 1. . .9 9 2 3. 4. ; ; . 2 9 10.69 10. 69 5 5 9 92 2 11.2 12, 9 2 9 ; 12, 2 13.2 13.2 16. 6 1 Sace 2 6 2 .6
Teach teacher teachng teachng 1.29 ; , 10. 1.5 9 2 2 1 1 7 16 Trmen Tr ment t trm trmente enters, rs, 10 ; 1 7 Transfrm transfrmatn ; 10.6 11 2 5 14.
Truth 1.2 .2 . .9 10.2 11. 5 13.2 9 , 22 Unbegtten cf Unb), 2; 6; 8; 1 Unb cf . 2 11. Unchangng cf Stll)
The Denitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
11.2 1. 1. 13.6 13.6
Understand understandng cf Knw ure Percetn) 1, 2 2 7; ; ; , 6 .6 10.9 25 11. 2 2 13. 6 14. 9 16.
(c Bdless Incr Unembded (c 4.6 9 1 a}) 2 .2 4.6 Unn unty cf One), 1. 9 11.
Seech (logo, c Lanage Teachng Wrd) 2 4.2 8; 10.9 1.2
aad by a-P Mah
13.2 14.6
Unverse cf Csms) 2 4. .25 9 8; 1. 16 Unmanfest .2 5 11 5 Unmvng mtnless cf Stll) 2 .5 10. 11. 127; 1 Unrea real l 23 Ueasnable (logo, cf Reasn lack 12 12
erng f erng f 1 9 wthut seech 1 Shere 1. 6 26 26 2.-7; 8.3; 10 10; ; 15, 15, 7; 16.7 Srt srtual cf: Breath Brth), 1; ; 4.6 10.9 2 12; 1 3. 3. 2 2 2 2 16., 2 6 2
Srts, srtual wers cf Bengs Demns Pwer), 1.2 107,
Vsn 1.2 4.6 5; .2 10.5 11.6 13. 167 Vrtue cf Excellence) 4. 129 Vtalty 1.2 Vd V d,, 2
1.2 1. Stars 26 3.2 4. . 5 11; 16., 5 5 Stll stllness 2. 6 4. 8.5; 10 11.2 12; 13. 6 Substance, 1. 1.6 6 26 2; ; . ; 10.2 9 1 1 16, 6 Subtle 2 5 4.5 Suer c Passn, Change) 15, 9 2 27; 6-; 10. 2 1. ; 13. Sun, 1.29 27; . 10.2 10.2 11. 5 12;JJ1.; 16, 5 2 9 12; 6
Water 1.6 2 29 .
3.2 4. . 10. 11.2 12 .22 1 2 16.4, 3. 4. Wll wlled 1. 3. 7; .; 8.5; 6 10. 25 11.2 1. 5 13.2 9 2 Wsdm wse 1 29 3. . 11 .2 13.2 6 14. Wtness 1.3; 4.2 13.2
Sureme Gd Sureme Gdness (o d) 1.9 1.9 26 26 gon, cf od) .26 4.5 9 6.4; .3; 85; 10.9 2 11. 2 2
Wrd (logo, c Lanage Seech 29 Teachng) 1.5 2 29 2. 2 ., 3 34; 4; ; 8; ; 10.
2 11. 5 1. 2 2 13. 9 9 2 16. Wrsh, 2. . 1.2 14. 1
1.2 2 13.2 9 14. 9
Surrender, 1.226
8
Introduction Te Denitions of Hemes ismegistus to Aslepius have been maly preserved n an Armenan translaton whch most lkely dates the second pa of the sxth century Snce soe of the aphosms contaned n the Denitions seem have been now to the author of Poimanes (H 1), we ay assume that at least the an core of ts collecton3 was already extant n the rst centu Many other parallels wth the opus Hemetium the Excerpts of Stobaeus and varous hermetc fragments suggest that the Denitions ether antedate ost of the hermetc phlosophcal wrtngs whch have reached us or at least do not depend rectly on them The man reason why we cannot possbly assume the reverse (.e. that a later wrter has compled the Denitions by pckng up varous sentences fro the other hermetc works)4 s that most oen one and the sae sentence of the Denitions smultaneously appears (albet wth derent wordng) n more than one hermetc text whch would be unlkely f each of these sentences had been borrowed searately om one partcular wrtng A early date mght also be assumed for our collecton of aphorsms wth regard to the clarty of ts style and the rmness of ts thought In our eton of the Coptc ad Armenan translatons of heetc wtngs n 192 several clues led us to suggest that the most ancent hermetc phlosophcal wrtngs were collected aphorss such as the Sayngs of Agathos aon' of whch only sho agments have been preseved (cf H 1025 1219) BeyondDH one ofthese collectons s stll exant n H 1 1 to the use of such colle
The Denons
nodon
ithr lnkd up n ar anthr wth cnjunctins, r cm mntd upn r wrkd int a myth r a prayr.6 Fin yars ar this ditin, w wd put th mphasis nt nly n th mnmnic rl f th sntncs and thir impact n th fatin f htic philsphica litratur, but mr than vr n thi us as spirtual xrciss aimd at dvlping th mntal facultis f th subjct. 7 Sinc tism is nt a phlsphical systm but a spiritual way, th main pus f htic litratur is nt t st ut thrtical taching ut t bring abut spitual prgrss, t rais th individual fm th ralm f th matrial bdis (including his wn sh) mad ut f th fur lmnts, bynd th intllignc f this vsibl wrld, th svn plan f rrr and th astral gds, much abv th ighth r vn th ninth sphr,8 up t th suprm Gd, wh is Nos and pur, ndss and incrpral light. This gal· can b rachd by succssivly dvlping thr fac ultis: knwldg nss rasnabl spch (logos and mind (nos Knwldg is basically a spiritual awakning and a cnvrsin. It cnsists in bliing that th suprm Gd wants t b knwn and can indd b knwn by ths wh ar wrthy f im It is gaind by payng hd t hmtic prachng and by iving piusly apa frm th crwd. Rasnabl spch is a thrtica apprach t th structur f th wrld and th dirnt kinds f bings, frm th suprm Gd dwn t th lwst crpral thngs. It is gand by radng htic txtbks such as th Genel Lees and th Deled Lees (whch ar n lngr xtant), r by llwing a gradual curs f htic ducatin. Nos is nthing lik a faculty f abstract rasnng. It is much akin t intuitin r imanatin It quats t sight, inasmuch as it ncmpasss vrythng at nc, vn Gds innit ssnc It is bth spiritual light and nightnmnt. It can b ralisd by spcial philsphc dsciplins and ssntialy thrugh mystic initia tin3 Nw ths disciplins ncssarly dmand th activ cpratin f th discipl. Th mastr can st ut an ida r pint at a dirctin. But th discipl will hav t mditat by himslf, t wrk n his wn sul, and rval his wn nos by availing himslf f th taching dlivrd t hi as a plain inst�mnt. That cannt pssibly b prfmd at nc, but rquirs gradual
rt,fr which hrmtic aphrsms can prvd th mst cint gidanc Fr unlik hc diaus aphrisms d nt tll a s, nr d thy dal with n particuar issu r st ut a cntnuus n ing. Quit th rvrs thy purpsly bar th stamp f disnnui. Whi mastr dlivrs a lctur, discpl ct ssibly stp d mi by hims must lisn up t th nd. That nd f acing is apprprat fr snhning scnd mntal faculty, asnabl spch (logos But Nos rqurs snc d mdin, which c k plac in btwn tw snncs. Our Denons adquatly dscrib that kind f mntal spch whch pnctuats silnt mdtatin: Whn yu kp silnt, yu ndrstand whn yu tak, yu just tk Sinc Nos cncivs spch in siln, nly that spc which cms m silnc and Nos is salvatin (H 51). Indd ths Denons as a whl can b rgard as a gnral utln f hmtic spirtua xrciss aimd at dvlping individual nos and makng th discipl why f undrging mystic initiatin Sinc mind is an intuitiv r cntmplativ faculty, th discipl wh wants t strnhn his mind shld rst f all l t s, r cntmplat (hessh heos Gd. Many xrciss dsignd fr this purps.4 All fthm rst n th sam principl Pur prcptin prcivs th uanifst, as it is itslf als unmafst If yu ar strng nugh, wil appar t th y f Nos 0 Tat Fr th Lrd appars in is bunty thrughut th whl uivrs. Can yu s pur prcptin and tak hld f it with ths hands and cntmplat th imag f Gd? But if yu cann s what is wthin, hw can Gd wh is himslf wthin yu appar t yu trugh yur ys? (CH 5.). By prprly dircting hs mind, man can hav a vsin f th imag f Gd whch can b sn thrugh th whl csms. In fact this imag is twfld, fr Gd has tw imags wld and man Z 10) Cnsquntly, ur Denons rst st ut th cr spndnc f th tr wrlds, Gd, man and csms (DH 1) which prvids th basis fr mntal cntmplatin Thn th htic wrtr fcuss n th rst imag, i. th matral wld (DH 2 whch is patd with din prsnc (DH ) Evntualy h passs n t th scnd imag, man, whm h rst lcats amng th thr lving bings accrdng t hs mntal facultis (DH ). Th mst minnt fculty is Nos which gvs rasn
0
0
The enitions
Intodction
able spech, its servnt and its iterpreter (H . Thanks to Nos and speech, man gains the prvlege of raising his eyes to heaven and ovecoming hs moa conition H 6 . The immora species (being) which is in him endows him with cosmic ubiquity and vouches for his immortaity (H . Meanwhie he is submitte to atural aw, but he can even in this life become a god (# . Moreover he is the ony creature who knows the supreme God. H may iv in union with Him, free om fear, and car out His Wi (H 9 The colection ends wth a series of sentences conceng the good and ev actity of both the morta and immortal (H 1.16. The res of the text is spurioUS.I5 The dynamic of contempation normally requires that we do not dwel on th visib things but rather pass on the inner word We do not need a concrete sio, focussed on appearance and matera detais, but a spirtua one, where imagination tres to apprehend th� invisibe beyond the corporea. This may be easier when we rach to our innermost expeence. But hermetism has worked out a method which enables us go much rther by transcening the limi that we aways set between us and the othr, inside ad outside, present, past and ture, our invidua being and the immensity of the uverse This method which is caed 'becoming in (etea), is most vvidly described in CH 111-1 and 13.11 but our enitions clearly contain quite a range of sentences which may help the reader get rid of the imts of common consciousness by constanty transcending concrete exstence through comparsons or analo gies, which sta with most trivia experiences (ust as ) and end in spiritua insights into mystic beief ('likewise ') Thus we are encouraged to experiment with the wonder mobility of human beings who, tnks to their threefod essence inteigibe, animated and matera (H 6) - are not conned to oe part of the universe (eg ike shes in the sea or gods in heaven), bt e 'at once in eah, in the sea, and in heaven (CH 11. Not Y can humaind push away the barriers of space but they also can escape the bondage of time by picturing to themseves the dawn of existence in the womb, or even sou before entering the body and aer eaing it (H 6.-3; .3- Ts knd of meitatiQn is nothing ike mere fancy. On the contra is a way of seeing the invsible, of anticipating the Great Beyod, a real training for immoaity.
ndeed becoming immo is just a matter of ou can even become a god you want, for it is possibe. Therefore want nd undestand d beeve and ove: then you have become it !' (H edom if ever have the basic intuitions of heetism been expressed with such a concentrated strength The enitions are perhaps at once the painest and the deepest of a hermetic writings We can read it as a mere rsum of eementa teaching. Most of the heetic diaogues take up the same sentences and comment upon them at the logos- which is but the second stage of the way to immoraity. Rarey do they go one step her and reval to us the spiritua meaning of the text. t is no surprise that at east one sentence of this collection aso occurs in the Gospel of Thomas. Both texts comprise sacred say igs and secret teachings meant t strike imagination and to srongy impress their reader. Moreover we could venture to assert that, in regard to the other hermetic writings, the enitions aost in te same position as the Gospel of Thomas with regard to the four Gospes. n both cases, we have the aphorisms by themseves on the one hand, and sayings worked into a reasoned account or aative on the other. The !robem is whether the sto is missing because it does not yet exist (or it is unknown to the compier) or quite on the contra, because it has been purpose y rued out. We can aso asse the compason for essentia reasons. Just as some gnostic writer may have thought that the earthy ife or even the human and ethnic identity of Jesus, the Living One, was a mere accident or maybe an iusion, whereas s words conveyed etea tth and uversa savation, so that their purity must be preserved, wrapped up in sience (instead of bing swamped by a mass of irreevat tais, such as to know whether this word has been uttered in Jerusaem or in Capeaum, etc.), ikewise th hermetic author of our text seems to have deliberately eiminated al knd of commentary in order to ree his readers from the heaviness of abstract reasoning, to raise them above space and time and to hand over to them the ve essence of meditation. You do not easiy forget such a text. ermetic sentences get mystri ously cared in your memory They are sti at work on your mind even when you do not think of them. For it dwes in those who have aready seen it and draws them upward, just as they sy a magnet draws up iron (CH 1 1
1
1
The Defnitions
Intrduction
*
1. The rst Armenian writers who quote this translation are the historian EF Vardapet who c be paced 'i the last decade of t¥ sixth cent or ater (Thomson 1982 p. 27); the anonymous Yaeaxpatum, a coection ofhomilies whose date is not precisely known, although inter_
nal evidence also points to he sixth centu; and Anania Sirakac'i who wrote his Knnikon (Quadivium) between 661 and 667 (cf E vol 2, p 336 s.) Paramelle-Mah (990-9), pp 5-7 (nn 2 an ,a) , The Armenia veion belongs to the so-called Helesg schoo whose activities seem to have taken place from the early sixth centu to the ea eighth HE vol 2, pp 3278) Teians hypothe �is (Tean 82, p 83) ie 570-3, accepted by Fowden 86 p 10, Wthout any dcsion, seems tolate 2. Compae eg D 4 'G is Nous' wih C 6; D 63 'the pefection of soul is the knowledge of the bengs with C 3; D 73 soul enters the body from the light to darkness with C 20; D 84 'Eve man h got a bod and a soul but not eve soul has got Nous' with C 22; D 2 Nous is light and light is Nous with C 7; D 94 oever thinks of himself in Nous knows himself and whoever knows hmself knows te whole wi C 18 Ths last paralle was t ommented upon b G Quispel in a paper read in QuebecCity in 978 (QuispeI 98 , p 26 0) A similar sentence can aso be found i the Gospel of Thomas (Nag Hammadi Codex , 5, 90) and in the Book of Thomas the Athlete (ibid 38, 7 Camplani (993, p 420) adduces other para lels (including Plato, Alcibiades Mor 30E) and obsees that nothing preven us from assuming as well that C and D might ave known the sentence independently om each other That would be deed most likely, if there were no other parallels between the two witings t would take too long to discuss here in minue detail the date of Poimandres (C ) Despite contra opinions in recent works, we cannot see any cogent reason for placing this writing much later than A 115 3 Colections of aphorisms normally are iable to additions and inter polations Thus we might suspect that D 07 is a later addition, as Drie (1957, p 446) had already assumed ndeed that paragraph is identical to S 191, which, in tu, is much akin to S 1522 These excerp cearly bear the stamp of the socaed pnematic : medical school witnesse by the Medical Denitions ofPsGalianus whch cannot have beenextant before the third centu A (N, vol 3, p cxiii, E, vo 2, p 329) n addition, we might object that some sentences of D 2 (con ceing the elements) or of D 0 are also close to S 1519 A to D 1 see below, n 20 4 This seems to be what Fowden (1986, p 0) assumes, when he writes that 'the Denitions oer an interesting parale to the dismembement ofthe Peect Discourse duing the prehisto of Nag Hammadi Codex V'. 5 E vo 2, pp 30-2 n 982, the Demotic B�k of Thoh a pehemetic dialoue discovered in 1993 by KTh and Rcard Jasnow was stil unknown t is noteworthy that work contas a short collection of Thoths precepts entitled The Little Book of Advice. Although none of those precepts are directl echoe b any Greek her metic aphoism it ma conm our assumpton ( Whh has been sharply citicied by G Fowden 986, pp 7-2) that Greek hermetic posohi� literature is closel connected ith Greek hermet gnomologes whch
10
107
The Armenian verson of the Defnitions was rst publshed by H. Manandyan i 195, on the bss of six manuscripts of Yerevan, along wth a Russan translaton by S Arevatyan.6 In 197 we translated Manandyan's te nto French and we provded our translaton wth numerous parallels drawn om the other her metc wrt�ngs. Somehow later durng the same year, quite ndependently from ours, appeared another French translaton by G.M. e urand.8 Eventually we had access o other Armenan manuscpts kept n Vence, Venna Jerusalem nd Yerevan. We also scovered that DH 10. 7 was dentical to H 19. 1 andDH 1 1 was nothngbut an abrdged rewrtng of the Armean verson of Neesus, ch 5 Moreover we tred to compare the Armean wth other collectons and e rased the queston of the Eptan background. Therefore we prepared a new crtcal text, aong wth a revised translaton and commenta whch was ncluded n 192 n our edton of new hermetc documents. metme n 19 J. Paramelle dscovered excerpts from the Greek ognal of the te n the codex Clarkanus 1 1 of the Bodlean Lbrary n Oxford. The same codex also contaned other heetc excerpts ncludng some agment of a thus far unknown treatse On Soul. l ofthese materals were eted n 1991 The purpose of the present translaton s ve modest. It just ams at puttng together all of these textual data. The talcsed paragraphs represent the Greek excerpts as we have reconstructed them. n these passages we dd not deem t necessa to bracket such shor segments wich are presered oly n Armenian, snce the reconstructon s vually cean. For ts and other crtcal ssues, we smply efer to the 1991 editon. The commenta s qute succnct Except for some plosophcal remarks, t s I mere lst of references to the most obvous hermetc parallels to the text. Notes
The Defnitions
t bear the inuence of Eptian Wisdoms or instuctions (Mah 996' pp 3589) 8. vol 2, pp 408-36 ' 7. A to the notion of spiritual exercises ' we mainly refer to Hadot 99 S This is the purpose of the initiation described in vol pp 6287) 9. On the hermetic way see Mah 99a 10. Me�tioned in the reverse order (nous, logos gnsis) i.e from top to bottom 10 N V, 6333649 (cf Mah 99a p 350). 11. Mah 99a pp 3505. 12. bid pp. 3556 13 bid pp 366 See above n 8 14 The main texts ( 06; 4; 22 490 are commented . vol 2 pp 2090 upon 10 15 Cf above n 3 and below n 9 1 ManandyanArevatyan 956 17 Mah 976 IS. De Dan 976 19. vol 2 pp 33-2 20 vol 2 pp 273406 21 . ParamelleMah 99 d 99 n the latter (p 23) we have dIcussed whether (which dplays many similarities with 8 20 whereas 9 is quote in 07) has any litera connectio Ith n fact 10 the mcpt Clarkianus the excerp om are separated from th a short quotation of 64 Moreover although also cl des some denitions its contents as a whole ounds more le a contuous reasoning than like aphorisms Therefore if any connectn has ever existed between the two texts' it can be only seconda and accidental. '.
From Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius: Defnitions
1
,
1 God: an ntellgble world; world: a sensible God; man: a de structible world; God: an immovable world; heaven: a movable world; man: a reasonable world. Ten there are three worlds. 3 Now the immovable world (s) God, and he reasonable world is man: for both of (these) units (are) one: God and man aer the speces4 2 Consequently (there are) tree worlds on the whole: two uts (make up) the sensble and one (s) the ntelligble; one (s) aer the speces, and the tird one (s) aer (ts) llness5 All of the multple (belongs to) the tree worlds two of them (a) vsble: (namely) the sensible and man, (that) destructible world; and the intelligible is this God:6 he s not vsible, but evident withn the visble (thngs)7
3. Just as soul keeps up the gureS (whle being) wthin the body, whic cannot possbly be constituted wthout a soul, lkewse all of that visible cannot possibly be constituted wthout the nvisble 9 4. Now man s a small oldO because of soul and breath, and a
perfect world whose agntude does not exceed the sensible god, (ie ) the world The world (s) ntellgble and God (s) Nous; (he s) the truly uncreated, the intelligible; by essence, the uncreated and the neable, the ntellgible good In a word, God is the intellgble world, the immovable Monad, the nvsble world, the intelligible, nsible and neable good.4 . J
/
108
God is eteal and uncreated; an s moal (although) he is ever-lving 5 5
109
Fom Hemes Tsmegstus to Asclepus Dentons
Fom Hemes smegstus to Asclepus Dentons
womb, lkewse, when you have gone out ofthe body, you wll be stll moe excellent 75
1 Reasonable) speech5 s the sevant of Nous 53 Fo what Nous wants, speech n tun ntepets 5 Nous sees everythng55 and eyes all corporeal (thngs56 And yet Nous does not become an obserer or the eyes but the eyes or Nous 2 o N nothng s ncomprehensble57 to speech nothng neable58 when you keep slent you understand;5 when you talk you ust talk nce Nous conceves speech n slence60 only (that speech (whch comes o slence and Nous (s salvaton6 (But that speech (whch comes rom speech (s only perdton; or by (hs body man s moal but by speech (he s mmoal6 3. Who does not understand speech has no Nous, who talks without Nous says nothng:63 snce he understands nothng, he has no N and he talks, for hs talk s a crowd and a crowd has nether Nous nor (reasonable) speech. Speech endowed wth Nous s a gi of God;65 speech without Nous is a nding of man.66 Nobody sees heaven and what (s) theren, but only man67 Only man has Nous and speech.68
6
1 Just as the gods are God's possesson (so s man too; and man's possesson s the world6 there were nobody to see (t what would be seen would not even exst70 Only man understands the ntellgble (thngs and sees the vsble or they are no alens to hm 7 Man has at once the two natues, the motal and the mmo
tal one) 7 Man has the thee essences, namely) the ntellgble, the anmated and the mateal one) 73
2 Just as you went out ofthe womb, lkewse you wll go out of ths body just as youwll no longe ente the womb,7 lkewse you wll no loe ente ths mateal body Just as, whle be n the womb, you dd not know the hngs whch ae) n the wold, lkewse when you ae outsde the body, you wll not know the bengs that ae) outsde the body Just as when you have gone out of the womb, you not emembe the thgs whch ae) n te
The pesent thngs) follow close upon the past, and the futue close upon) the pesent 7 Just as the body, once t has ganed peecton n the womb, goes out,77 lkewse the soul, once t has ganed peecton, goes out of the body Fojust as a body, ft goes out of the womb whle t s stl mpeect can nethe be fed no gow up, lkewse f soulgoes out ofthe body wthout havng ganed pefecton t s mpeect and lacks a body but the pefecton of soul s the knowledge of the bengs78 Just as you wll behave towads you soul when t s) n ths body, lkewse t wll behave towads you79 when t has gone out of the body Contan yoursel 0 rsmegsts! 7
L But now what s man? What (else nether body nor soul?8
Aye dear Asclepus who (ever s not soul s nether Nous nor body For (one thng s what becomes the body o man and (another thng what comes n addton to man hen what should be called truly a man8 0 Asclepus and what s man? he mmoral speces o every man 2 And ofeve lvng beng) <s only) n one pat of the wold,> but the sole speces of man s) at once n heaven, on eath, n the wate and n the a 8 Just a the body s mavellously moulded n the womb,85 lkewse the soul n the body 3. Fom the muk nto lght the body goes out ofthe womb, but soul entes the body om the ght nto dakness8 The sght of the body s the e but that of soul s Nous Just as a body whch has got) no eyes sees nothng, lkewse a soul whch has got) no Nous s blnd87 Whateve the abe) n the womb wll cave fo, so wll the pegnant woman dese the same lkewse whateve ous) n soul wll cave fo, so wll man dese the same 4 Soul entes the body by necessty,88 Nous entes) soul89 by juement Whle beng outsde the body soul (has nether
qualty nor quantty; (once t s n the body t receves as an
11 2
1 13
Fom eme imegiu o Aclepiu Deniion
Fom eme imegiu o Aclepiu Deniion
accident,92 quality and quantity as well as good and eil : for matter bngs about such (things).93
the incorporeal (things)111 and the light of the ivisible112 The generous nature of ths (world) teaches all (the beings)113 If it seems to you that nothing is a vain work, you will nd the work and the crasman,114 if it seems to you (like) a mocke, you will be mocked at115
5 d is within himself, the world is in God, nd man in the wold. His (ie man's) deciency is ignorance, his plentude is the knowledge of God. [ X He says that evil (consists) in ignorance and good in knowledge Q9 ] 8
1 . All (beins) cannot possibly exceed their own capacity97 Nature is eveone of the beings of this (world);98 there is a law which is in heaven above destiny, and there is a destiny whch h come into being according to a just necessity; there is a law wch has come into being accordin to the necessity of humans, there is a god who has cme into being according to human opinion.
2 Divne bodies do not have access paths for sensations, for they have sensations wthin themselves, and (what is more) they are themselves their own sensations1 hat God does, ma does not do it; and whatever God does, he does it for man; but what man does, he does it for soul 101 Those who worship idols (worship plain) pictures For if they
�orshpped with knowledge, they would not have gone astray, but Snce they do not know how they should worship, they have gone astray, (far) om piety02 Man has the faculty ofilling,103 God of giving life 4. Te boy inceae an eace peecion ue o naue an oul ll up wi Nou 105 Eve man a a boy an a oul, bu no eve oul a NOU Conequenly ee ae wo ype o Nou the one (is) divie07 an e oe elo o) oul Neveele ee ae ceain men wo no ave even a of OU
Who(ever) understands the body, also understands soul who(ever) understands soul, also (understands) Nous, because the admirable is (a) natural (object) of contemplation each of the two is seen by mens of the other
5 Nature is the mirror of tth; the latter is at once the body of
114
6 You have the power of getting ee since you have been given
evething.116 Nobody envies yoU7 Everything came into being for you, so that by means of either one (being) or of the whole, you may understand the crasman For you have the power19 of not understanding with your (own) will; you have the power oflacking faith and being misled, so that you understand the contra of the (real) beings Man has as much poer as the gods Only man (is) a ee liing (being), only he has the power of good nd evil . You do not have the power of becoming immoal ; neither does, indeed, the immoal (have the power) of dying120 You can even become a god if you want, for it is possible121 Teefoe wan an unean an believe an love en you ave become )!22
1 Eve man a a noion of : fo ife i a man, e alo know Go Eve man, by e ve fac) a e a go) a noin of Go, i a man, 2 fo i i no given) o eve man o ave uc a) noion Man an e go an all i exi) by Go an becaue ofman Go i eveing2 an ee i noi ouie Go, even a wic oe no i ince a o Go, e i no uc i, even one ingle <a e i no imel25 Man come) om anoe man, e go exi) becaue ofGo 126 Man exi) becaue of Go eveing becaue of man 27 Go ule ove man man ove e wole 1 2 Te exeio ing) ae uneoo by e enal ogan) e e ee e exeio i), an Nou e ineio2 Te exeio ing) woul no i, if ee wee no e ineio one) Weeve Nou i), ee i lig fo Nou i lig an lig ) Nou Woeve) a Nou i enligene2 an woeve) a no Nou i epive of lig
U
Fom Hms Tismgistus to Ascpius Dnitions Whov knows God, dos not fa 33 whov) dos not know God fas God Whov) knows non of th bings fas von whov) knows a of thm fas non 134
Souls illness sadness and joy35 souls passions: desire and opion136 Bodies are similar to souls when they are seen none (is) ugly (ifit is) good none is evil (if t is) honest Everything is visible to one who has Nous who(ever) thinks of himself in Nous knows himself and who(ever) knows himself knows evething137 Evething is within man. 5 Whov) bhavs w towads his body, bhavs bady towads hims8 Just as th body, without a sou, is a cops, ikwis sou, without Nous, is int Once a soul has entered the body it (soul) will acquire Nous139 That which does not acquire (it) goes out such as it had entered For eve soul before enterng te body is deprived of No us then Nous joins it from the body so that eventually te soul becomes endowed with Nous4 That (soul) hich has gone out of the human body has (got) an ill memory for soul (even) covered with the body is forced to remember its (soul's) unforgetfulness One change is unforgetul and (another) change brings about forgetfulness. 6 er(ever) man is also (is) God God does not appear to anybody but man141 Because of man God changes and turns into the form of man142 God is manloving and man is Godloving There is an anity between God and man God istes only to man and man God43 God is worthy of worship man is worthy of admiration44 God does not appear without man man is desir able to God and God to man because desire comes from nowhere but from ma and God. 7 Humans workhe land145 (and) stars ado heaven.146 The gods have heaven humans 147 earth and sea but the air is common o gods and humans
Fom Hms ismgistus to Ascpius Dnitions (but) el is conspicuous50 What is a female? A receptive uidity5 What is a male? A seminal uidty.
2 Nature in man is omniform5 and (it is) an energy153 endowed with all quaities (whose) force (is) invisible and eects (are) cnspicuous. A energy is a movement154 Matter is a wet essence55 a body is a agglomoration of matter. 56 . Nous (is) in soul and nature (is) in the body Nous (is) the maker of sou and soul (the maker) of the body.57 Nous (is) not in all ul58 but nature (is) in all body.59
The immoal nature (is) the movement of the orta nature 160 (as to) mortality eah is its grave ) heaven (is) the place of the immoal6 The immortal came into being because of the moal but the moa comes ito being by means of the immortal.6 Evil is a deciency of good 163 good (is) fullness of itself. 164 5 Soul is bound to be born in this wold but Nous is superior to the world65 Just as Nous is unbegotten so is matter too (although) it (can be) divided. Nous is unbegotten and matter (is) dvsible soul is threefold66 and matter has three pas167 generation68 (is) in soul and matter (but) Nous (is) in God for the generation of the immoal (beings). 6 Providence and Necessity169 (are) in the moral birh and death70 and in God unbegotten (essence). The immoral (beings) gree with one another and the mortal envy one another with jealousy17 because evil envy arises due to knowing death in advance. The immortal does what he always does but the moal does what he has never done Death if understood is immoraity17 if not understood (it is) death They assume that the moal (beings) of ts (wod) have fallen under (the domion) of the immortal but (in reality) the immortal are servants of the mortal of this (world)73
1. What is good? What bears no comparison.48 Good is invisible �49
[7 Thfo sou is an immota ssnc 7 tna, intctiv, having, as an intctua thought), its ason ndowd with Nous By undstanding natu, it attacts75 to itsf th intct of h panta) hamony7 thn, onc it is dom this natua body,
1 16
1 17
1
Fo Hees isegisus o Aslepius eniions i eains alone wi isel an) is gieve belongig only o isel in e inelligible wol I ules on is eason77] Notes
(s Biliography and Abbrations on p. 12) 1 H 8.1; c 8,0. 2 11.2; f H 2.8; 10. 11; SH 11.2,48. H 10.14; SH 11.2,6; f H 8. . tesak eidea I idea in H 8,1 may be the 'essential part of man 5 The world is full f c 33. In other ontexts God is fullness f.
H 16.3; . 26; H 6.1,4.
6 ie t he isible world 7 H 5.1; 14.3. 8 tesak literly speies f H 1.1. H 5.1. 10 ie a mirosm c Firmius Mateus athesi III proem 24; Olympiodorus (Berthelot-Ruelle p 100, line 18.); atomathematia (!deler 1841 p 387). 11 H 1.6. 12 H 2.12.
. H 1.31. 1 H 11.2; 2.1416; 6. 15 Cf 6.67,29-30; aeizos normally applies to the world (H 4.2; 8.2). 16 H 4.9, and H 10.1. 17 SH 3.4; H 12.1. 18 H 2. 11 ; . 7; f SH 2A.2; 24.9; 26.14. SH 16.3; 26.8. 20 Cf SH 24.9; 26.13-30. 21 SH 26.29. 22 Cf SH 15.7. . H 11.4; SH 11.2,43. H 55 SH 25.11. 26 H 11.7; . 2; SH 11.2,42; f H 12.17. 27 SH 11.2,45. 28 SH 15.2. 29 Cf H 16.8; H 12.22; 8.4. FH 27. 1 FH 32; SH 15.2; H 1.5; 3.1-2. 2. yautwn diamon, as in the old Armenian version of Philo H 10.4. H 11.7.
1 1
o Hees isegisus o Aslepius eniions . SH 19.7. . H 5.10. The following is pehaps a gloss of the ompiler; see n 39. 37 Some manusp add: and where is the wold G (is) too . heaven (is) aording to some manuip Likely a gloss of the ompiler (see H 7.5)
H 2.5,6. . H 6.2. H 6.8; f FH 32. SH 26.30. SH 2A.1-2. H8.1. . SH 20.4. . H 13.13. H 4.11; 12.18. H 10.11. . Conra to H 12.12. 51 35. 4
52 ie logos 'eason speeh disourse 53 H 9.1. 54 9.10. 55 H 13.13.
SH 1.2 ; H 7.2.
57 H 10.5. 58 H a 59 H 1.31. 6
H 1.30.
61 H 13.1. 62 H 1.15.
H 10.9. H 9.4. 65 H 10.9. H 4.4-5. 67 H 4.3; f H 10.25; 12.19, 20; . 6. 68 H 4.2; . 41.
sta 'possesion ksis an ao mean 'eatue ktisis Some manusripts lose to F pntuate the text dierently fom the end of 5.3 up to the rst sentene of 6.1: Only man has Nous and speeh (6.1), just like the gods Man (is) a possession of G and the world a possession of man This might make sense But in a wide hermeti ontext we an hardly admit that man shares the pivilege of No with the (astal) gods Indeed we ead in 6.67,12-15 that unlike man gods are depived ofgnsis and epist� (siene) 70 Cf H 10.4. 71 Cf H 4.9; 13.3. 72 H 1. 15; . 7.22; H 6.67,32-4. 73 H 10.13.
1 19
From Hermes Tsmegstus to Asclepius: Defnitons 74 CH 11.20 13.11. 75 So Greek The Arenian reads: You will reeber nothing of
what (belongs) t it', which ay b better. 78 So Greek he Arenin reads: 'A those who care for the present (things) the future (ones) follow close upon the present. This dierence lkely due to a isreading of the Greek text ronoousi instead ofproousi). 77 So Greek. The Aenian reads the chld, once it has ganed perfection, goes out of the wob; child' is sure t be wong when we copare wt the next sentence. 7 CH 1.3. 79 Cf. CH 10.21. SO Cf. CH 1.22. May be if not body and soul. 2 The essential an of CH 1.15 (cf. AscI. 7; CH 9.5) ie. an intelligi ble essence, which DH understands as a fo or a speces. 8 eidea idea cf. DH 1.1. 8 We recostuct here the Greek text aer CH 12.20 see Paraelle Mah 1990-91 . 123 n. 12. 5 CH 6 10.4 14.9 HHE, vol p 294. . r. CH 1.21 7.2 SH 23.34. 7 CH 10B. =
SH 6 9 CH 11.4 12.13. 9 krisin c CH 10.11 the Aenian reads bnutiwn husin), whch ay be a coruption of knnutiwn nearly equvalent to krisin. 9 CH 13.3. 92 r CH 9.9 SH 26.13. 9 CH 1 94 CH B 95 CH 10.B9. . Perhaps a gloss of the Arenian translator. I n edieval Arenian anuscrptsXnormally eans star' and Q sinner'. (For the dea that sins are provoked by astral deons see CH 16.15-16 9.3 SH 6.11.) 97 CH 12.7 SH 1.1 9 Or according to soe anuscripts Eve being in this (world has a nature'. 9H0 2.1. SH 4.19 CH 9.B. Aenian anjin ght also ean for hsel. 2 Ascl. 37 N 6.69,2932. 3 Cf SH 23.5362. 4 So n Greek. Aenian decreases, whch is dentcal to SH 11.2,23. 5 CH 10.23. CH 1024.
120
From Hermes Tismegistus to Asclepus Defnitons 7 Arenian aranawor should be corrected into astuacawor in accordance with Greek theios. CH 10.23. 9 CH 12.2. CH 17. ibid SH 2.1-2 15. 2 CH 7.2 c CH 10.21 3 CH 1.27 cr SH 1.29. 4 CH 4.2. 5 Ascl. 12 (aliis forsitan idetu r deridendum). 8 CH 1120. 7 CH 4.3 cf CH ; 16.5 SH 6.1. CH 12.8 16.3. Ascl.1.2 etc. 9 SH 18.3. 2 SH 11.2,30. 2 Ascl. 6. 22 CH 11.20. 23 CH 4.2. 24 CH 10 25 Cf CH 5.9 and Paaelle-M 199091 p.127 n.16 for the
reconstuction of this dicult passage. 28 HO 5.12. 27 SH 11.2 7. 2 Ascl.10. 29 SH 1.2 CH 7.2 0 Cf. DH 6.1. CH 1.17. 2 CH 12.3. CH 11.21. 34 CH B 35 SH 4.22. 38 CH 12.3 cf. N 6.671012. 37 r the whole' cf CH LIB. 3 CH 46 l.12. 39 CH 4.3. 4 CH 10 4 CH 12.19 42 FH 1 43 NH 6.6B612 Ascl. 22. 44 Asl. 6. 45 Asl. 8 cf. CH 3.34. 48 SH 6.12. 47 Cf. CH 10.25 for ths reconstructon, and DH 1 4 CH 6 49 SH 9 5 CH 4.9 lin Maybe coo cf SH A6 1 2
From Hermes ismegistus to Asclepius: Denitions 152. CH . 6; SH 64; c Ascl. 9-3 on G Pantomorphos 15. SH 46. 15. SH .. 155. CH 0. 158 Cf SH . ; 6.67. 5. C . 15. CH 4.3; Ascl 7 ; c DH .4. 15. SH 6.3. 18. Ascl. 30 c CH 181 Cf SH , 4. 182. Cf SH ., 3. 18. CH 6.3. 18. CH 6.4. 185 gerhik = huperkosmios easonable, unreasonable and sensible (f HO , 4). 18 Ma be three dimensions, f CH 3.3 18. bnut'iwn husis) means here generation (not nature) 8 CH 4; f SH , 3, 4. 1. SH 4. 11 DH 3.; CH 9.3 and DH 6 12. 676,46; Ascl. 7; f SH .,3; CH .. 1. Cf DH 6-7. '4 DH 0.7 is an addition identical to SH 9. , wch we translate here fr the Greek as reconstructed in HHE, vol. 2, p. 329. 15. epispatai (not epistatai as in the model ofthe Armenian version, git). 18. CH .4 1. The text is incomplete Then follows, in some Armenian manuscripts, an addition drawn from Nemesius ch. (H .-6; cf. HHE, vol. , pp 33, 40-)
122
Biliography and Abbreviations Asc. = Asclepius (Latin adaptation of DP) in ol and HHE ol CH Corpus Hermeticum -4 and 6-7 in this edition CH does not exist DH Dnitions dHerms ismgiste Asclpius (in Armenian transla tion) inHHE ol , andJ Paramelle andJP Ma, 99B,Revuedes Etus Aniennes (9909) , pp 34, for the Gree fraents FH Fgmenta Heetica: FH 036 in ol 4 HHE = JP Mah, Herms en HauteEgypte ols (Qube, 97; 9) H Hermetica Oxoniensia 4 J Paramelle and JP Mah, 99, Revue des Etudes Gcques, 04 (99), pp 0939 -3 = Copti odies of Nag ammadi, ontaining the following 6 (pp ,63,3), LOgdoade et lEnnade hermeti writin: (E ol ); 6 (pp 63,33-6,7), Pri daction de gces (E .); 6 (pp 6,4-7,43), Fgment du Logos Tleios (E vl ) and other writings more or less inuened b hermetism (the titles in italis do not our in the odex) SH Stoaei Hemeica SH - in ol 3; SH 3-9 in ol 4
Berthelot M and uelle, E., Les alchimistes grecs ols 3 (Paris sd) Campla , A, 'iferimenti biblii nella litterata ermetia, Annali di stoia dell esegesi 0/, 993, 374 Copenhaer, BP, Heretica (Cambridge 99) De Durand, GM, 'Un trait hermtique onser en armnien, Revue de IHistoi des Religions 90, 976, pp 7 Drrie, , Der Bote aus dem Matenadaran B 3, Gnomon 9, 97, 44-0 Fowden, G, The Eptian Hermes (Cambridge 96) adot, P, Ecices spirituels et philosophie antique (Pais 9) !deler, JL, Physici et medici geci minos, ol (Berlin 4) Mah, JP 's Dnitions derms rismgiste a Aspius, Revue des Sciences Relieuses 0, 976, 934 Ma, JP 'L oie dimmortalit 8 la lumire des ermetia de Nag ammadi et de douertes plus rentes, Vigiliae Christianae 4, 99, pp 3477 Ma, JP, 'Prelimina remars on the Demoti Bo of hoth and the Gree ermetia, Vigiliae Chistianae 0 996 33 63
n
1
