Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906], at sacred-texts.com
Thrice-Greatest Hermes
Studies in Hellenistic Theosophyand Gnosis
Being a Translation of the Extant Sermons and Fragments of the Trismegistic Literature, with Prolegomena, Commentaries, and Notes
By
G. R. S. Mead
Volume I.--Prolegomena
London and Benares
The Theosophical Publishing Society
[1906]
Prepared for sacred-texts.com, January 2009. This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1922.
[p. v]
Preface
THESE volumes, complete in themselves as a series ofstudies in a definite body of tradition, are intended toserve ultimately as a small contribution to the preparation of the way leading towards a solution of the vastproblems involved in the scientific study of the Originsof the Christian Faith. They might thus perhaps bedescribed as the preparation of materials to serve forthe historic, mythic, and mystic consideration of theOrigins of Christianity,--where the term "mythic" isused in its true sense of inner, typical, sacred and"logic," as opposed to the external processioning ofphysical events known as "historic," and where theterm "mystic" is used as that which pertains toinitiation and the mysteries.
The serious consideration of the matter contained inthese pages will, I hope, enable the attentive reader tooutline in his mind, however vaguely, some smallportion of the environment of infant Christianity, andallow him to move a few steps round the cradle ofChristendom.
Though the material that we have collected, has, asto its externals, been tested, as far as our hands arecapable of the work, by the methods of scholarship andcriticism, it has nevertheless at the same time beenallowed ungrudgingly to show itself the outward
[p. vi]
expression of a truly vital endeavour of immenseinterest and value to all who are disposed to makefriends with it. For along this ray of the Trismegistictradition we may allow ourselves to be drawn backwards in time towards the holy of holies of theWisdom of Ancient Egypt. The sympathetic studyof this material may well prove an initiatory processtowards an understanding of that Archaic Gnosis.
And, therefore, though these volumes are intended toshow those competent to judge that all has been setforth in decency according to approved methods ofmodern research, they are also designed for those whoare not qualified to give an opinion on such matters,but who are able to feel and think with the writers ofthese beautiful tractates.
The following abbreviations have been used foreconomy of space:
C. H. = Corpus Hermeticum.
D. J. L. = Mead (G. R. S.), Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.? An Enquiryinto the Talmud Jesus Stories, the Toldoth Jeschu, andSome Curious Statements of Epiphanius: being a Contribution to the Study of Christian Origins (London, 1903).
F. F. F. = Mead (G. R. S.), Fragments of a Faith Forgotten. SomeShort Sketches among the Gnostics, mainly of the FirstTwo Centuries: a Contribution to the Study of ChristianOrigins based on the most recently recovered Materials(London, 1900; 2nd ed. 1906).
G. = Gaisford (T.), Joannis Stobaei Florilegium (Oxford, 1822), 4vols.; Io. Stob. Ec. Phys. et Ethic. Libri Duo (Oxford,1850), 2 vols.
H. = Hense (O.), I. Stob. Anth. Lib. Tert. (Berlin, 1894), 1 vol.,incomplete.
K. K. = "The Virgin of the World" (Kore Kosmoy).
M. = Meineke (A.), Joh. Stob. Flor. (Leipzig, 1855, 1856), 3 vols.;Joh. Stob. Ec. Phys. et Ethic. Lib. Duo (Leipzig, 1860), 2 vols.
P. = Parthey (G.), Hermetis Trismegisti Poemander ad Fidem Codicum Manu Scriptorum recognovit (Berlin, 1854).
Pat. = Patrizzi (F.), Nova de Universis Philosophia (Venice, 1593).
P. S. A. = "The Perfect Sermon, or Asclepius."
[p. vii]
R. = Reitzenstein (R.), Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-agyptischen und fruchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1904).Ri. = Richter (M. C. E.), Philonis Judaei Opera Omnia, in Bibliotheca Sacra Patrum Ecclesiae Graecorum (Leipzig, 1828-1830), 8 vols.
S. I. H. = "The Sermon of Isis to Horus."
W. = Wachsmuth (C.), Io. Stob. Anthologii Lib. Duo Priores . . . Ec. Phys. et Ethic. (Berlin, 1884), 2 vols.
G. R. S. M.
CHELSEA, 1906.
[p. viii]
[p. ix]
Contents
PREFACE
<page v>
I. THE REMAINS OF THE TRISMEGISTIC LITERATURE
<page 1>-<page 16>
Writer and Reader
<page 1>
The Extant Trismegistic Literature
<page 3>
The Original MS. of our Corpus
<page 6>
Texts and Translations
<page 8>
II. THE HISTORY OF THE EVOLUTION OF OPINION
<page 17>-<page 46>
The Chief Points of Interrogation
<page 17>
The Opinions of the Humanists
<page 18>
The First Doubt
<page 20>
The Launching of the Theory of Plagiarism
<page 21>
The Only Argument Adduced
<page 22>
The Theory of Hilgers
<page 25>
The German Theory of Neoplatonic "Syncretismus"
<page 26>
The French Theory of Egyptian Origin
<page 27>
The Views of Menard
English Encyclopaedism
<page 33>
Chambers' Opinion
<page 34>
German Encyclopaedism
<page 35>
A Recent Article by Granger
<page 36>
Reitzenstein and the Dawn of Right Views
<page 40>
A Key to Egypt's Wisdom
<page 44>
The Answers to our Questions
III. THOTH THE MASTER OF WISDOM
<page 47>-<page 81>
Thoth-Tehuti
<page 47>
Thoth according to Pietschmann
<page 48>
The Three Grades of the Egyptian Mysteries
<page 50>
Thoth according to Reitzenstein
<page 51>
Thoth according to Budge
<page 52>
His Deific Titles
<page 53>
His Symbols and Name
<page 54>
The Shrine of Thoth
<page 56>
Thoth and his Company of Eight
<page 57>
The "House of the Net"
<page 58>
Thoth the Logos
<page 63>
The Words of Thoth
Thoth and the Osirified
<page 65>
Thoth the Measurer
<page 66>
The Title "Thrice-greatest"
The Supremacy of Thoth
<page 67>
The Views of a Scholar-Mystic
<page 68>
The Spiritual Nature of the Inner Tradition of Egyptian Wisdom
<page 69>
The Holy Land of Egypt and its Initiates
<page 70>
Thoth the Initiator
<page 71>
Some of the Doctrines of Initiation
<page 73>
The Temples of Initiation
<page 74>
The Mystery of the Birth of Horus
<page 75>
"The Book of the Master"
<page 77>
The Steps of the Path
<page 79>
An Illuminative Study
<page 80>
IV. THE POPULAR THEURGIC HERMES-CULT IN THE GREEK MAGIC PAPYRI
<page 82>-<page 98>
The "Religion of Hermes"
<page 82>
i. An Invocation to Hermes as the Good Mind
<page 84>
ii. An Invocation to Lord Hermes
<page 86>
iii. An Invocation to Lord Hermes
<page 87>
iv. An Invocation to Thoth as Logos
<page 90>
v. An Invocation to Hermes as the Spiritual Light
vi. The Mystic Rite of the Flame
<page 93>
vii. A Prayer of Consecration
<page 97>
V. THE MAIN SOURCE OF THE TRISMEGISTIC LITERATURE ACCORDING TO MANETHO HIGH PRIEST OF EGYPT
<page 99>-<page 127>
Hermes at the Beginning of the Hellenistic Period
<page 99>
Petosiris and Nechepso
<page 100>
Manetho the Beloved of Thoth
<page 102>
The Letter of Manetho to Ptolemy Philadelphus
<page 103>
The Importance of Manetho's Statement in his "Sothis"
<page 105>
Is "Sothis" a Forgery?
<page 107>
The Arguments of Encyclopaedism refuted
<page 108>
The Seriadic Land
<page 110>
The Stelae of Hermes
<page 112>
The Sons of Seth-Hermes
<page 113>
The Epithet "Thrice-greatest"
<page 116>
The Clue of Griffiths
<page 118>
The Earliest Trismegistic Literature
...
egregor.homunculus