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Thrice-Greatest Hermes - Volume 1
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Thrice-Greatest Hermes - Volume 1
by G. R. S. Mead
Thrice-Greatest Hermes
Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and 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]
This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1922.
Title Page
Preface
Contents
Poem
I. The Remains of the Trismegistic Literature
II. The History of the Evolution of Opinion
III. Thoth the Master of Wisdom
IV. The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult in the Greek Magic Papyri
V. The Main Source of the Trismegistic Literature According to Manetho, High Priest of Egypt
VI. An Egyptian Prototype of the Main Features of the Pœ mandres’ Cosmogony
VII. The Myth of Man in the Mysteries
VIII. Philo of Alexandria and the Hellenistic Theology
IX. Plutarch: Concerning the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris
Foreword
Address to Klea concerning Gnosis and the Search for Truth
The Art of Knowing and of Divinising
The True Initiates of Isis
Why the Priests are Shaven and wear Linen
Of the Refraining from Flesh and Salt and Superfluities
On the Drinking of Wine
On Fish Taboos
The Onion and Pig Taboos
The Kings, the Riddles of the Priests, and the Meaning of Amoun
Of the Greek Disciples of Egyptians and of Pythagoras and his Symbols
Advice to Klea concerning the Hidden Meaning of the Myths
The Mystery-Myth
The Undermeaning a Reflexion of a Certain Reason
Concerning the Tombs of Osiris
Concerning the Theory of Evemerus
The Theory of the Daimones
Concerning Sarapis
Concerning Typhon
The Theory of the Physicists
Concerning Osiris and Dionysus
The Theory of the Physicists Resumed
The Theory of the Mathematici
The Theory of the Dualists
The Proper Reason according to Plutarch
The Symbolism of the Sistrum
The True “Logos, ” again, according to Plutarch
Against the Weather and Vegetation God Theories
Concerning the Worship of Animals, and Totemism
Concerning the Sacred Robes
Concerning Incense
Afterword
X. ‘Hermas’ and ‘Hermes’
XI. Concerning the Æ on-Doctrine
XII. The Seven Zones and their Characteristics
XIII. Plato: Concerning Metempsychosis
XIV. The Vision of Er
XV. Concerning the Crater or Cup
XVI. The Disciples of Thrice-Greatest Hermes
Preface
These volumes, complete in themselves as a series of studies in a definite body of tradition, are intended to serve ultimately as a small contribution to the preparation of the way leading towards a solution of the vast problems involved in the scientific study of the Origins of the Christian Faith. They might thus perhaps be described as the preparation of materials to serve for the historic, mythic, and mystic consideration of the Origins of Christianity, —where the term “mythic” is used in its true sense of inner, typical, sacred and “logic, ” as opposed to the external processioning of physical events known as “historic, ” and where the term “mystic” is used as that which pertains to initiation and the mysteries.
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The serious consideration of the matter contained in these pages will, I hope, enable the attentive reader to outline in his mind, however vaguely, some small portion of the environment of infant Christianity, and allow him to move a few steps round the cradle of Christendom.
Though the material that we have collected, has, as to its externals, been tested, as far as our hands are capable of the work, by the methods of scholarship and criticism, it has nevertheless at the same time been allowed ungrudgingly to show itself the outward
p. vi
expression of a truly vital endeavour of immense interest and value to all who are disposed to make friends with it. For along this ray of the Trismegistic tradition we may allow ourselves to be drawn backwards in time towards the holy of holies of the Wisdom of Ancient Egypt. The sympathetic study of this material may well prove an initiatory process towards an understanding of that Archaic Gnosis.
And, therefore, though these volumes are intended to show those competent to judge that all has been set forth in decency according to approved methods of modern research, they are also designed for those who are not qualified to give an opinion on such matters, but who are able to feel and think with the writers of these beautiful tractates.
The following abbreviations have been used for economy of space:
C. H. = Corpus Hermeticum.
D. J. L. = Mead (G. R. S. ), Did Jesus Live 100 B. C.? An Enquiry into the Talmud Jesus Stories, the Toldoth Jeschu, and Some 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. Some Short Sketches among the Gnostics, mainly of the First Two Centuries: a Contribution to the Study of Christian Origins based on the most recently recovered Materials (London, 1900; 2nd ed. 1906).
G. = Gaisford (T. ), Joannis Stobæ i Florilegium (Oxford, 1822), 4 vols.; 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” (Κ ό ρ η Κ ό σ μ ο υ ).
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 Pœ mander 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-ä gyptischen und frü christlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1904). Ri. = Richter (M. C. E. ), Philonis Judæ i Opera Omnia, in Bibliotheca Sacra Patrum Ecclesiæ Græ corum (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.
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G. R. S. M.
Chelsea, 1906.
p. viii
p. ix
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