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The popular theurgic hermes-cult in the Greek magic Papyri
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IV
THE POPULAR THEURGIC HERMES-CULT IN THE GREEK MAGIC PAPYRI
THE “RELIGION OF HERMES”
That at one period the “Religion of Hermes” was not only widely spread, but practically supreme, in popular Hellenistic circles, may be seen from a study of the texts of the numerous magic papyri which have been preserved, and made accessible to us by the industry of such immensely laborious scholars as Leemans, Dieterich, Wessely, and Kenyon.
The Greek Hermes prayers, as with many others of a similar nature, are manifestly overworkings of more ancient types, and, as we might expect, are of a strongly syncretistic nature. In them we can distinguish in popular forms, based on the ancient traditions of Egyptian magic, most interesting shadows of the philosophic and theosophic ideas which our Trismegistic literature has set forth for us in the clear light of dignified simplicity.
But just as we now know that the once so-called “Gnostic, ” Abraxas and Abraxoid amulets, gems, and rings pertained to the general popular magical religion and had nothing to do with the Gnosis proper, so we may be sure that the circles of high mysticism, who refused to offer to God even so pure a sacrifice as
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the burnt offering of incense, and deemed naught worthy of Him, short of the “prayers and praises of the mind, ” had nothing directly to do with the popular Hermes prayers, least of all with the invocatory rites of popular theurgy, and phylactery or amulet consecration.
Nevertheless, there is much of interest for us in these invocations, and much that can throw side-lights on the higher teaching and practice which transformed all external rites into the discipline of inner spiritual experience.
The following prayers, which, as far as I know, have not been previously translated, are rendered from the most recently revised texts of Reitzenstein, who has omitted the magic names, and emended the previous editions. I cannot but think, however, that these texts might be submitted to a more searching analysis than has yet been accorded them. They seem to present somewhat similar phenomena to the recensions of the Book of the Dead; that is to say, fragments of material from the tradition of a greater past have been adapted and overworked for the needs of a lesser age. Indeed, the whole effort of the Trismegistic schools seems to have been to restore the memory of that greater past; it had been forgotten, and its dim record had become a superstition instead of a living faith, a degenerate magic instead of a potent theurgy. The theurgy of our prayers is that of dwarfs; the theurgy of the past was believed to have been that of giants.
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I. AN INVOCATION TO HERMES AS THE GOOD MIND 1
[Revised text, R. 15-18; Leemans (C. ), Papyri Græ c. Mus. Ant. Pub. Lug. Bat. (Leyden, 1885), II. 141, 14 ff., and V. 27, 27 ff.; Dieterich (A. ), Abraxas (Leipzig, 1891), 195, 4 ff.; and Jahrbü cher f. class. Phil., Suppl. XVI. 808 ff. (Papyrus Mag. Mus. Lug. Bat. ). ]
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1. Come unto me, O thou of the four winds, 2 almighty one, 3 who breathest spirit into men to give them life;
2. Whose name is hidden, and beyond the power of men to speak; 4 no prophet [even] can pronounce it; yea, even daimons, when they hear thy name, are fearful!
3. O thou, whose tireless eyes are sun and moon, 5—[eyes] that shine in the pupils 6 of the eyes of men!
4. O thou, who hast the heaven for head, æ ther for body, [and] earth for feet, and for the water round thee ocean’s deep! 7 Thou the Good Daimon art, who art the sire of all things good, and nurse of the whole world. 8
5. Thy everlasting revelling-place 9 is set above.
6. Thine the good emanations 10 of the stars, —those daimons, fortunes, and those fates by whom are given
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wealth, good blend [of nature], 1 and good children, good fortune, and good burial. For thou art lord of life, —
7. Thou who art king of heavens and earth and all that dwell in them;
8. Whose Righteousness is never put away; whose Muses hymn thy glorious name; whom the eight Wardens guard, —thou the possessor of the Truth 2 pure of all lie!
9. Thy Name and Spirit rest upon the good. 3
10. O mayst thou come into my mind and heart for all the length of my life’s days, and bring unto accomplishment all things my soul desires!
11. For thou art I, and I am thou. 4 Whate’er I speak, may it for ever be; for that I have thy Name 5 to guard me in my heart. 6
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12. And every serpent 1 roused shall have no power o’er me, nor shall I be opposed by any spirit, or daimonial power, or any plague, or any of the evils in the Unseen World; 2 for that I have thy Name within my soul.
13. Thee I invoke; come unto me, Good, altogether good, [come] to the good, 3—thou whom no magic can enchant, no magic can control, 4 who givest me good health, security, 5 good store, good fame, victory, [and] strength, and cheerful countenance! 6
14. Cast down the eyes of all who are against me, and give me grace on all my deeds! 7
II. AN INVOCATION TO LORD HERMES
[Revised and restored text, stripped of later overworkings, R. 20, 21. Wessely (C. ), Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, “Neue griechische Zauberpapyri” (Vienna, 1893), vol. xlii. p. 55; Kenyon (F. G. ), Greek Papyri in the British Museum (London, 1893), i. 116. ]
1. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, even as into women’s wombs [come] babes! 8
2. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, who dost collect the food of gods and men! 9
3. Lord Hermes, come to me, and give me grace,
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[and] food, [and] victory, [and] health and happiness, and cheerful countenance, 1 beauty and powers in sight of all!
4. I know thy Name that shineth forth in heaven; I know thy forms 2 as well; I know thy tree; 3 I know thy wood 4 as well.
5. I know thee, Hermes, who thou art, and whence thou art, and what thy city is.
6. I know thy names in the Egyptian tongue, 5 and thy true name as it is written on the holy tablet in the holy place at Hermes’ city, where thou dost have thy birth.
7. I know thee, Hermes, and thou [knowest] me; [and] I am thou, and thou art I. 6
8. Come unto me; fulfil all that I crave; be favourable to me together with good fortune and the blessing of the Good. 7
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