Rose Library › Hermeticism

Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Volume III: Excerpts and Fragments

G. R. S. Mead · tr. G. R. S. Mead · 1906 · 61,562 words

The Hermetic excerpts preserved by Stobaeus, including The Virgin of the World (Korē Kosmou) and the Sermon of Isis to Horus, with the references and fragments in the Church Fathers and the philosophers, and Mead’s commentaries and conclusion.

Read it now

Opening

Excerpt I: Of Piety and [True] Philosophy

(Title from Patrizzi (p. 4); preceded by “Of Thrice-greatest Hermes.”

Text: Stobæus, Phys., xxxv. 1, under heading: “Of Hermes—from the [Book] to Tat”; G. pp. 273-278; M. i. 190-194; W. i. 273-278.

Ménard, Livre IV., No. i. of “Fragments from the Books of Hermes to his Son Tat,” pp. 225-230.)

1. Her. Both for the sake of love to man, and piety to God, I [now], my son, for the first time take pen in hand.

For there can be no piety more righteous than to know the things that are, and to give thanks for these to Him who made them,—which I will never cease to do.

2. Tat. By doing what, O father, then, if naught be true down here, may one live wisely?

Her. Be pious, son! Who pious is, doth reach the height of [all] philosophy; without philosophy the height of piety cannot be scaled.

But he who learns what are existent things, and how they have been ordered, and by whom, and for whose sake,—he will give thanks for all unto the Demiurge, as unto a good sire, a nurse [most] excellent, a steward who doth never break his trust.

Continue reading in the Rose Library →

Contents

  1. Excerpt I: Of Piety and [True] Philosophy
  2. Excerpt II: Of the Ineffability of God
  3. Excerpt III: Of Truth
  4. Excerpt IV: God, Nature and the Gods
  5. Excerpt V: Of Matter
  6. Excerpt VI: Of Time
  7. Excerpt VII: Of Bodies Everlasting [and Bodies Perishable]
  8. Excerpt VIII: Of Energy and Feeling
  9. Excerpt IX: Of [the Decans and] the Stars
  10. Excerpt X: Concerning the Rule of Providence, Necessity and Fate
  11. Excerpt XI: Of Justice
  12. Excerpt XII: Of Providence and Fate
  13. Excerpt XIII: Of the Whole Economy
  14. Excerpt XIV: Of Soul [I.]
  15. Excerpt XV: Of Soul, II.
  16. Excerpt XVI: Of Soul, III.
  17. Excerpt XVII: Of Soul, IV.
  18. Excerpt XVIII: Of Soul, V.
  19. Excerpt XIX: Of Soul, VI.
  20. Excerpt XX: The Power of Choice
  21. Excerpt XXI: Of Isis to Horus
  22. Excerpt XXII: An Apophthegm
  23. Excerpt XXIII: From “Aphrodite”
  24. Excerpt XXIV: A Hymn of the Gods
  25. Excerpt XXV: The Virgin of the World [I.]
  26. Excerpt XXVI: The Virgin of the World [II.]
  27. Excerpts XXV–XXVI: Commentary
  28. Excerpt XXVII: From the Sermon of Isis to Horus
  29. Excerpt XXVII: Commentary
  30. In the Fathers I: Justin Martyr
  31. In the Fathers II: Athenagoras
  32. In the Fathers III: Clement of Alexandria
  33. In the Fathers IV: Tertullian
  34. In the Fathers V: Cyprian
  35. In the Fathers VI: Arnobius
  36. In the Fathers VII: Lactantius
  37. In the Fathers VIII: Augustine
  38. In the Fathers IX: Cyril of Alexandria
  39. In the Fathers X: Suidas
  40. In the Fathers XI: Anonymous
  41. In the Philosophers I: Zosimus
  42. In the Philosophers II: Jamblichus
  43. In the Philosophers III: Julian the Emperor
  44. In the Philosophers IV: Fulgentius the Mythographer
  45. Conclusion: An Attempt at Classifying the Extant Literature

About this edition

Source: Internet Sacred Text Archive · archive.org

Public domain: Public domain: published 1906; Mead died 1933.

What’s included: The whole of volume III: the 27 excerpts by Stobaeus, the references and fragments in the Fathers and in the philosophers, Mead’s commentaries and his conclusion. The index, the publisher’s list and the footnotes are not included.

In the Rose Library you can search every word of this book, have it read aloud, and save it to read offline.