Hermes Trismegistus

"The thrice greatest Hermes," the name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, the god of wisdom, learning, and literature. Thoth was alluded to in later Egyptian writings as "twice very great" and even as "five times very great" in some demotic or popular scripts (ca. third century B.C.E.).

As "scribe of the gods," Hermes was credited with the authorship of all Greek sacred books, which were thus called "hermetic." There were 42 of these, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, and they were subdivided into six portions, the first dealing with priestly education, the second with temple rituals and the third with geographical matters. The fourth division treated astrology, the fifth recorded hymns in honor of the gods and was a textbook for the guidance of kings, and the sixth was a medical text.

It is unlikely that these books were all the work of one individual; more likely they represent the accumulated wisdom of Egypt, attributed in the course of ages to the great god of wisdom.

As "scribe of the gods," Hermes was also the author of all strictly sacred writings. For convenience the name of Hermes was placed at the head of an extensive cycle of mystic literature produced in post-Christian times. Most of this hermetic or trismegistic literature has perished, but all that remains of it has been gathered and translated into English. It includes the Poimandres, (Shepherd of Men), the Perfect Sermon, or the Asclepius, excerpts by Stobacus, as well as fragments from the church fathers and from the philosophers Zosimus and Fulgentius.

These writings were neglected by theologians, who dismissed them as the offspring of third-century Neoplatonism. According to the generally accepted view, they are eclectic compilations, combining Neoplatonic philosophy, Philonic Judaism, and Kabalistic Theosophy in an attempt to supply a philosophic substitute for Christianity. The many Christian elements to be found in these mystic scriptures were ascribed to plagiarism.

Examination of early mystery writings and traditions has shown that the main source of the Trismegistic tractates is probably the wisdom of Egypt and that they "go back in an unbroken tradition of type and form and context to the earliest Ptolemaic times."

Sources:

Bell, H. Idris. Cults and Creeds in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 1957.

Faivre, Antoine. The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus. Trans. by Joceyn Godwin. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Phanes Press, 1995.

Hermes Trismegistus. Hermetica. Edited by Brian Copenhaver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

——. Hermetica. Edited by Walter Scott. Vol. I. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924. Reprint, Boston: Shambhala, 1985.

——. Theological & Philosophical Works. Edited by J. D. Chambers. 2 vols. London, 1882.

Mead, G. R. S. Thrice-Greatest Hermes. London, 1906. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1964.