and HERMES TRISMEGISTUS (Phileb. §
23; comp. Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3.22.) But the intermixture of the religious
ideas of the two countries became more prominent at the time when Christianity began to raise
its head, and when pagan philosophy, in the form of New Platonism, made its last and desperate
effort against the Christian religion. Attempts were then made to represent the wisdom of the
ancient Egyptians in a higher and more spiritual light, to amalgamate it with the ideas of the
Greeks, and thereby to give to the latter a deep religious meaning, which made them appear as
a very ancient divine revelation, and as a suitable counterpoise to the Christian religion.
The Egyptian Thot or Hermes was considered as the real author of every thing produced and
discovered by the human mind, as the father of all knowledge, inventions, legislation,
religion, &c. Hence every thing that man had discovered and committed to writing was
regarded as the property of Hermes. As he was thus the source of all knowledge and thought, or
the Strom. 6.4. p. 757) speaks of forty-two books of Hermes,
containing the sum total of human and divine knowledge and wisdom, and treating on
cosmography, astronomy, geography, religion, with all its forms and rites, and more especially
on medicine. There is no reason for doubting the existence of such a work or works, under the
name of Hermes, at the time of Clemens. In the time of the New Platonists, the idea of the
authorship of Hermes was carried still further, and applied to the whole range of literature.
Iamblichus (De Myst. init.) designates the sum total of all the arts and
sciences among the Egyptians by the name Hermes, and he adds that, of old, all authors used to
call their own productions the works of Hermes. This notion at once explains the otherwise
strange statement in Iamblichus (De Myst. 8.1), that Hermes was the
author of 20,000 works; Manetho even speaks of 36,525 works, a number which exactly
corresponds with that of the years which he assigns to his several dynasties of kings.
Iamblichus mentions the works of Hermes in several passages, and speaks of them as translated
from the Egyptian into Greek (De Myst. 8.1, 2, 4, 5, 7); Plutarch also
(De Is. et Os. p. 375e.) speaks of works attribute to Hermes, and so
does Galen (De Simpl. Med. 6.1) and Cyrillus (Contr.
Jul. 1.30). The existence of works under the name of Hermes, as carly as the second
century after Christ, is thus proved beyond a doubt. Their contents were chiefly of a
philosophico-religious nature, on the nature and attributes of the deity, on the world and
nature; and from the work of Lactantius, who wrote his Institutes chiefly to refute the
educated and learned among the pagans, we cannot help perceiving that Christianity, the
religion which it was intended to crush by those works, exercised a considerable influence
upon their authors. (See e. g. Div. Instit. 1.8, 2.10, 7.4, 13.)
The question as to the real authorship of what are called the works of Hermes, or Hermes Trismegistus, has been the subject of much controversy, but the most probable opinion is, that they were productions of New Platonists. Some of them appear to have been written in a pure and sober spirit, and were intended to spread the doctrines of the New Platonists, and make them popular, in opposition to the rising power of Christianity, but others were full of the most fantastic and visionary theories, consisting for the most part of astrological and magic speculations, the most favourite topics of New Platonism. Several works of this class have come down to our times, some in the Greek language and others only in Latin translations; but all those which are now extant are of an inferior kind, and were, in all probablility, composed during the later period of New Platonism, when a variety of Christian notions had become embodied in that system. It may be taken for granted, on the whole, thatnone of the works bearing the name of Hermes, in the form in which they are now before us, belongs to an earlier date than the fourth, or perhaps the third, century of our era, though it cannot be denied that they contain ideas which may be as ancient as New Platonism itself.
We here notice only the principal works which have been published, for many are extant only in MS., and buried in various libraries.
perhaps the most ancient among the works attributed to Hermes. The Greek original is quoted by Lactantius (
This is probably the production of the same author as the preceding work. Asclepius, who here calls Hermes his master, discusses questions of a similar nature, such as God, matter, man, and the like.
his is a work of larger extent, and in so far the most important production of the kind we possess. The title
This is a work of less importance, and contains instructions for ascertaining the issue of a disease by the aid of mathematics, that is, of astrology, for the author endeavours to show that the nature of a disease, as well as its cure and issue, must be ascertained from the constellation under which it commenced. The substance of this work seems to have been unknown to Firmicus (about the middle of the fourth century), and this leads us to the supposition that it was written after the time of Firmicus.
This is likewise an astrological work, and intended to show how the nativity should be regulated at the end of every year. The original seems to have been written in Greek, though some say that it was in Arabic; but it was at any rate composed at a later time than the work mentioned under No. 4.
Also called
This belongs to the same class of medico-astrological works. This work is referred to even by Olympiodorus, and must therefore have existed in the fourth century of our era. It is divided into four parts, and is a sort of materica medica, arranged in alphabetical order, for it treats of the magic and medicinal powers of a variety of stones, plants, and animals, and under each head it mentions some mineral, vegetable, or animal medicine. It is generally supposed that this work was originally compiled from Persian, Arabic, or Egyptian sources.
Some of the works bearing the name of Hermes seem to be productions of the middle ages, such as,--
That is, on the philosopher's stone. The work is divided into seven chapters, which are regarded as the seven seals of Hermes Trismegistus.
an essay, professing to teach the art of making gold.
This is only a fragment, but probably belongs to an earlier period than the two preceding
works, and treats of similar subjects as the
on earthquakes, or rather on the forebodings implied in them. It is only a fragment, consisting of sixty-six hexameter lines, and is sometimes ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, and sometimes to Orpheus.
For a more detailed account of the works bearing the name of Hermes Trismegistus, see Fabric.