Hermes Trismegistus

**Hermes Trismegistus** (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "thrice-greatest Hermes"; Latin: *Mercurius ter Maximus*; Hebrew: חרם תלת מחזות‬) is the purported author of the *Hermetic Corpus*, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism.

## Origin and identity

Hermes Trismegistus may be a representation of the syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.Greeks in Hellenistic Egypt recognized the equivalence of Hermes and Thoth.Consequently, the two gods were worshiped as one, in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemnu, which the Greeks called Hermopolis.

Both Hermes and Thoth were gods of writing and of magic in their respective cultures.Hermes, the Greek god of interpretive communication, was combined with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, to become the patron of astrology and alchemy. In addition, both gods were psychopomps, guiding souls to the afterlife. The Egyptian priest and polymath Imhotephad been deified long after his death and therefore assimilated to Thoth in the classical and Hellenistic period.The renowned scribe Amenhotep and a wise man named Teôs were co-equal deities of wisdom, science, and medicine; and, thus, they were placed alongside Imhotep in shrines dedicated to Thoth-Hermes during the Ptolemaic period.

A Mycenaean Greek reference to a deity or semi-deity called *ti-ri-se-ro-e* was found on two Linear B clay tablets at Pylos and could be connected to the later epithet "thrice great", *Trismegistos*, applied to Hermes/Thoth. On the aforementioned PY Tn 316 tablet—as well as other Linear B tablets found in Pylos, Knossos, and Thebes—there appears the name of the deity "Hermes" as *e-ma-ha*, but not in any apparent connection with the "Trisheros". This interpretation of poorly-understood Mycenaean material is disputed, since Hermes Trismegistus is not referenced in any of the copious sources before he emerges in Hellenistic Egypt.

The majority of Greeks, and later Romans, did not accept Hermes Trismegistus in the place of Hermes.The two gods were regarded as distinct. Cicero enumerates several deities referred to as "Hermes": a "fourth Mercury(Hermes) was the son of the Nile, whose name may not be spoken by the Egyptians"; and "the fifth, who is worshiped by the people of Pheneus [in Arcadia], is said to have killed Argus, and for this reason to have fled to Egypt, and to have given the Egyptians their laws and alphabet: he it is whom the Egyptians call Theyt".The most likely interpretation of this passage is as two variants on the same syncretism of Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth (or sometimes other gods): the fourth (where Hermes turns out "actually" to have been a "son of the Nile," i.e. a native god) being viewed from the Egyptian perspective, the fifth (who went from Greece to Egypt) being viewed from the Greek-Arcadian perspective. Both of these early references in Cicero (most ancient Trismegistus material is from the early centuries AD) corroborate the view that Thrice-Great Hermes originated in Hellenistic Egypt through syncretism between Greek and Egyptian gods (the *Hermetica* refer most often to Thoth and Amun).

The Hermetic literature among the Egyptians, which was concerned with conjuring spirits and animating statues, inform the oldest Hellenistic writings on Greco-Babylonian astrology and on the newly developed practice of alchemy.In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and offered the adept a means of personal ascension from the constraints of physical being. This latter tradition has led to the confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously.

As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited with tens of thousands of highly esteemed writings, which were reputed to be of immense antiquity. Plato's *Timaeus* and *Critias* state that in the temple of Neith at Sais there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for 9,000 years. Clement of Alexandria was under the impression that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes, writings that detailed the training of Egyptian priests. Siegfried Morenz has suggested, in *Egyptian Religion*: "The reference to Thoth's authorship... is based on ancient tradition; the figure forty-two probably stems from the number of Egyptian nomes, and thus conveys the notion of completeness." The Neo-Platonic writers took up Clement's "forty-two essential texts".

The *Hermetica* is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. The dialogue called the *Asclepius* (after the Greek god of healing) describes the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of herbs, gems, and odors, so that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy. In other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf.

## Thrice Great

Fowden asserts that the first datable occurrences of the epithet "thrice great" are in the *Legatio* of Athenagoras of Athens and in a fragment from Philo of Byblos, circa AD 64–141.However, in a later work, Copenhaver reports that this epithet is first found in the minutes of a meeting of the council of the Ibis cult, held in 172 BC near Memphis in Egypt.Hart explains that the epithet is derived from an epithet of Thoth found at the Temple of Esna, "Thoth the great, the great, the great."The date of Hermes Trismegistus's sojourn in Egypt during his last incarnation is not now known, but it has been fixed at the early days of the oldest dynasties of Egypt, long before the days of Moses. Some authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham, and claim that Abraham acquired a portion of his mystical knowledge from Hermes himself (*Kybalion*).

Many Christian writers, including Lactantius, Augustine, Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, Campanella, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christianity.They believed in a prisca theologia, the doctrine that a single, true theology exists, which threads through all religions. It was given by God to man in antiquity and passed through a series of prophets, which included Zoroaster and Plato. In order to demonstrate the verity of the *prisca theologia,* Christians appropriated the Hermetic teachings for their own purposes. By this account, Hermes Trismegistus was either a contemporary of Moses,or the third in a line of men named Hermes, i.e. Enoch, Noah, and the Egyptian priest king who is known to us as Hermes Trismegistus on account of being the greatest priest, philosopher, and king.This last account of how Hermes Trismegistus received that epithet is derived from statements in the *Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus*, that he knows the three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe,the three parts being alchemy, astrology, and theurgy. It was Marsilio Ficino who stated that "they called him Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the greatest priest and the greatest king".Another explanation, in the *Suda* (10th century), is that "He was called Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, saying there is one divine nature in the trinity."

## Hermetic writings

The *Asclepius* and the *Corpus Hermeticum* are the most important of the *Hermetica*, the surviving writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. During the Renaissance, it was accepted that Hermes Trismegistus was a contemporary of Moses. However, after Casaubon's dating of the Hermetic writings as being no earlier than the second or third century AD, the whole of Renaissance Hermeticism collapsed.As to their actual authorship:

> ... they were certainly not written in remotest antiquity by an all wise Egyptian priest, as the Renaissance believed, but by various unknown authors, all probably Greeks, and they contain popular Greek philosophy of the period, a mixture of Platonism and Stoicism, combined with some Jewish and probably some Persian influences.
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## Hermetic revival

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the *Hermetica* enjoyed great prestige and were popular among alchemists. The "hermetic tradition" consequently refers to alchemy, magic, astrology, and related subjects. The texts are usually divided into two categories: the philosophical and the technical hermetica. The former deals mainly with philosophy, and the latter with practical magic, potions, and alchemy. Magic spells to protect objects, for example, are the origin of the expression "hermetically sealed".

The classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, in *De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI* (1614), showed, through an analysis of the Greek language used in the texts, that those texts believed to be of ancient origin were in fact much more recent: most of the philosophical *Corpus Hermeticum* can be dated to around AD 300. However, the 17th century scholar Ralph Cudworth argued that Casaubon's allegation of forgery could only be applied to three of the seventeen treatises contained within the *Corpus Hermeticum*.

## Islamic tradition

Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin has pointed out that Hermes Trismegistus is the builder of the Pyramids of Giza and has a major place in Islamic tradition. He writes, "Hermes Trismegistus is mentioned in the Quran in verse 19:56-57:'*Mention, in the Book, Idris, that he was truthful, a prophet. We took him up to a high place*'". The Jabirian corpus contains the oldest documented source for the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, translated by Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber) for the Hashemite Caliph of Baghdad Harun al-Rashid the Abbasid. Jābir ibn Hayyān, a Shiite, identified as Jābir al-Sufi, was a student of Ja'far al-Sadiq, Husayn ibn 'Ali's great grandson. Thus, for the Abbasid's and the Alid's, the writings of Hermes Trismegistus were considered sacred, as an inheritance from the Ahl al-Bayt and the Prophets. These writings were recorded by the Ikhwan al-Safa, and subsequently translated from Arabic into Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Russian, and English. In these writings, Hermes Trismegistus is identified as Idris, the infallible Prophet who traveled to outer space from Egypt, and to heaven, whence he brought back a cache of objects from the Eden of Adam and the Black Stone from where he landed on earth in India.

According to ancient Arab genealogists, the Prophet Muhammad, who is also believed to have traveled to the heavens on the night of Isra and Mi'raj, is a direct descendant of Hermes Trismegistus. Ibn Kathir said, "As for Idris...He is in the genealogical chain of the Prophet Muhammad, except according to one genealogist...Ibn Ishaq says he was the first who wrote with the Pen. There was a span of 380 years between him and the life of Adam. Many of the scholars allege that he was the first to speak about this, and they call him Thrice-Great Hermes [Hermes Trismegistus]". Ahmad al-Buni considered himself a follower of the hermetic teachings; and his contemporary Ibn Arabi mentioned Hermes Trismegistus in his writings. The Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya of Ibn Arabi speaks of Hermes's travels to "vast cities (outside earth), possessing technologies far superior then ours"and meeting with the Twelfth Imam, the Ninth (generation) from the Third (al-Husayn the third Imam) (referring here to the Masters of Wisdom from the Emerald Tablet), who also ascended to the heavens, and is still alive like his ancestor Hermes Trismegistus".

A late Arabic writer wrote of the Sabaeans that their religion had a sect of star worshipers who held their doctrine to come from Hermes Trismegistus through the prophet Adimun.

Antoine Faivre, in *The Eternal Hermes* (1995), has pointed out that Hermes Trismegistus has a place in the Islamic tradition, although the name *Hermes* does not appear in the *Qur'an*. Hagiographers and chroniclers of the first centuries of the Islamic Hegira quickly identified Hermes Trismegistus with Idris,the *nabi* of surahs19.57 and 21.85, whom the *Arabs* also identified with Enoch (cf. Genesis 5.18–24). Idris/Hermes was termed "Thrice-Wise" Hermes Trismegistus because he had a threefold origin. The first Hermes, comparable to Thoth, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world; he carved the principles of this sacred science in hieroglyphs. The second Hermes, in Babylon, was the initiator of Pythagoras. The third Hermes was the first teacher of alchemy. "A faceless prophet," writes the Islamicist Pierre Lory, "Hermes possesses no concrete or salient characteristics, differing in this regard from most of the major figures of the Bible and the Quran."A common interpretation of the representation of "Trismegistus" as "thrice great" recalls the three characterizations of Idris: as a messenger of god, or a prophet; as a source of wisdom, or *hikmet* (wisdom from *hokmah*); and as a king of the world order, or a "sultanate". These are referred to as *müselles bin ni'me*.

Imad Jafar, in his essay "Enoch in the Islamic Tradition", writes:

> The lore that developed around Idrīs’ legendary gnosis led to him being further identified with Hermes Trismegistus (*Hirmīs*) ... whereby Muslims began to acknowledge Idrīs as the founder of alchemy as well....
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> In the Illuminationistic philosophy of the renowned Persian Islamic sage and saint Suhrawardī (c. 1154-1191), Idrīs was revered fundamentally as the teacher of the ancient sages amongst the Hindus, Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks up to the time of Aristotle.... When these Greco-Alexandrian wisdom sciences and the gnostic lore of the Sabaeans of Harrān – who regarded Hermes as their prophet and his writings as their scriptures – spread amongst the Islamic community, Idrīs was immediately identified ... with the founder of Hermeticism ... Mulla Sadra (1571-1636), one of the greatest Muslim sages of the later period, who said: "Know that Wisdom (*hikmah*) began originally with Adam and his progeny Seth, Hermes, who is Idrīs, and Noah, because the world is never deprived of a person upon whom the science of Unity and eschatology rests. And it is the greatest Hermes who propagated it (*hikmah*) throughout the regions of the world and different countries manifested it and made it emanate upon the ‘true worshipers’. He is indeed the ‘Father of philosophers’ and the master of those who are the masters of the sciences".
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## New Age revival

Spiritualist writer Tom DeLiso claims that Hermes Trismegistus taught him in out-of-body states and that Hermes Trismegistus is a newer incarnation of Thoth. Both are conscious energy constructs without bodies.

## Thoth

**Thoth** (/θoʊθ, toʊt/; from Greek Θώθ *thṓth*; derived from Egyptian *ḏḥw.ty*) was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at.Thoth's chief temple was located in the city of Khmun,later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ*Shmounein* in the Coptic rendering. Khmun was partially destroyed in 1826 CE. In that city, he led the Ogdoadpantheon of eight principal deities. He also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens.

Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat.In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes,the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.

### Attributes

Thoth's roles in Egyptian mythology were many. He served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other.He also served as scribe of the gods,credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves.In the underworld, Duat, he appeared as an ape, A'an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly even.

The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced.He was the master of both physical and moral (i.e. divine) law,making proper use of Ma'at.He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth,and everything in them.Compare this to how his feminine counterpart, Ma'at was the force which maintained the Universe.He is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist.His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivalled that of Ra and Osiris.

The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic.The Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers, mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine.

### Mythology

Thoth has played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths. Displaying his role as arbitrator, he had overseen the three epic battles between good and evil. All three battles are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods. The first battle took place between Ra and Apep, the second between Heru-Bekhutet and Set, and the third between Horus and Set . In each instance, the former god represented order while the latter represented chaos. If one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other.

Thoth was also prominent in the Asarian myth, being of great aid to Isis. After Isis/Aset gathered together the pieces of Asar's dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurrect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus. After a battle between Horus and Set in which the latter plucked out Horus' eye, Thoth's counsel provided him the wisdom he needed to recover it. Thoth was the god who always speaks the words that fulfill the wishes of Ra.

This mythology also credits him with the creation of the 365-day calendar. Originally, according to the myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut was sterile during these days, unable to bear children. Thoth gambled with the Moon for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won. During these 5 days, Nut and Geb gave birth to Ausar (Osiris), Set, Auset (Isis), and Nebt-Het (Nephthys).

## Hermes

**Hermes** (/ˈhɜːrmiːz/; Greek: Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the PleiadMaia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods (Dionysus being the youngest).

Hermes was the emissary and messenger of the gods.Hermes was also "the divine trickster"and "the god of boundaries and the transgression of boundaries, ... the patron of herdsmen, thieves, graves, and heralds."He is described as moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, and was the conductor of souls into the afterlife.He was also viewed as the protector and patron of roads and travelers.

In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, winged sandals, and winged cap. His main symbol is the Greek *kerykeion* or Latin *caduceus,* which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff with carvings of the other gods.

In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon (see *interpretatio romana*), Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury,who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics such as being the patron of commerce.

### Mythology

#### Early Greek sources

##### Homer and Hesiod

Homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the *Iliad*, he is called "the bringer of good luck", "guide and guardian", and "excellent in all the tricks". He was a divine ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector and accompanied them back to Troy.

He also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the *Odyssey*, Hermes helps his great-grand son, the protagonist Odysseus, by informing him about the fate of his companions, who were turned into animals by the power of Circe. Hermes instructed Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb; he also told Calypsoof Zeus' order to free Odysseus from her island to allow him to continue his journey back home. When Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes led their souls to Hades.In *The Works and Days*, when Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create Pandora to disgrace humanity by punishing Prometheus's act of giving fire to man, every god gave her a gift, and Hermes' gifts were lies, seductive words, and a dubious character. Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus.

##### Athenian tragic playwrights

Aeschylus wrote in *The Eumenides* that Hermes helped Orestes kill Clytemnestra under a false identity and other stratagems,and also said that he was the god of searches, and those who seek things lost or stolen.In *Philoctetes*, Sophocles invokes Hermes when Odysseus needs to convince Philoctetes to join the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, and in Euripides' *Rhesus* Hermes helps Dolon spy on the Greek navy.

##### Aesop

Aesop featured him in several of his fables, as ruler of the gate of prophetic dreams, as the god of athletes, of edible roots, and of hospitality. He also said that Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence.

##### Hymn to Hermes

The Hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one "of many shifts (*polytropos*), blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods."Hermes, as an inventor of fire,is a parallel of the Titan Prometheus. In addition to the lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sports of wrestling and boxing, and therefore was a patron of athletes.

#### Hellenistic Greek sources

Several writers of the Hellenistic period expanded the list of Hermes's achievements. Callimachus said that Hermes disguised himself as a cyclops to scare the Oceanides and was disobedient to his mother.One of the Orphic Hymns Khthonios is dedicated to Hermes, indicating that he was also a god of the underworld. Aeschylus had called him by this epithet several times.Another is the Orphic Hymn to Hermes, where his association with the athletic games held in tone is mystic.

Phlegon of Tralles said he was invoked to ward off ghosts,and Pseudo-Apollodorus reported several events involving Hermes. He participated in the Gigantomachyin defense of Olympus; was given the task of bringing baby Dionysus to be cared for by Ino and Athamas and later by nymphs of Asia, followed Hera, Athena and Aphrodite in a beauty contest; favored the young Hercules by giving him a sword when he finished his education and lent his sandals to Perseus.The Thracian princes identified him with their god Zalmoxis, considering his ancestor.

Anyte of Tegea of the 3rd century BC,in translation by Richard Aldington, wrote:

> I Hermes stand here at the crossroads by the wind beaten orchard, near the hoary grey coast; and I keep a resting place for weary men. And the cool stainless spring gushes out.
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called *Hermes of the Ways* after the patronage of travelers.