{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th2/th249.htm","path":"gno/th2/th249.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th2/th249.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 2, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n1. [XIII. M.] But 5 now let this suffice about such things; and let us once again return\nto man and reason,\u2014gift divine, from which man has the name of rational animal.\nLess to be wondered at are the things said of man,\u2014though they are [still] to be admired. Nay, of all marvels that which wins our wonder [most] is that man has been able to find out the nature of the Gods and bring it into play.\n2. Since, then, our earliest progenitors were in great error, 1\u2014seeing they had no rational faith about the Gods, and that they paid no heed unto their cult and holy worship,\u2014they chanced upon an art whereby they made Gods [for themselves]. 2\nTo this invention they conjoined a power that suited it, [derived] from cosmic nature; and blending these together, since souls they could not make, [they set about] evoking daimons\u2019 souls or those of angels; [and thus] attached them to their sacred images and holy mysteries, so that the statues should, by means of these, possess the powers of doing good and the reverse.\n3. For thy forebear, Asclepius, the first discoverer of medicine, to whom there is a temple\nhallowed on Libya\u2019s Mount, 1 hard by the shore of crocodiles, 2 in which his cosmic man 3 reposes, that is to say his body; for that the rest [of him], or better still, the whole (if that a man when wholly [plunged] in consciousness of life, 4 be better), hath gone back home to heaven,\u2014still furnishing, [but] now by his divinity, the sick with all the remedies which he was wont in days gone by to give by art of medicine.\n4. Hermes, which is the name of my forebear, whose home is in a place called after him, 5 doth aid and guard all mortal [men] who come to him from every side. 6\nAs for Osiris\u2019 [spouse]; how many are the blessings that we know Isis bestows when she\u2019s propitious; how many does she injure when she\u2019s wrath!\nFor that the terrene and the cosmic Gods are\neasily enraged, in that they are created and composed of the two natures.\n5. And for this cause it comes to pass that these are called the \u201csacred animals\u201d by the Egyptians, and that each several state 1 gives service to the souls of those whose souls have been made holy, 2 while they were still alive; so that [the several states] are governed by the laws [of their peculiar sacred animals], and called after their names.\nIt is because of this, Asclepius, those [animals] which are considered by some states deserving of their worship, in others are thought otherwise; and on account of this the states of the Egyptians wage with each other frequent war.\n1. Asc. And of what nature, O Thrice-greatest one, may be the quality of those who are considered terrene Gods?\nTris. It doth consist, Asclepius, of plants, and stones, and spices, which contain the nature of [their own] divinity.\nAnd for this cause they are delighted with repeated sacrifice, with hymns, and lauds, and\nsweetest sounds, tuned to the key of Heaven\u2019s harmonious song. 1\n2. So that what is of heavenly nature, 2 being drawn down into the images by means of heavenly use and practices, may be enabled to endure with joy the nature of mankind, and sojourn with it for long periods of time.\nThus is it that man is the maker of the Gods.\n3. But do not, O Asclepius, I pray thee, think the doings of the terrene Gods are the result of chance.\nThe heavenly Gods dwell in the heights of Heaven, each filling up and watching o\u2019er the rank he hath received; whereas these Gods of ours, 3 each in its way,\u2014by looking after certain things, foretelling others by oracles and prophecy, foreseeing others, and duly helping them along,\u2014act as allies of men, as though they were our relatives and friends.\n380:5 The first six paragraphs of this chapter are quoted in Latin, with two slight verbal variants, by Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xxiv., xxvi.\n381:1 M\u00e9nard thinks he can distinguish the hand of a Christian scribe in this sentence, which he translates with great freedom, \u201cqui s\u2019\u00e9garaient dans l\u2019incr\u00e9dulit\u00e9.\u201d A more careful translation, however, does not seem to favour this hypothesis. Hermes says simply that primitive mankind were ignorant of the Gods, and so in error.\n381:2 That is, images. Cf. xxx. above; and C. H., xvii.\n382:1 Cf. xxvii. 3 above.\n382:2 In monte Liby\u00e6 circa littus crocodilorum. Does this refer to a Crocodilopolis (\u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03ba\u03bf\u03b4\u03b5\u03af\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd \u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b9\u03c2, Ptol., iv. 5, \u00a7 65)? And if so, to which of these cities, for there were several? The best known of these is Arsino\u00eb in the Faiyy\u016bm; but there was also another down south, in the Thebaid, on the W. bank of the Nile, lat. 25\u00b0 6', of which remains are still visible at Embeshanda, on the verge of the Libyan desert. See Smith\u2019s Dict. of Gk. and Rom. Geography (London, 1878), sub voc.\n382:3 Presumably his mummy.\n382:4 In sensu vit\u00e6.\n382:5 Hermopolis therefore (compare Lact., D. Institt., i. 6); that is to say, Hermopolis Magna (\u1f19\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b9\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03ac\u03bb\u03b7), the modern Eshm\u016bn, on the left bank of the Nile, about lat. 27\u00b0 4'.\n382:6 To get wisdom. Augustine\u2019s quotation ends here.\n383:1 Or city. For the animal cult of the Egyptians, see Plutarch, De Is. et Os., lxxii. ff.\n383:2 Or consecrated.\n384:1 Cf. \u201cGod\u2019s song\u201d in xiii. 2 above.\n384:2 Namely, the nature of the Gods.\n384:3 The terrene Gods; the daimones of C. H., xvi. 14.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 2: II. The Perfect Sermon; or the Asclepius: Part XIII","type":"page"}