{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th3/th314.htm","path":"gno/th3/th314.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th3/th314.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n(Patrizzi (p. 38) gives no title, but only the heading: \u201cTo the Same Ammon (\u0391\u03bc\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd\u03b1).\u201d\nText: Stob., Phys., v. 16, under sub-heading: \u201cOf the Whole Economy,\u201d followed by: \u201cOf Hermes from the [Sermons] to Ammon (\u1f08\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd 1)\u201d; G. p. 68; M. i. 47; W. i. 79, 80.\nM\u00e9nard, Livre IV., No. i. of \u201cFragments of the Books of Hermes to Ammon\u201d).\nNow what supporteth the whole World, 2 is Providence; what holdeth it together and encircleth it about, is [called] Necessity; what drives all on and drives them round, 3 is Fate, bringing Necessity to bear on them (for that its nature is the bringing into play of [this] Necessity); [it 4 is] the cause of birth and death 5 of life.\nSo, then, the Cosmos is beneath the sway of\n[paragraph continues] Providence 1 (for \u2019tis the first to meet with it); but Providence [itself] 2 extends itself to Heaven.\nFor which cause, 3 too, the Gods revolve, and speed round [Heaven], 4 possessed of tireless, never-ceasing motion.\nBut Fate [extends itself in Cosmos]; for which cause, too, Necessity [encompasses the Cosmos]. 5\nAnd Providence foreknows; but Fate\u2019s the reason of the disposition of the Stars. 6\nSuch is the law that no one can escape, by which all things are ordered. 7\n61:1 The only place in which this form occurs in Stob\u00e6us; cf. v. 20, and xxxv. 4, 7, 8.\n61:2 Or Cosmos.\n61:3 Or makes them to revolve\n61:4 Fate\u2014\u03b5\u1f31\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7.\n61:5 Or destruction.\n62:1 Lit. \u201cfirst has Providence.\u201d The following words in parentheses seem to be the gloss of a scribe who was puzzled by the sentence. Usener, however, would detect a lacuna after the parentheses and the beginning of a new excerpt after that, and Wachsmuth agrees with him. This seems to me to be unnecessary.\n62:2 That is, pure Providence unmixed with Necessity and Fate.\n62:3 That is, because of Providence, the law of heaven.\n62:4 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd.\n62:5 The text is hopeless, being simply: \u03b5\u1f31\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7 \u03b4\u1f72, \u03b4\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f00\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03ba\u03b7.\n62:6 That is, the Seven Spheres.\n62:7 Cf. Exx. x., xi., xii.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3: I. Excerpts by Stob\u00e6us: Excerpt XIII. Of the Whole Economy","type":"page"}