{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th3/th325.htm","path":"gno/th3/th325.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th3/th325.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n(Text: Stob., Phys., v. 14, under the simple heading: \u201cOf Hermes\u201d; G. p. 65 M. i. 45; W. i. 77. The same verses are read in the appendix to the Anthologia Palatina, p. 768, n. 40.)\nSeven Stars far varied in their course revolved upon the [wide] Olympian plain; with them for ever will Eternity 1 spin [fate] 2:\u2014M\u0113n\u0113 that shines by night, [and] gloomy Kronos, [and] sweet H\u0113lios, and Paphi\u0113 who\u2019s carried in the shrine, 3 courageous Ar\u0113s, fair-wing\u00e8d Herm\u0113s, and Zeus the primal source 4 from whom Nature doth come.\nNow they themselves have had the race of\nmen entrusted to their care; so that in us there is a M\u0113n\u0113, Zeus, an Ar\u0113s, Paphi\u0113, a Kronos, H\u0113lios and Herm\u0113s.\nWherefore we are divided up [so as] to draw from the \u00e6therial spirit, 1 tears, laughter, anger, birth, reason, sleep, desire.\nTears are Kronos, birth Zeus, reason [is] Herm\u0113s, courage Mars, and M\u0113n\u0113 sleep, in sooth, and Cyther\u0113a desire, and H\u0113lios [is] laughter\u2014for \u2019tis because of him that justly every mortal thinking thing doth laugh and the immortal world.\nThis is the only known specimen of verses attributed to the Trismegistic tradition. Liddell and Scott, however, under \u201c\u03bd\u03c5\u03ba\u03c4\u03b9\u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c2,\u201d do not question this attribution, while Clement of Alexandria (Strom., vi. p. 633 [this is a reference of Wachsmuth\u2019s which I cannot verify]) praises the \u201cHymns of the Gods\u201d of Hermes. On the contrary, in Anthol. Palat., p. 442, n. 491, the seventh verse is ascribed to Theon of Alexandria.\n91:1 Or \u00c6on.\n91:2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9. But the Anthology reads \u201c\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u1f00\u03b5\u1f76 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u201d\u2014that is to say, Eternity or \u00c6on is for ever regulated or measured by the Seven; which seems to have no sense unless it means that the Seven are the instruments, whereby Eternity is divided into time.\n91:3 That is, Venus, the image of whom was, presumably, carried in a small shrine in processions.\n91:4 \u1f00\u03c1\u03c7\u03b9\u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03b8\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2.\n92:1 Meaning the one element or ether simply.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3: I. Excerpts by Stob\u00e6us: Excerpt XXIV. A Hymn of the Gods","type":"page"}