{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th3/th338.htm","path":"gno/th3/th338.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th3/th338.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\ni. De Civitate Dei, xxiii.; Hoffmann (E.), i. 392 (Vienna, 1899-1900). 1\nAugustine is arguing against the views of Appuleius (first half of the second century) on the cult of the \u201cdaimones,\u201d and in so doing introduces a long disquisition on the doctrine of \u201cEgyptian Hermes, whom they call Thrice-greatest,\u201d concerning image-worship, or the consecrated and \u201censouled,\u201d or \u201canimated,\u201d statues of the gods.\nIn the course of his remarks the Bishop of Hippo quotes at length from a current Latin version 2 of \u201cThe Perfect Sermon\u201d or \u201cAsclepius\u201d (though without himself giving any title), which we see at once must have been the very same text that has come down to us in its entirety. It is precisely the same text, word for word, with ours; the variants being practically of the most minute character.\nFirst of all Augustine quotes from P. S. A., xxiii. 3, xxiv. 2. This \u201cprophecy\u201d of the downfall of the Egyptian religion Augustine naturally takes as referring to the triumph of Christianity, and so he ridicules Hermes \u201c[qui] tam impudenter dolebat, quam imprudentur sciebat.\u201d\nii. Ibid., xxiv.; Hoffmann, i. 396.\nThe Bishop of Hippo begins his next chapter with a quotation from P. S. A., xxxvii. 1, 2, on the same subject, and proceeds scornfully to criticise the statements of the Trismegistic writer.\niii. Ibid., xxvi.; Hoffmann, i. 402.\nAfter quoting the sentence, from P. S. A., xxiv. 3, in which Hermes says that the pure temples of Egypt will all be polluted with tombs and corpses, Augustine proceeds to contend that the gods of Egypt are all dead men, and in support of his contention he quotes P. S. A., xxxvii. 3, 4.\n249:1 Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. xxx. (Imp. Acad. of Vienna). The date of the writing of the treatise, De Civitate Dei, is fixed as being about 413-426 A.D.\n249:2 Hujus \u00c6gyptii verba, sicut in nostram linguam interpretata sunt.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3: II. References and Fragments in the Fathers: VIII. Augustine","type":"page"}