CHAPTER X

THE SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS OF HERMES, ORPHEUS, AND ZOROASTER
Mystic works of revelation — The Hermetic books — Poimandres and the Hermetic Corpus — Astrological treatises ascribed to Hermes — Hermetic works of alchemy — Nechepso and Petosiris — Manetho — The Lithica of Orpheus — Argument of the poem — Magic powers of stones — Magic rites to gain powers of divination — Power of gems compared with herbs — Magic herbs and demons in Orphic rites — Books ascribed to Zoroaster — The Chaldean Oracles.
There were in circulation in the Roman Empire many writ- Mystic ings which purported to be of divine origin and authorship, ^velation. or at least the work of ancient culture-heroes and founders of religions who were of divine descent and divinely in- spired. These oracular and mystic compositions usually pretend to great antiquity and often claim as their home such hoary lands as Egypt and Chaldea, although in the Hellenic past Apollo and in the Roman past the Sibylline books ^ also afford convenient centers about which forgeries cluster. Assuming as these writings do to disclose the secrets of ancient priesthoods and to publish what should not be revealed to the vulgar crowd, they may be confidently expected to embody a great deal of superstition and magic along with their expositions of mystic theologies. Also the authors, editors, or publishers of astrological, alchemistic, and other pseudo-scientific treatises could not be expected to resist the temptation of claiming a venerable and cryptic origin for some of their books. Moreover, such pseudo- literature was not entirely unjustified in its affirmation of high antiquity. Few things in intellectual history antedate magic, and these spurious compositions are not especially
* See Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte und Forschiingen, Halle, 1898; Alex- andre, Oracida Sibyllina, 2nd ed., Paris, 1869; Charles (1913) H, 368 ff.
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288 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
distinguished by new ideas, although they to some extent reflect the progress made in learning, occult as well as scien- tific, in the Hellenistic age. It must be added that much of their contents depends for its effect entirely upon its claim to eminent authorship and great antiquity and upon the im- pressionability of its public. To-day most of it seems trivial commonplace or marked by the empty vagueness characteristic of oracular utterances. I shall attempt no complete exposition or exhaustive treatment of such writ- ings ^ but touch upon a few examples which bear upon the relations of science and magic. The Chief among these are the Hermetic books or writings
books. attributed to Hermes the Egyptian or Trismegistus. "Under
this name," wrote Steinschneider in 1906, "there exists in many languages a literature, for the most part superstitious, which seems to have not yet been treated in its totality." ^ The Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, known in Greek as OioW, QccO, and Tar, was identified with Hermes, and the epithet "thrice-great" is also derived from the Egyptian aa aa, "the great Great." Citations of works ascribed to this Hermes Trismegistus can be traced back as early as the first century of our era.^ He is also mentioned or quoted by various church fathers from Athenagoras to Augustine and often figures in the magical papyri. The historian Ammi- anus Marcellinus ^ in the fourth century ranks him with the great sages of the past such as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Apollonius of Tyana. Our two chief descriptions of the Hermetic books from the period of the Roman Empire are found in the Stromata^ of the Christian Clement of Alex- andria (C.150-C.220 A.D.) and in the De mysteriis^ ascribed to the Neo-Platonist lamblichus (died about 330
* Besides the works to be cited ^Steinschneider (1906), 24. He
later in this chapter, the reader mentions the dissertation of R.
may consult : A. Dieterich, Ab- Pietschmann, Hermes Trismegis-
raxas (Studien z. relig. gcsch. d. tus, Leipzig, 1875.
.y/)af. a/^.), Leipzig, 1891, especially ^ See Galen, citing Pamphilus,