chapter II (pp. I36ff.), "Jiidisch- Kuhn, XI, 798.

orphisch-gnostiche Kulte und die * XXI, 14, 15.
Zauberbiicher" ; and G. A. Lobeck, ' VI, 4.
Aglaophanms, 1829, 2 vols. *I, IJ VIII, 1-4.
X SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS 289
A. D.). Clement speaks of forty-two books by Hermes which are regarded as "indispensable." Of these ten are called "Hieratic" and deal with the laws, the gods, and the training of the priests. Ten others detail the sacrifices, prayers, processions, festivals, and other rites of Egyptian worship. Two contain hymns to the gods and rules for the king. Six are medical, "treating of the structure of the body and of diseases and instruments and medicines and about the eyes and the last about women." Four are astro- nomical or astrological, and the remaining ten deal with cosmography and geography or with the equipment of the priests and the paraphernalia of the sacred rites. Clement does not say so, but from his brief summary one can imagine how full these volumes probably were of occult virtues of natural substances, of magical procedure, and of intimate relations and interactions between nature, stars, and spirits. lamblichus repeats the statement of Seleucus that Hermes wrote twenty thousand volumes and the asser- tion of Manetho that there were 36,525 books, a number doubtless connected with the supposed length of the year, three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter days.^ lamblichus adds that Hermes wrote one hundred treatises on the ethereal gods and one thousand concerning the celestial gods.^ He is aware, however, that most books attributed to Hermes were not really composed by him, since in other passages he speaks of "the books which are circulated under the name of Hermes," ^ and explains that "our ancestors . , . inscribed all their own writings with the name of Hermes," * thus dedicating them to him as the patron deity of language and theology. By the time of lamblichus these books had been translated from the Egyp- tian tongue into Greek.
There has come down to us under the name of Hermes Poiman- a collection of seventeen or eighteen fragments which is hermetic ^ generally known as the Hermetic Corpus. Of the frag- Corpus.
'VIII, I. 'VIII, 4.
"VIII, 2. n, I.
290 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ments the first and chief is entitled Poimandres {HoLnavbp-qs), a name which is sometimes apphed to the entire Corpus. Another fragment entitled Asclepius, since it is in the form of a dialogue between him and "Mercurius Trismegis- tus," exists in a Latin form which has been ascribed probably incorrectly to Apuleius of Madaura as translator {Asclepius . . . Mercurii trismegisti dialogus Lucio Apuleio Madau- rensi philosopho Platonico interprete) . None of the Greek manuscripts of the Corpus seems older than the fourteenth century, although Reitzenstein thinks that they may all be derived from the version which Michael Psellus had before him in the eleventh century.^ But the concluding prayer of the Poimandres exists in a third century papyrus, and the alchemist Zosimus in the fourth century seems acquainted with the entire collection. The treatises in this Corpus are concerned primarily with religious philosophy or theosophy, with doctrines similar to those of Plato concerning the soul and to the teachings of the Gnostics, The moral and re- ligious instruction is associated, however, with a physics and cosmology very favorable to astrology and magic. Of magic in the narrow sense there is little in the Corpus, but a Hermetic fragment preserved by Stobaeus affirms that "philosophy and magic nourish the soul." Astrology plays a much more prominent part, and the stars are ranked as visible gods, of whom the sun is by far the greatest. All seven planets nevertheless control the changes in the world of nature; there are seven human types corresponding to them; and the twelve signs of the zodiac also govern the human body. Only the chosen few who possess gnosis or are capable of receiving nous can escape the decrees of fate as administered by the stars and ultimately return to the spiritual world, passing through "choruses of demons" and "courses of stars" and reaching the Ogdoad or eighth heaven above and beyond the spheres of the seven planets. ^ Such
'R. Reitzenstein, Poimatuires, ^Citations supporting this and
Leipzig, 1904, p. 319. This work the preceding sentences may be
is the fullest scientific treatment found in Kroll's article on
of the subject. Hermes Trismegistus in Pauly-
SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS
291
Gnostic cosmology and demonolog}% especially the location of demons amid the planetary spheres, provides favorable ground for the development of astrological necromancy.
Not only is a belief in astrology implied throughout the Astro- Poimandres, but a number of separate astrological treatises treatises are extant in whole or part under the name of Hermes Tris- |jcnbed to megistus/ and he is frequently cited as an authority in other Greek astrological manuscripts.- The treatises attributed to him comprise one upon general method,^ one on the names and powers of the twelve .signs, one on astrological medicine addressed to Ammon the Egyptian,^ one on thunder and lightning, and some hexameters on the relation of earth- quakes to the signs of the zodiac. This last is also ascribed to Orpheus.^ There are various allusions to and versions of tracts concerning the relation of herbs to the planets or signs of the zodiac or thirty-six decans.® These treatises attribute magic virtues to plants, include a prayer to be repeated when plucking each herb, and tell how to use the
Wissowa, 809-820. The Poiman- dres was translated into English by John Everard, D.D., a mystic but also a popular preacher whose outspoken sermons caused his fre- quent arrest and imprisonment during the reigns of James I and Charles I. James is reported to have said of him, "What is this Dr. Ever-out? Hi? name shall be Dr. Never-out," {Diet. Nat. Biog,). Dr. Everard's translation was printed in 1650 and again in 1657 when the "Asclepius" was added to it. In 1884 it appeared again in the Bath Occult Reprint Series with an introduction by Hargrave Jennings, and the second volume in the same series was Hermes' The Virgin of the World, pub- lished at London. Kroll mentions only the more recent translation by Mead, Thrice Greatest Her- mes. London, 1906.
^ Consult the bibliography in Kroll's article in Pauly-Wissowa.
' See the various volumes of
Catalogiis codicum astrologorum Graecorum, passim.
^ Unprinted.
■* An English translation by John Harvey was printed in Lon- don, 1657, i2mo. It also exists in manuscript form in the British Museum ; Sloane 1734, fols. 283- 98, "The learned work of Hermes Trismegistus intituled hys Phis- icke Mathematycke or Mathe- maticall Physickes, direct to Ham- mon Kinge of Egvpte."
'Orphica, ed. Abel (1885), p. 141.
" It was to a work on this last subject that Pamphilus, cited by Galen, referred in mentioning the herb aerov, but this plant is not named in the extant treatise on the decans. Such treatises are more or less addressed to As- clepius : printed in J. B. Pitra, Analecta Sacra, V, ii, 279-go; Cat. cod. antral. Grace. IV, 134; VI, 83; VII, 231; VIII, ii, 159; VIII, iii, 151; and by Ruelle, Rev. Phil, XXXII, 247.
292
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Hermetic works of alchemy.
Nechepso
and
Petosiris.
Manetho.
astrological figures of the decans, engraved on stones, as healing amulets.
Works under the name of Hermes Trismegistus are cited by Greek alchemists of the closing Roman Empire, such as Zosimus, Stephanus, and Olympiodorus, but those Her- metic treatises of alchemy which are extant are of late date and much altered. ■"• Some treatises are preserved only in Arabic; others are medieval Latin fabrications. The Greek alchemists, however, seem to have recited the mystic hymn of Hermes from the Poimandres?
Hellenistic and Roman astrology sought to extend its roots far back into Egyptian antiquity by putting forth spurious treatises under the names, not only of Hermes Trismegistus, but also of Nechepso and Petosiris,^ who were regarded respectively as an Egyptian king and an Egyptian priest who had lived at least seven centuries before Christ. Indeed, they were held to be the recipients of divine revela- tion from Hermes and Asclepius. A lengthy astrological treatise, which Pliny ^ is the first to cite and from a four- teenth book of which Galen ^ mentions a magic ring of jasper engraved with a dragon and rays, seems to have appeared in their names probably at Alexandria in the Hellenistic period. Only fragments and citations ascribed to Nechepso and Petosiris are now extant.^
Yet another astrological work which claims to be drawn from the secret sacred books and cryptic monuments of ancient Egypt is ascribed to Manetho. It is a compilation
^Berthelot (1885), pp. 133-6, and his article on Hermes Trisme- gistus in La Grande Encyclopedie; also Kroll on Hermes in Pauly- Wissowa, 799.
'Berthelot (1885), p. 134.
* Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie grecque, 1899, PP- xi, 519-20, 563-4-
*NH, n, 21; VH, 50.
"Kiihn, Xn, 207.
"They have been collected and edited by E. Riess, Ncchepsonis et Petosiridis frag'menta niagica, in Philologus, Supplbd. VI, Got-
tingen (1891-93), pp. 323-394- See also F. Boll, Die Erforschung der antikcn Astrologie, in Neue Jahrb. fiir das klass. Altert., XI (1908), p. 106, and his dissertation of the same title published at Bonn, 1890. I have found that Riess, while in- cluding some of the passages at- tributed to Nechepso by the sixth century medical writer, Aetius, seems to have overlooked the "Emplastrum Nechepsonis e cu- presso," Aetius, Tetrabibl., IV, Sermo III, cap. 19 (p. 771 in the edition of Stephanus, 15^).
X SPURIOUS MYSnC WRITINGS 293
in verse of prognostications from the various constellations and is regarded as the work of several writers, of whom the oldest is placed in the reign of Alexander Severus in the third century.^
Orpheus is another author more cited than preserved by The classical antiquity. Pliny called him the first writer on herbs Orpheus, and suspected him of magic. Ernest Riess affirms that Rohde (Psyche, p. 398) "has abundantly proved that Orpheus' followers were among the chief promulgators of purifications and charms against evil spirits." ^ Among poems of some length extant under Orpheus' name the one of most interest to us is the Lithica, where in 770 lines the virtues of some thirty gems are set forth with considerable allusion to magic.^ The authorship is uncertain, but the verse is supposed to follow the prose treatise by Damigeron who lived in the second century B. C. The date of the poem is now generally fixed in the fourth century of our era, although King ^ argued for an earlier date. I agree with him that the allusion in lines 71-74 to decapitation on the charge of magic is, taken alone, too vague and blind to be associated with any particular event or time; editors since Tyrwhitt have connected it with the law of Constantius against magic and the persecution of magicians in 371 A. D. But King's contention that the Lithica is by the same author as the Argonaiitica, also ascribed to Orpheus, and is there- fore of early date, falls to the ground since the Argonaiitica, too, is now dated in the fourth century.
^ Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie rus texts in the Cunningham
grecquc, 1898, p. xiii. Axt and Memoirs of the Royal Irish Acad-
Riegler, Manethonis Apotclesmati- emy.
corum libri sex Cologne, 1832. 3 ^j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Lithica
Also edited by Koechly. is contained in Orphica, ed. E.
_*_E. Riess, On Ancient Super- Abel, Lipsiae et Pragae, 1885. A
stition, in Transactions Ameri- rather too free English verse
can Philological Association translation, Orpheus on Gems,
(1895), XXVI, 40-55. Grenfell is given in C. W. King, T/j^ /v^a/M-
(1921), p. 151, announces that J. ral History, Ancient and Modern,
G. Smyly is about to publish "a of Precious Stones and Gems and
remarkable fragment of an Orphic of Precious Metals, London, 1865.
ritual" among some thirty papy- * Pp. 397-98.
294
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Argument of the poem.
Magic powers of stones.
The Lithica opens by representing Hermes as bestowing upon mankind the precious lore of the marvelous virtues of gems. In his cave are stored stones which banish ghosts, robbers, and snakes, which bring health, happiness, victory in war and games, honor at courts and success in love, and which insure safety on journeys, the favor of the gods, and enable one to read the hidden thoughts of others and to understand the language of the birds as they predict the future. Few persons, however, avail themselves of this mystic lore, and those who do so are liable to be executed on the charge of magic. After this introduction, which may be regarded as a piquant appetizer to whet the reader's taste for further details, the virtues of individual stones are described, first in the words of Theodamas, a wise and divine man ^ whom the author meets on his way to perform annual sacrifice at an altar of the Sun, where as a child he narrowly escaped from a deadly snake, and then in a speech of the seer Helenus to Philoctetes which Theodamas quotes. Greek gods are often mentioned; as the poem proceeds the virtues of a number of gems are attributed to Apollo rather than Hermes; and there are allusions to Greek mythology and the Trojan war. Some gems are found in animals, for in- stance, in the viper or the brain of the stag.
Let us turn to some examples of the marvelous virtues of particular stones. The crystal wins favorable answers from the gods to prayers; kindles fire, if held over sticks, yet itself remains cold; as a ligature benefits kidney trouble. Sacrifices in which the adamant is employed win the favor of the gods ; it is also called Lethaean because it makes one forget worries, or the milk-stone (galactis) because it re- news the milk of sheep or goats when powdered in brine and sprinkled over them. Worn as an amulet it counteracts the evil eye and gains royal favor for its bearer. The agate is an agricultural amulet and should be attached to the plow- man's arm and the horns of the oxen. Other stones help vineyards, bring rain or avert hail and pests from the crops.
* Line 94, Trfpl povi QeioddfiavTL', line 1 65, baiixovio^ ^s.
X SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS 295
Lychnis prevents a pot from boiling on a fire and makes it boil when the fire is dead. The magnet was used by the witches Circe and Medea in their spells; an unchaste wife is unable to remain in the bed where this stone has been placed with an incantation. Other stones cure snake-bite and various diseases, serve as love-charms or aids in child- birth, or counteract incantations and enchantments.
To make the gem sidcritis or oreites utter vocal oracles Magic the operator must abstain for three weeks from animal food, ^^^^
the public baths, and the marriage bed ; he is then to wash P?wers of
. ^ , , . . divination,
and clothe the gem like an mfant and employ various sacri- fices, incantations, and illuminations. The gem Liparaios, known to the learned Magi of Assyria, when burnt on a bloodless altar with hymns to the Sun and Earth attracts snakes from their holes to the flame. Three youths robed in white and carrying two-edged swords should cut up the snake who comes nearest the fire into nine pieces, three for the Sun, three for the earth, three for the wise and prophetic maiden. These pieces are then to be cooked with wine, salt, and spices and eaten by those who wish to learn the language of birds and beasts. But further the gods must be invoked by their secret names and libations poured of milk, wine, oil, and honey. What is not eaten must be buried, and the participants in the feast are then to return home wearing chaplets but otherwise naked and speaking to no one whom they may meet. On their arrival home they are to sacrifice mixed spices. It will be recalled that Apollonius of Tyana and the Arabs also learned the language of the birds by eating snake-flesh.
Thus gems are potent in religion and divination, love- Powers charms and child-birth, medicine and agriculture. The poem compared fails, however, to touch upon their uses in alchemy or rela- with herbs, tions to the stars, nor does it contain much of anything that can be called necromancy. But the author ranks the virtues of stones above those of herbs, whose powers disappear with age. Moreover, some plants are injurious, whereas the mar- velous virtues of stones are almost all beneficial as well as
296
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic herbs and demons in Orphic rites.
Books ascribed to Zoroaster.
permanent. "There is great force in herbs," he says, "but far greater in stones," ^ an observation often repeated in the middle ages.
More stress is laid upon the power of demons and herbs in a description which has been left us by Saint Cyprian,^ bishop of Antioch in the third century, of some pagan mys- teries upon Mount Olympus into which he was initiated when a boy of fifteen and which have been explained as Orphic rites. His initiation was under the charge of seven hierophants, lasted for forty days, and included instruction in the virtues of magic herbs and visions of the operations of demons. He was also taught the meaning of musical notes and harmonies, and saw how times and seasons were governed by good and evil spirits. In short, magic, pseudo- science, occult virtue, and perhaps astrology formed an important part of Orphic lore.
Cumont states in his Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism that "towards the end of the Alexandrine period the books ascribed to the half -mythical masters of the Persian science, Zoroaster, Hosthanes and Hystaspes, were translated into Greek, and until the end of paganism those names enjoyed a prodigious authority." ^ Pliny regarded Zoroaster as the founder of magic and we have met other examples of his reputation as a magician. Later we shall find him cited several times in the Byzantine Geoponica which seems to use a book ascribed to him on the sympathy and antipathy existing between natural objects.^ Naturally a number of pseudo-Zoroastrian books were in circulation, some of which Porphyry, the Neo- Platonist, is said to have suppressed. At least he tells us in his Life of Plotinus ^ that certain Christians and other men
'Lines 410-41 1.
' Confessio S. Cypriani, in Acta Sanctorum, ed. BoUandists, Sept., VII, 222; L. Preller, Philologus (1846), I, 349ff.; cited by A. B. Cook, Zeus, Cambridge, 1914, I, iio-iii. The work is treated more
fully below in Chapter 18.
^ Franz Cumont, op. cit., Chi- cago, 191 1, p. 189. See also Windischmann, Zoroastrische Stu- dien, Berlin, 1863.
* See below, Chapter 26. "Cap. 16.
X SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS 297
claimed to possess certain revelations of Zoroaster, but that
he advanced many arguments to show that their book was
not written by Zoroaster but was a recent composition.
There has been preserved, however, in the writings of J^^
,, . r 1 1 Chaldean
the Neo-Platonists a collection of passages known as the Oracles.
Zoroastrian Logia or Chaldean Oracles ^ and which "present ... a heterogeneous mass, now obscure and again bom- bastic, of commingled Platonic, Pythagorean, Stoic, Gnostic, and Persian tenets." ^ Not only are these often cited by the Neo-Platonists, but Porphyry, lamblichus, and Proclus composed commentaries upon them.^ Some think that these citations and commentaries have reference to a single work put together by Julian the Chaldean in the period of the Antonines. This "mass of oriental superstitions, a medley of magic, theurgy, and delirious metaphysics," ^ was reverenced by the Neo-Platonists of the following centuries as a sacred authority equal to the Timaeus of Plato. Our next chapter will therefore deal with the writings of the Neo-Platonists upon whom this spurious mystic literature had so much influence.
* Edited by Kroll, De oraculis Sacra, V, 2, pp. 192-95, Up6k\ov bt
Chaldaicis, in Breslaii Philolog. rrjs XaXdaiKijs (l)i\oao4>Lai. Many quo-
Abhandl., VII (1894), 1-76. Cory, tations of oracles from Porphyry's
Ancient Fragments, London, 1832. De philosophia ex oraculis hausta
' L. A. Gray in A. V. W. Jack- are made by Eusebius, Praeparatio
son, Zoroaster, 1901, pp. 259-60. evangclica, in PG, XXI.
' G. Wolff, Porphyrii de phi- ' Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie
losophia ex oraculis hauriendis, grecque, p. 599. Berlin, 1886. Pitra, Analecta