XVI. Thk Disoifues of Thricb-Orkatest Hbrmss 457-481

Ptah, Sekhet and I-em-hetep (Asdepius) 457
Nefer-Tem . . .458
Imhotep-Imuth-Asclepius .... 459
Thath-Tat ...... 461
The Incarnations of Thoth ... 463
The Disciples of Lord Hermes in Petoeiris and
Nechepso ..... 464
465 466 467 469 471 472 473 474 475 476 477
Tosothroe-Asclepius ....
Imuth-Asclepius the Master-Mason and Poet
JSsculapius the Healer
Asclepius in Trisnegistic Tradition .
Concerning Ammon ....
Prophet and Eling ....
Amenhotep- Asclepius
The Sacred Group of Four .
James^ John and Peter
The Triad of Disciples
Chnimi the Good Daimon
Osiris Disciple of Agathodaimon the Thrice-greatest 478
Logos-Mind the Good Daimon 478
Chnum Good Mind the Mon 480
Isis, Lady of Wisdom, Disciple of Thrice-greatest
Hermes . .481
Was he one or many, merging
Name and fame in one, Like a stream, to which, converging,
Many streamlets run ?
Who shall call his dreamn fallacious ?
Who has searched or sought All the unexplored and spacious
Universe of thought ?
Who in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line Mark the border-land dividing
Human and divine ?
Trismegistus ! Three times greatest !
How thy name sublime Has descended to this latest
Progeny of time !
Longfellow, Htrmes Trimugidui,^
1 This poem is dated Janumry 1882. Chambers (p. 156, n.) sajs : " It is noteworthy that the last poem of Longfellow was a lyrical ode in celebration of Hermes TViamegistna. '*
Thrice-Greatest Hermes
THE EEMAINS OF THE TMSMEGISTIC LITEEATUEE
Wbitir and Ssadeb
LiTTLB did I think when, years ago, I began to translate some of the Trismegistic tractates, that the undertaking would finally grow into these volumes. My sole object then was to render the more important of these beautiful theosophic treatises into an English that might, perhaps, be thought in some small way worthy of the Oreek originals. I was then more attracted by the sermons themselves than by the manifold problems to which they gave rise; I found greater pleasure in the spiritual atmosphere they created, than in the critical considera- tions which insistently imposed themselves upon my mind, as I strove to realise their importance for the history of the development of religious ideas in the Western world..
And now, too, when I take pen in hand to grapple with the difficulties of. " introduction " for those who will be good enough to follow my all-insufficient labours, it is to the tractates themselves that I turn again and again for refreshment in the task; and every time I turn to them I am persuaded that the best of them are worthy of all the labour a man can bestow upon them.
VOUL 1
2 THRICE-OREATEST HERMES
Though it is true that the form of these volumes, with their Prolegomena and Commentaries and numer- ous notes, is that of a technical treatise, it has never- theless been my aim to make them throughout accessible to the general reader, even to the man of one language who, though no scholar himself, may yet be deeply interested in such studies. These volumes must, there- fore, naturally fall short of the precision enjoyed by the works of technical specialists which are filled with direct quotations from a number of ancient and modem tongues ; on the other hand, they have the advantage of appealing to a larger public, while at the same time the specialist is given every indication for controlling the statements and translations.
Nor should the general reader be deterred by an introductory volume under the imposing sub-title of Prolegomena, imagining that these chapters are neces- sarily of a dull, critical nature, for the subjects dealt with are of immense interest in themselves (at least they seem so to me), and are supplementary to the Trismegistic sermons, frequently adding material of a like nature to that in our tractates.
Some of these Prolegomena have grown out of the Commentaries, for I found that occasionally subjects lent themselves to such lengthy digressions that they could be removed to the Prolegomena to tiie great advantage of the Commentary. The arrangement of the material thus accumulated, however, has proved a very difficult task, and I have been able to preserve but little logical sequence in the chapters ; but this is owing mainly to the fact that the extant Trismegistic literature itself is preserved to us in a most chaotic fashion, and I as yet see no means of inducing any sure order into this chaos.
REICAIKS OF THE TRISMBGISTIC LTTBRATURB 3
The Extant Tbisiobgistio Litsratube
To distinguish our writings both from the Egyptian "Books of Thoth" and the Hermes Prayers of the popular Egyptian cult, as found in the Greek Magic Papyri, and also from the later Hermetic Alchemical literature, I have adopted the term Trismegistic litera- ture in place of the usual designation Hermetic.
Of this Greek Trismegistic literature proper, much is lost; that which remains to us, of which I have en- deavoured to gather together every fragment and scrap, falls under five heads :
A. The Corpus Hermeticum.
B. The Perfect Sermon, or the Asclepius.