Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice-greatest Hermes") is the legendary author of the Hermetic writings.

Established The figure combines the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth. Texts under his name include the philosophical Corpus Hermeticum and technical works on astrology, alchemy and magic.^[1] Tradition / belief Renaissance readers such as Ficino treated Hermes as an ancient sage, a contemporary or forerunner of Moses, who foresaw Christian truths.^[2] Established Isaac Casaubon's De rebus sacris (1614) showed that the Greek of the Hermetica belongs to the early Christian centuries; modern scholarship accepts a Roman-era date for the texts.^[3] Scholarly debate How much genuinely Egyptian religious thought the Hermetica contain remains discussed; recent scholarship finds more Egyptian elements than was assumed in the mid-twentieth century.^[4]

References

↑ G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes (1906). vol. 1 prolegomena; public domain.
↑ Ficino, preface to Pimander (1471).
↑ Isaac Casaubon, De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI (1614). Latin; Internet Archive.
↑ Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes (1986). Cited only.

Independent educational project. Not affiliated with the Latin Mass Society (UK) or any church body. Claims are labelled per Help:Claim labels.

[1] G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes (1906). vol. 1 prolegomena; public domain.

[2] Ficino, preface to Pimander (1471).

[3] Isaac Casaubon, De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI (1614). Latin; Internet Archive.

[4] Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes (1986). Cited only.

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