Alfonso X of Castile
General Estoria
before 1284
trans. Jason Colavito
2018
NOTE |
The General Estoria is a monumental work of history, running more than 7,000 pages in the most recent critical edition, and composed by a team of scholars under the direction of King Alfonso X of Castile in the late 1200s. The work intended to treat the entirety of world history, arranged in six parts and following the Biblical chronology as explicated by Eusebius and Jerome, with sections named for books of the Bible. To that end, the compilers of the work assembled a wide range of sources, including Arabic materials heretofore unseen in Europe. In the first part of the book, Alfonso describes the history of the Giants according to a relation given by an old woman from Chaldea to Asclepius, the disciple of Hermes Trismegistus. The text is a difficult composite of materials. Part of it is clearly Hermetic and appears to be a summary of a lost Arabic work of Hermetic material. However, no other Arabic work of Hermeticism that I have seen contains a similar account of the Giants,. The Arabic-influenced identification of Hermes with Enoch suggests that the underlying text might be a survival of Enochian lore of the Watchers and their offspring into the medieval period. The text is also inconsistent. It confuses Hermes Trismegistus with his son Tat (the Second Hermes, according to Alfonso), and it ostensibly discusses post-diluvian developments although it also takes place in the time of Enoch, who lived before the Flood. It appears that the redactors have attempted to edit an Islamic work describing antediluvian times to fit it into their Christian chronology but incompletely handled the revision.
My translation is from the 2006 edition published online by P. Sánchez-Prieto Borja, Rocío Díaz Moreno, and Elena Trujillo Belso. The numbering differs between editions; the manuscript numbers the relevant chapters as 2.1.18-22, but most scholars cite the text by the pages of the 1957 printed edition, 2.1.34-39. My translation is a bit rough in spots since the grammar and the subject matter are both complex and in places obscure, and the editorial confusion of the redactors made it still more unclear, but it should give a reasonable idea of what this hitherto untranslated account has to say. |
PART TWO
Here begins the second part of the General History which the most noble king Don Alfonso, son of the noble and holy king Don Fernando and queen Donna Beatriz, commanded to be made.
1. The Book of Joshua
The ninth chapter of the book of Joshua begins the story of King Busiris of Egypt and of his bravery until he was killed by Hercules. The eighteenth chapter of this book begins to relate the history of Hermes the philosopher. [...]
18. Of the philosopher Tat, who was named Hermes, and who was the son of another Hermes, Trismegistus, who was Mercury.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Joshua, there appeared a man who was possessed of great knowledge, and whom they called Tat. He was the son of the Hermes whom they called Trismegistus. This is what was said in the chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome. Hermes had exceeding intellect. We say that there were three men named Hermes. And they were all very wise and extremely famous. And the first of them is the one whom they called Mercury. We have spoken a bit about him before in this history. This man’s name was also that of the god of merchants because the pagans called upon him in business transactions the same way that we Christians now call upon and venerate our saints for their help when in distress, for all things, and all of the time. And they had him for a god of such needs, and took him for the son of King Jupiter. He was much wiser than the other two named Hermes. He was a complete master of the three fields of the trivium, which are grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, as we have related about him earlier in this history. They say, therefore, that he was named Trismegistus because he was master of the three fields of knowledge more perfectly than the other wise men of his time. And likewise, they called him the god of the trivium, and all those who wanted to learn something or everything about these three arts were instructed by Mercury. Now, we have to say some other things that happened regarding the reason for the knowledge of this Hermes Trismegistus.
19. Of the reason for the knowledge of Hermes.
Ovid, who was one of the wise men of the pagans, among the many books he composed, said in the beginning of his great book which treats all of the fables about the metamorphoses of things that there was a city between Athens and Thebes which was called Phocis in that time. It was as far from the kingdom of Athens as it was from that of Thebes. Of this, he says in Latin in this manner: Phocis, while still land, separates Aonia from Oeta, or as we are wont to say in the Castilian language, Phocis separates Thebes from Athens. And there, in Phocis, rises a mountain that is called Parnassus, and it is one of the highest in the world. And we speak now of one book by a wise man whose name was Asclepius, wherein we find that seven are the great mountains of the world. And he had spoken of these mountains for this reason: He says that he had found a book by Hermes, the great philosopher, of whom we have spoken, but he was unable to understand anything in it. Nor was he able to find anyone who could give him an explanation of the symbols in which it was written, or what they said, until he said he met a woman from Chaldea who was able to understand them. We want to narrate it just as she related it to him and in the same manner, using the same words as in the account in his book, which he relates this way:
20. Of the conversation that Asclepius had with that old woman he had found.
Asclepius the philosopher told the old woman that he had found a book by Hermes in which there were many figures distinguished one from the other in a way that resembled nothing known to him; and it would please him very much if she would tell him about them. She marveled at the things that he had found, for they resembled things from the ancient sciences, were very new to see, and it pleased her much to see them, for it is as the word of the Wise Man said, “Every new thing is pleasing.” And after this, he relates how he had asked questions, and had inquired about the same figures in many lands, which he wanted to read but could not understand. And now Asclepius began to converse with her, and he said that he had been unable to find anyone who was able to tell him anything about the significance of the figures in this book, except for this woman from Chaldea who said that she was from the race of Giants and that her proper name was Goghgobon. She was the niece of the giant Nimrod, who built the great Tower of Babel for fear of the Flood. Of this giant Nimrod and of that tower, we have spoken many times in the first part of this history, following what is related in the books of many wise men.
And the relation of Asclepius proceeds in this manner, that when he had found this woman, he conversed with her many times and they talked of many things, as a man might speak with his friend. He asked her about many secret things and many ancient things, guessing from her knowledge that this woman was very old. They spoke alone in each other’s company, and with great delight, and she told him many things that Asclepius said were amazing. And he said that as he looked at her, and really saw her, and took the measure of her, and calculated, he grew more amazed at her size, particularly the extremities of her limbs, so much that they seemed too large. And when they started to speak of these things, he showed her the book of Hermes that he had brought. He started to ask her about the figures or letters in it that he wanted to read but was unable to, and if she could explain the meaning of them, for she was knowledgeable in some of the sciences. She, after looking at them, replied to him, saying, “These figures are the letters of the Giants, my ancestors, from whose line I come. And these figures are of such a nature that just by seeing one of them, they speak to you of many works and contain within them many words. And we say that this is the figure of great knowledge and great power and great wisdom.”
Asclepius asked her which of the lineages of the generations of the Giants made these figures and how many generations of Giants there had been. She said to him: “You need to know what these figures and letters are. They come from the line of those Giants who took the great rocks and placed them one atop the others, who made the waters and the rivers run in their courses, who gathered up the land and piled it high to make the great mountains and the great knolls, and by their strength they opened up roads to fortified places so everyone could travel all over the world. And they opened routes to all things and all places, and they broke up every strong thing, so strong were they. Thus, the word of the Wise Man: ‘Force, not failure.’ And by this failure he meant that nothing is strong to the strong nor can it defend itself against strength. But those times when the frail overcame the strong, this happened either by wisdom or by chance.
“And they begat all the other generations of those Giants from which I come, those who were humbled. Each one of them went to a great land to possess its manors and its fortresses and its other places. They seized everything that they had not already taken, so great was their strength. And their power has no equal in this time.
“These figures I know very well because I am of their lineage, and truly their children and grandchildren have knowledge of them. And they were the first of all to measure the courses of the stars and the movements of the heavens, and they knew everything about them. And they knew the power and the natures of the four Elements, and you should know that this was the lineage of the Giants whom God gave strength and power and knowledge to make great things in this world and marvels such as their roads and that which pertained to what God had given them. And God did this for us, for we are those who came from the lineage of those gods. And moreover, they were the first who made great palaces and towers and castles, invented fortresses, and measured and erected the castles of stone and the other very great buildings, and they destroyed them when they wished. And it was as I told you. They opened up roads and fortified places over the whole world, which had been closed off with great stones and mountains so that it was not possible to pass or to walk anywhere. And they cleared the vast wastelands, which were very dark because of the thickness of the mountains, and gruesome because of their fearsome beasts and the many dangers they held. They sought out the places which were good in order to populate them. They tempered the sands and the deserts, and they left fallow those places they were not able to populate and left them to the grasses, as they are today. And they opened up roads between all of their cities, and they locked up Gog and Magog in a country beyond the Riphean Mountains. And they seized the lands of Atlantis which are in the West up against the southern country, and of this land of Atlas and this place, some said it was the earthly Paradise.”
21. Of the seven great Giants and greater wise men whose dwelling places took on their names.
“These Giants were the people of whom the philosophers and other wise men spoke, and they were very large and possessed great knowledge, great understanding, and powerful virtue. And no one must doubt that Enoch was called Hermes and was the father of all the philosophers. He was not of the lineage of the Giants [descended] from his father and mother, although he was not of large body like them. And this Hermes had the greatest willpower, and the greatest knowledge, and the greatest power of perception of all the knowledge in the world, all the things in heavens above and the earth below. And therefore, some said he resided among them more than forty years and learned all their knowledge of the heavens and all that is below.
“And moreover, many of the Giants were quite skilled, and understood much, and invented things, and shared what they knew. You should know that one of them was the first to discover the nature of and to master fire, which he ignited so everyone might have it. He was the one they called Vulcan. And, therefore, we pagans called him the god of the blacksmiths, for fire was extremely necessary to make anything great or good, nor are the smiths able to work without fire to put their iron into. And from this giant Vulcan, the god of the blacksmiths, the mountains that are always aflame had their name, volcanos. The first to plow the stones and to make houses was Poschoniel. All these giants built vaults, palaces, and bridges with arches. The first to cross the waters while swimming was the one who was named Bucaphuon. The first to work iron was Tubal Cain, and he was the first blacksmith. But there are other who say that Vulcan, the discoverer of fire, was the first blacksmith. And, moreover, each of the Giants invented all of the other skills, such as goldsmithing, carpentry, and ceramics. These included the singers and the winemakers and those who made things, and the weavers and all those who labored.
“And you should know that from all of these lineages, there were seven Giants who were more powerful than all the others in all in all the world. And these sought out the seven greatest and highest mountains in the world. And each one of them got his hands on the great lands surrounding them and irrigated them. And they gave their names to these seven mountains because their fame endures for all time in their peoples. I want to tell you how the name of each Giant came to be associated with his mountain. The first giant was called Alpiel, and his mountain is in India, which is why they call them the Alps of India. The second was Araban and his mountain is in Armenia and called Arabath [Ararat]. The third was called Curban, and this one’s mountain is in Hungary and goes by the name of Mount Turdo. And the fourth of these Giants was Cayoch, and his mountain is in Spain and is called Mount Cayo. The fifth giant was called Atlas, and his mountain is in the southern part of the lands of the West. And they say that his is Mount Atlantis, and it is known by another name, the Bright Mountains. The sixth was Giblem. His mountain was in Sicily and was called Mount Gibel [i.e. Etna]. It is the mountain that is always on fire. The seventh Giant was named Doobio, and his mountain is called Doma. And we have heard that this seventh Giant and his mountain are called by other names. Doma is Deucalion, and his mountain is Parnassus, which has two equal noses for its two heads, and these two equal peaks are so high that they reach the clouds in the sky. The name of one of its peaks is Creta [Cyrrha] and the other Nisa, and on Creta resided the Sun. The one who resided on Nisa was Bacchus, who was the son of King Jupiter and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, who was the king of Thebes, and Hermone [Harmonia], this woman being the daughter of Mars and Venus, as is told in the book of the lineage of the Giants and the other pagans. And this mountain lies between Athens and Thebes in the land of Phocis (such as we said at the beginning of this disquisition).
“And after Deucalion sewed the land, it was a good time for all things, and the mountain was very high. And he planted, and he began to conquer all the peoples of the surrounding area.” Thus, he [Asclepius?] speaks in his book of the seven mountains named for the Giants as an example of the greatest mountains in the world, despite there being many other great mountains in the world. And as he understood it, these mountains have these masters buried within them, for it was believed that their relatives had thrown much earth and many stones over them, as must have seemed apparent even back then.
22. Of the other subjects that Asclepius asked of Goghgolon and of her response.
After the old woman had told the wise man all of these things, he was very grateful and he asked her to tell him something of those who had made these letters and what they said, or how he might distinguish one from the others, or what power they had in them, or what knowledge, or what virtue. And this is how Goghgolon replied to him: “Our letters were brought down form the highest heavens in which there are many stars, from which derive a great number of figures which combine with one another in a great discourse, and they were brought down in this manner: They looked for the largest, clearest, and brightest stars, and if one had an even number of other stars around it, they marked down even points, and if there was an odd number, they made an odd number of points. They measured the two orders with a rod. The one order was of three lines and the other four; and the three primary stars of the one order and the four of the other made seven altogether and showed the seven heavens or planets; and they assembled the points of these lines by likeness. They said that the three lines were eight symbols that had the likeness of the seven planets and the head and tail of the dragon; and the four lines of the other order made sixteen symbols, and these were the twelve signs [of the Zodiac] and the four elements; and after all this, they assembled the seven planets and the head and tail of the dragon, which are the eight symbols, and the twelve signs and the four elements that were the other sixteen symbols, and the total of all this was twenty-four symbols, which show the twenty-four hours of the day and night. Thus, I have told you how through that which in the heavens above that shines light down on us, they placed a point to represent them, and how this furnished the twenty-four symbols, of such knowledge that one would have the power to understand everything and to know that which is to come and that which happened before, given by the grace of the heavens. And all of this developed according to the viewing of the stars in order to make even and odd points, as we have said.”
This is everything that Goghgobon told Asclepius. He was very thankful to her, and very pleased with what she had shared with him. And we have spoken so much here about the reason for the knowledge of Hermes, who was otherwise named Thath. And he was the son of the other Hermes Trismegistus, who was Mercury.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Joshua, there appeared a man who was possessed of great knowledge, and whom they called Tat. He was the son of the Hermes whom they called Trismegistus. This is what was said in the chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome. Hermes had exceeding intellect. We say that there were three men named Hermes. And they were all very wise and extremely famous. And the first of them is the one whom they called Mercury. We have spoken a bit about him before in this history. This man’s name was also that of the god of merchants because the pagans called upon him in business transactions the same way that we Christians now call upon and venerate our saints for their help when in distress, for all things, and all of the time. And they had him for a god of such needs, and took him for the son of King Jupiter. He was much wiser than the other two named Hermes. He was a complete master of the three fields of the trivium, which are grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, as we have related about him earlier in this history. They say, therefore, that he was named Trismegistus because he was master of the three fields of knowledge more perfectly than the other wise men of his time. And likewise, they called him the god of the trivium, and all those who wanted to learn something or everything about these three arts were instructed by Mercury. Now, we have to say some other things that happened regarding the reason for the knowledge of this Hermes Trismegistus.
19. Of the reason for the knowledge of Hermes.
Ovid, who was one of the wise men of the pagans, among the many books he composed, said in the beginning of his great book which treats all of the fables about the metamorphoses of things that there was a city between Athens and Thebes which was called Phocis in that time. It was as far from the kingdom of Athens as it was from that of Thebes. Of this, he says in Latin in this manner: Phocis, while still land, separates Aonia from Oeta, or as we are wont to say in the Castilian language, Phocis separates Thebes from Athens. And there, in Phocis, rises a mountain that is called Parnassus, and it is one of the highest in the world. And we speak now of one book by a wise man whose name was Asclepius, wherein we find that seven are the great mountains of the world. And he had spoken of these mountains for this reason: He says that he had found a book by Hermes, the great philosopher, of whom we have spoken, but he was unable to understand anything in it. Nor was he able to find anyone who could give him an explanation of the symbols in which it was written, or what they said, until he said he met a woman from Chaldea who was able to understand them. We want to narrate it just as she related it to him and in the same manner, using the same words as in the account in his book, which he relates this way:
20. Of the conversation that Asclepius had with that old woman he had found.
Asclepius the philosopher told the old woman that he had found a book by Hermes in which there were many figures distinguished one from the other in a way that resembled nothing known to him; and it would please him very much if she would tell him about them. She marveled at the things that he had found, for they resembled things from the ancient sciences, were very new to see, and it pleased her much to see them, for it is as the word of the Wise Man said, “Every new thing is pleasing.” And after this, he relates how he had asked questions, and had inquired about the same figures in many lands, which he wanted to read but could not understand. And now Asclepius began to converse with her, and he said that he had been unable to find anyone who was able to tell him anything about the significance of the figures in this book, except for this woman from Chaldea who said that she was from the race of Giants and that her proper name was Goghgobon. She was the niece of the giant Nimrod, who built the great Tower of Babel for fear of the Flood. Of this giant Nimrod and of that tower, we have spoken many times in the first part of this history, following what is related in the books of many wise men.
And the relation of Asclepius proceeds in this manner, that when he had found this woman, he conversed with her many times and they talked of many things, as a man might speak with his friend. He asked her about many secret things and many ancient things, guessing from her knowledge that this woman was very old. They spoke alone in each other’s company, and with great delight, and she told him many things that Asclepius said were amazing. And he said that as he looked at her, and really saw her, and took the measure of her, and calculated, he grew more amazed at her size, particularly the extremities of her limbs, so much that they seemed too large. And when they started to speak of these things, he showed her the book of Hermes that he had brought. He started to ask her about the figures or letters in it that he wanted to read but was unable to, and if she could explain the meaning of them, for she was knowledgeable in some of the sciences. She, after looking at them, replied to him, saying, “These figures are the letters of the Giants, my ancestors, from whose line I come. And these figures are of such a nature that just by seeing one of them, they speak to you of many works and contain within them many words. And we say that this is the figure of great knowledge and great power and great wisdom.”
Asclepius asked her which of the lineages of the generations of the Giants made these figures and how many generations of Giants there had been. She said to him: “You need to know what these figures and letters are. They come from the line of those Giants who took the great rocks and placed them one atop the others, who made the waters and the rivers run in their courses, who gathered up the land and piled it high to make the great mountains and the great knolls, and by their strength they opened up roads to fortified places so everyone could travel all over the world. And they opened routes to all things and all places, and they broke up every strong thing, so strong were they. Thus, the word of the Wise Man: ‘Force, not failure.’ And by this failure he meant that nothing is strong to the strong nor can it defend itself against strength. But those times when the frail overcame the strong, this happened either by wisdom or by chance.
“And they begat all the other generations of those Giants from which I come, those who were humbled. Each one of them went to a great land to possess its manors and its fortresses and its other places. They seized everything that they had not already taken, so great was their strength. And their power has no equal in this time.
“These figures I know very well because I am of their lineage, and truly their children and grandchildren have knowledge of them. And they were the first of all to measure the courses of the stars and the movements of the heavens, and they knew everything about them. And they knew the power and the natures of the four Elements, and you should know that this was the lineage of the Giants whom God gave strength and power and knowledge to make great things in this world and marvels such as their roads and that which pertained to what God had given them. And God did this for us, for we are those who came from the lineage of those gods. And moreover, they were the first who made great palaces and towers and castles, invented fortresses, and measured and erected the castles of stone and the other very great buildings, and they destroyed them when they wished. And it was as I told you. They opened up roads and fortified places over the whole world, which had been closed off with great stones and mountains so that it was not possible to pass or to walk anywhere. And they cleared the vast wastelands, which were very dark because of the thickness of the mountains, and gruesome because of their fearsome beasts and the many dangers they held. They sought out the places which were good in order to populate them. They tempered the sands and the deserts, and they left fallow those places they were not able to populate and left them to the grasses, as they are today. And they opened up roads between all of their cities, and they locked up Gog and Magog in a country beyond the Riphean Mountains. And they seized the lands of Atlantis which are in the West up against the southern country, and of this land of Atlas and this place, some said it was the earthly Paradise.”
21. Of the seven great Giants and greater wise men whose dwelling places took on their names.
“These Giants were the people of whom the philosophers and other wise men spoke, and they were very large and possessed great knowledge, great understanding, and powerful virtue. And no one must doubt that Enoch was called Hermes and was the father of all the philosophers. He was not of the lineage of the Giants [descended] from his father and mother, although he was not of large body like them. And this Hermes had the greatest willpower, and the greatest knowledge, and the greatest power of perception of all the knowledge in the world, all the things in heavens above and the earth below. And therefore, some said he resided among them more than forty years and learned all their knowledge of the heavens and all that is below.
“And moreover, many of the Giants were quite skilled, and understood much, and invented things, and shared what they knew. You should know that one of them was the first to discover the nature of and to master fire, which he ignited so everyone might have it. He was the one they called Vulcan. And, therefore, we pagans called him the god of the blacksmiths, for fire was extremely necessary to make anything great or good, nor are the smiths able to work without fire to put their iron into. And from this giant Vulcan, the god of the blacksmiths, the mountains that are always aflame had their name, volcanos. The first to plow the stones and to make houses was Poschoniel. All these giants built vaults, palaces, and bridges with arches. The first to cross the waters while swimming was the one who was named Bucaphuon. The first to work iron was Tubal Cain, and he was the first blacksmith. But there are other who say that Vulcan, the discoverer of fire, was the first blacksmith. And, moreover, each of the Giants invented all of the other skills, such as goldsmithing, carpentry, and ceramics. These included the singers and the winemakers and those who made things, and the weavers and all those who labored.
“And you should know that from all of these lineages, there were seven Giants who were more powerful than all the others in all in all the world. And these sought out the seven greatest and highest mountains in the world. And each one of them got his hands on the great lands surrounding them and irrigated them. And they gave their names to these seven mountains because their fame endures for all time in their peoples. I want to tell you how the name of each Giant came to be associated with his mountain. The first giant was called Alpiel, and his mountain is in India, which is why they call them the Alps of India. The second was Araban and his mountain is in Armenia and called Arabath [Ararat]. The third was called Curban, and this one’s mountain is in Hungary and goes by the name of Mount Turdo. And the fourth of these Giants was Cayoch, and his mountain is in Spain and is called Mount Cayo. The fifth giant was called Atlas, and his mountain is in the southern part of the lands of the West. And they say that his is Mount Atlantis, and it is known by another name, the Bright Mountains. The sixth was Giblem. His mountain was in Sicily and was called Mount Gibel [i.e. Etna]. It is the mountain that is always on fire. The seventh Giant was named Doobio, and his mountain is called Doma. And we have heard that this seventh Giant and his mountain are called by other names. Doma is Deucalion, and his mountain is Parnassus, which has two equal noses for its two heads, and these two equal peaks are so high that they reach the clouds in the sky. The name of one of its peaks is Creta [Cyrrha] and the other Nisa, and on Creta resided the Sun. The one who resided on Nisa was Bacchus, who was the son of King Jupiter and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, who was the king of Thebes, and Hermone [Harmonia], this woman being the daughter of Mars and Venus, as is told in the book of the lineage of the Giants and the other pagans. And this mountain lies between Athens and Thebes in the land of Phocis (such as we said at the beginning of this disquisition).
“And after Deucalion sewed the land, it was a good time for all things, and the mountain was very high. And he planted, and he began to conquer all the peoples of the surrounding area.” Thus, he [Asclepius?] speaks in his book of the seven mountains named for the Giants as an example of the greatest mountains in the world, despite there being many other great mountains in the world. And as he understood it, these mountains have these masters buried within them, for it was believed that their relatives had thrown much earth and many stones over them, as must have seemed apparent even back then.
22. Of the other subjects that Asclepius asked of Goghgolon and of her response.
After the old woman had told the wise man all of these things, he was very grateful and he asked her to tell him something of those who had made these letters and what they said, or how he might distinguish one from the others, or what power they had in them, or what knowledge, or what virtue. And this is how Goghgolon replied to him: “Our letters were brought down form the highest heavens in which there are many stars, from which derive a great number of figures which combine with one another in a great discourse, and they were brought down in this manner: They looked for the largest, clearest, and brightest stars, and if one had an even number of other stars around it, they marked down even points, and if there was an odd number, they made an odd number of points. They measured the two orders with a rod. The one order was of three lines and the other four; and the three primary stars of the one order and the four of the other made seven altogether and showed the seven heavens or planets; and they assembled the points of these lines by likeness. They said that the three lines were eight symbols that had the likeness of the seven planets and the head and tail of the dragon; and the four lines of the other order made sixteen symbols, and these were the twelve signs [of the Zodiac] and the four elements; and after all this, they assembled the seven planets and the head and tail of the dragon, which are the eight symbols, and the twelve signs and the four elements that were the other sixteen symbols, and the total of all this was twenty-four symbols, which show the twenty-four hours of the day and night. Thus, I have told you how through that which in the heavens above that shines light down on us, they placed a point to represent them, and how this furnished the twenty-four symbols, of such knowledge that one would have the power to understand everything and to know that which is to come and that which happened before, given by the grace of the heavens. And all of this developed according to the viewing of the stars in order to make even and odd points, as we have said.”
This is everything that Goghgobon told Asclepius. He was very thankful to her, and very pleased with what she had shared with him. And we have spoken so much here about the reason for the knowledge of Hermes, who was otherwise named Thath. And he was the son of the other Hermes Trismegistus, who was Mercury.