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NOTE |
In the Hermetic tradition, there were three men named Hermes, two who lived before the Flood and one who lived after. This scheme was medieval in origin but grew out of the Greco-Roman accounts of five men named Mercury (Greek: Hermes) and the Christian and early alchemical notion that there were two men named Hermes, one before the Flood and one after. These explanations were obvious and transparent attempts to rationalize myths and explain how a mythical character could be present at different times throughout history. To the Christian two, the Islamic successors to Abu Ma'shar added a third in order to place Hermes both in Egypt and in Babylon. Through the Islamic texts, the Latin West inherited the story of the Three Hermeses, though it competed with the more traditional Two Hermeses. The texts below are a representative sample of some of the key texts in the development of the legend of the Three Hermeses in both the East and the West.
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Cicero, De natura deorum 3.22 (45 BCE)
The first Mercury has Cælus and Dies for parents, and is represented by tradition as ithyphallic, an effect due to the sight of Proserpine; the second is the son of Valens and Phoronis, and is the deity in the world below who is also identified with Trophonius; the third is the offspring of the third Jupiter and Maia, and from him and Penelope Pan is said to have been born; the fourth, whose name the Egyptians think it wrong to utter, is the son of Nilus; the fifth is the one worshipped by the Pheneatæ, who is said to have slain Argus, and on that account to have fled to Egypt, where he taught the inhabitants laws and letters. The Egyptians call him Theuth, and the first month of the year is known amongst them by the same name. The first Æsculapius is the son of Apollo; he is worshipped by the Arcadians, and is said to have been the first to invent the probe and to bandage wounds; the second is the brother of the second Mercury; he was struck by lightning, and is said to have been buried at Cynosuræ; the third is the son of Arsippus and Arsinoe, and according to report first introduced purging and the extraction of teeth; his tomb and grove are shown in Arcadia not far from the river Lusius.
Translated by Francis Brooks
Translated by Francis Brooks
Peudo-Manetho, Book of Sothis (c. 150 CE)
In George Syncellus, Chronicle 41 (c. 800 CE)
It remains, therefore, to make certain extracts concerning the dynasties of the Egyptians, from the writings of Manetho the Sebennyte, the high priest of the idolatrous temple of Egypt in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. These, according to his own account, he copied from the inscriptions which were engraved in the sacred dialect, and hieroglyphic characters, upon the columns set up in the Seriadic land, by Thoth, the first Hermes; and after the deluge, translated from the sacred dialect into the Greek tongue in hieroglyphic characters: and committed to writing in books, and deposited by Agathodaemon, the son of the second Hermes, the father of Tat, in the temple-shrines of Egypt.
Adapted from the translation by I. P. Cory (1826/1832)
It remains, therefore, to make certain extracts concerning the dynasties of the Egyptians, from the writings of Manetho the Sebennyte, the high priest of the idolatrous temple of Egypt in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. These, according to his own account, he copied from the inscriptions which were engraved in the sacred dialect, and hieroglyphic characters, upon the columns set up in the Seriadic land, by Thoth, the first Hermes; and after the deluge, translated from the sacred dialect into the Greek tongue in hieroglyphic characters: and committed to writing in books, and deposited by Agathodaemon, the son of the second Hermes, the father of Tat, in the temple-shrines of Egypt.
Adapted from the translation by I. P. Cory (1826/1832)
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 1.27 (first century BCE)
Above all others, he [Osiris] most honoured Hermes, one of an admirable Ingenuity, and quick Invention, in finding out what might be useful to Mankind. This Hermes was the first (as they report) that taught how to speak distinctly and articulately, and gave Names to many things that had none before. He found out Letters, and instituted the Worship of the Gods; and was the first that observ’d the Motion of the Stars, and invented Musick; and taught the manner of Wrestling; and invented Arithmetick, and the Art of curious Graving and Cutting of Statues. He first found out the Harp with Three Strings, in resemblance of the Three Seasons of the Year, causing Three several Sounds, the Treble, Base and Mean. The Treble, to represent the Summer; The Base, the Winter; and the Mean, the Spring. He was the first that taught the Greeks Eloquence; thence he’s call’d Hermes, a Speaker or Interpreter. To conclude, he was Osiris’s Sacred Scribe, to whom he communicated all his Secrets, and was chiefly steer’d by his Advice in every thing. He (not Minerva, as the Greeks affirm) found out the use of the Olive-tree, for the making of Oyl.
Translated by G. Booth
Translated by G. Booth
Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum 2.20 (first century CE)
Look with this at the places of the planets and their portions, and know this as says the honored [and] praiseworthy by three natures, Hermes, the King of Egypt.
Translated by David Pingree (1976)
Translated by David Pingree (1976)
Augustine, City of God 8.26 (426 CE)
It is certainly a remarkable thing how this Egyptian, when expressing his grief that a time was coming when those things would be taken away from Egypt, which he confesses to have been invented by men erring, incredulous, and averse to the service of divine religion, says, among other things, “Then shall that land, the most holy place of shrines and temples, be full of sepulchres and dead men,” as if, in truth, if these things were not taken away, men would not die! As if dead bodies could be buried elsewhere than in the ground! As if, as time advanced, the number of sepulchres must not necessarily increase in proportion to the increase of the number of the dead! But they who are of a perverse mind, and opposed to us, suppose that what he grieves for is that the memorials of our martyrs were to succeed to their temples and shrines, in order, forsooth, that they may have grounds for thinking that gods were worshipped by the pagans in temples, but that dead men are worshipped by us in sepulchres. For with such blindness do impious men, as it were, stumble over mountains, and will not see the things which strike their own eyes, that they do not attend to the fact that in all the literature of the pagans there are not found any, or scarcely any gods, who have not been men, to whom, when dead, divine honors have been paid. I will not enlarge on the fact that Varro says that all dead men are thought by them to be gods — Manes and proves it by those sacred rites which are performed in honor of almost all the dead, among which he mentions funeral games, considering this the very highest proof of divinity, because games are only wont to be celebrated in honor of divinities. Hermes himself, of whom we are now treating, in that same book in which, as if foretelling future things, he says with sorrow “Then shall that land, the most holy place of shrines and temples, be full of sepulchres and dead men,” testifies that the gods of Egypt were dead men. For, having said that their forefathers, erring very far with respect to the knowledge of the gods, incredulous and inattentive to the divine worship and service, invented the art of making gods, with which art, when invented, they associated the appropriate virtue which is inherent in universal nature, and by mixing up that virtue with this art, they called forth the souls of demons or of angels (for they could not make souls), and caused them to take possession of, or associate themselves with holy images and divine mysteries, in order that through these souls the images might have power to do good or harm to men;— having said this, he goes on, as it were, to prove it by illustrations, saying, “Your grandsire, O Æsculapius, the first discoverer of medicine, to whom a temple was consecrated in a mountain of Libya, near to the shore of the crocodiles, in which temple lies his earthly man, that is, his body — for the better part of him, or rather the whole of him, if the whole man is in the intelligent life, went back to heaven, — affords even now by his divinity all those helps to infirm men which formerly he was wont to afford to them by the art of medicine.” He says, therefore that a dead man was worshipped as a god in that place where he had his sepulchre. He deceives men by a falsehood, for the man “went back to heaven.” Then he adds “Does not Hermes, who was my grandsire, and whose name I bear, abiding in the country which is called by his name, help and preserve all mortals who come to him from every quarter?” For this elder Hermes, that is, Mercury, who, he says, was his grandsire, is said to be buried in Hermopolis, that is, in the city called by his name; so here are two gods whom he affirms to have been men, Æsculapius and Mercury. Now concerning Æsculapius, both the Greeks and the Latins think the same thing; but as to Mercury, there are many who do not think that he was formerly a mortal, though Hermes testifies that he was his grandsire. But are these two different individuals who were called by the same name? I will not dispute much whether they are different individuals or not. It is sufficient to know that this Mercury of whom Hermes speaks is, as well as Æsculapius, a god who once was a man, according, to the testimony of this same Trismegistus, esteemed so great by his countrymen, and also the grandson of Mercury himself.
Hermes goes on to say, “But do we know how many good things Isis, the wife of Osiris, bestows when she is propitious, and what great opposition she can offer when enraged?” Then, in order to show that there were gods made by men through this art, he goes on to say, “For it is easy for earthly and mundane gods to be angry, being made and composed by men out of either nature”; thus giving us to understand that he believed that demons were formerly the souls of dead men, which, as he says, by means of a certain art invented by men very far in error, incredulous, and irreligious, were caused to take possession of images, because they who made such gods were not able to make souls. When, therefore, he says either nature, he means soul and body — the demon being the soul, and the image the body. What, then, becomes of that mournful complaint, that the land of Egypt, the most holy place of shrines and temples, was to be full of sepulchres and dead men? Verily, the fallacious spirit, by whose inspiration Hermes spoke these things, was compelled to confess through him that even already that land was full of sepulchres and of dead men, whom they were worshipping as gods. But it was the grief of the demons which was expressing itself through his mouth, who were sorrowing on account of the punishments which were about to fall upon them at the tombs of the martyrs. For in many such places they are tortured and compelled to confess, and are cast out of the bodies of men, of which they had taken possession.
Translated by Marcus Dods
Hermes goes on to say, “But do we know how many good things Isis, the wife of Osiris, bestows when she is propitious, and what great opposition she can offer when enraged?” Then, in order to show that there were gods made by men through this art, he goes on to say, “For it is easy for earthly and mundane gods to be angry, being made and composed by men out of either nature”; thus giving us to understand that he believed that demons were formerly the souls of dead men, which, as he says, by means of a certain art invented by men very far in error, incredulous, and irreligious, were caused to take possession of images, because they who made such gods were not able to make souls. When, therefore, he says either nature, he means soul and body — the demon being the soul, and the image the body. What, then, becomes of that mournful complaint, that the land of Egypt, the most holy place of shrines and temples, was to be full of sepulchres and dead men? Verily, the fallacious spirit, by whose inspiration Hermes spoke these things, was compelled to confess through him that even already that land was full of sepulchres and of dead men, whom they were worshipping as gods. But it was the grief of the demons which was expressing itself through his mouth, who were sorrowing on account of the punishments which were about to fall upon them at the tombs of the martyrs. For in many such places they are tortured and compelled to confess, and are cast out of the bodies of men, of which they had taken possession.
Translated by Marcus Dods
Abū Sahl al-Faḍl ibn Nawbakhtī, Kitāb al-Nahmuṭān (late 8th century CE)
In al-Nadīm, Kitāb al-Fihrist 7.1 (987 CE)
[Al-Ḍaḥḥāk] ibn Qayy during the season [share] of Jupiter and his period, turn, dominion, and power in controlling the years, built a city in al-Sawād, the name of which [Babylon] was derived from Jupiter. He gathered into it the science of the scholars and built there twelve palaces, according to the number of the signs of the zodiac, calling them by the names [of those signs]. He stored the scholars’ books in them and caused the scholars themselves to live in them. […]
The people obeyed them [the seven wise men] and were submissive to their command, so that they managed their affairs. They [the people] appreciated their superiority over them in different forms of learning and modes of living, until a prophet was sent during that period. Because of his appearance and what reached them about his mission, they refused the wisdom [of the seven wise men]. Many of their ideas became confused, their cause was broken up, and there were differences regarding their aims and coming together. So each of the wise men sought a city in which to dwell, so as to become a leader of its people.
Among them there was a wise man named Hermes. He was the most thoroughly intelligent, the most strikingly wise, and the most refined in discernment among them. He went to the land of Egypt, where he ruled over the inhabitants, making the land prosperous, improving the conditions of the people, and manifesting his wisdom among them.
Translated by Bayard Dodge (1970)
[Al-Ḍaḥḥāk] ibn Qayy during the season [share] of Jupiter and his period, turn, dominion, and power in controlling the years, built a city in al-Sawād, the name of which [Babylon] was derived from Jupiter. He gathered into it the science of the scholars and built there twelve palaces, according to the number of the signs of the zodiac, calling them by the names [of those signs]. He stored the scholars’ books in them and caused the scholars themselves to live in them. […]
The people obeyed them [the seven wise men] and were submissive to their command, so that they managed their affairs. They [the people] appreciated their superiority over them in different forms of learning and modes of living, until a prophet was sent during that period. Because of his appearance and what reached them about his mission, they refused the wisdom [of the seven wise men]. Many of their ideas became confused, their cause was broken up, and there were differences regarding their aims and coming together. So each of the wise men sought a city in which to dwell, so as to become a leader of its people.
Among them there was a wise man named Hermes. He was the most thoroughly intelligent, the most strikingly wise, and the most refined in discernment among them. He went to the land of Egypt, where he ruled over the inhabitants, making the land prosperous, improving the conditions of the people, and manifesting his wisdom among them.
Translated by Bayard Dodge (1970)
Al-Jāḥiẓ, Book of the Squaring and Rounding (c. 842-845 CE)
40. … Tell me about Hermes. Is he Idris? And about Jeremiah? Is he al-Hadir? How about Yahya b. Zakariyya [John the Baptist]? Is he Ilya [Eliyyahu]? And about Dhul-Qarnayn? Is he Alexander? Who is his father, and who is his mother? … 83. Tell me about what was said between Hermes and yourself about the nature of the celestial sphere, the teaching that Plato gave to you, and the discussion between Aristotle and you on this subject.
Translated by Jason Colavito from the French edition of Maurice Adad.
Translated by Jason Colavito from the French edition of Maurice Adad.
Abu Ma‘shar, The Thousands (c. 850 CE)
In Ibn Juljul, Tabaqat al-atibbaʾ 5-10 (987 CE), 5-10 and Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‘a, Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbā’ (c. 1250 CE), 1.16.24–17.16.
1. Abu Ma‘shar al-Balhi, the astrologer, said in the Book of Thousands: “There are three Hermeses. The first of these was the Hermes who lived before the Flood. The name ‘Hermes’ is a title like that of Caesar or Khusrau. The Persians name him Wiwanghan (i.e. Awanjhan), which is to say ‘the Just,’ in their accounts of the lives of the kings. The Harranians hold to his philosophy. They (the Persians) state that his father’s father was Gayumart, which is to say Adam. The Hebrews say that he is the same as Enoch, which is to say in Arabic, Idris.”
2. Abu Ma‘shar said, “This Hermes was the first to ponder celestial events and the movement of the stars, and his grandfather Gayumart taught him to discern the hours of day and night. He was the first to build temples to exalt God therein. He was also the first to study and discuss medicine, and he wrote well-measured poems for his contemporaries about things terrestrial and celestial. It is also said that he was the first to predict the Flood and anticipate that a celestial cataclysm would befall the earth in the form of fire or water. He made his residence in Upper Egypt, and chose it to build pyramids and cities of clay. Fearing the destruction of knowledge and the disappearance of the arts in the Flood, he built the great temples; one is a veritable mountain called the Temple in Akhmim, in which he carved representations of the arts and instruments, including engraved explanations of science, in order to pass them on to those who would come after him, lest he see them disappear from the world.”
3. In the account passed down from the early ancestors, it is reported that Idrīs was the first to study books and to investigate the sciences, and that God sent thirty pages down to him. He was the first to sew garments and to wear clothes. God raised him up to a high place.
4. Abu Ma‘shar related a number of absurd stories about him, of which I have related only the truest and most probable. Triumph belongs to God the Exalted!
5. “The second Hermes was a resident of the city of Bābil. He lived in the city of the Chaldeans, which is Bābil, in the time after the Flood, in the days of Naburīzbānī, who was the first to build the city of Bābil after Nimrod, the son of Kush. He exceeded in the arts of medicine and philosophy, he understood the workings of numbers, and his student was Pythagoras the Arithmetician. This Hermes renewed the practice of medicine, philosophy, and mathematics, the arts lost at Bābil in the time of the Flood.” This is what Abu Ma‘shar wrote.
6. This city of the Chaldeans was the city of the philosophers among the Eastern peoples. They were the first to define things and to make laws. They were the philosophers of the sages of the Persians.
7. The third Hermes lived in the city of Egypt, and he lived after the Flood. He is the author of a book called Poisonous Animals. He was both philosopher and physician, skilled in the properties of deadly drugs and toxic animals. He walked about the land, circumambulating it, learning of the foundations of the cities, the character of them, and that of their peoples. He composed a valuable work on the art of alchemy, discoursing on various arts, including the making of glass, the use of precious stones, the making of clay vessels, and other such things.
8. He had a student named Asclepius, who lived in Syria, and about whom there are absurd stories and many more tales besides.
Translation: partially translated by Jason Colavito and partially adapted from the translations of M. Plessner and Kevin van Bladel, with numbering following van Bladel.
1. Abu Ma‘shar al-Balhi, the astrologer, said in the Book of Thousands: “There are three Hermeses. The first of these was the Hermes who lived before the Flood. The name ‘Hermes’ is a title like that of Caesar or Khusrau. The Persians name him Wiwanghan (i.e. Awanjhan), which is to say ‘the Just,’ in their accounts of the lives of the kings. The Harranians hold to his philosophy. They (the Persians) state that his father’s father was Gayumart, which is to say Adam. The Hebrews say that he is the same as Enoch, which is to say in Arabic, Idris.”
2. Abu Ma‘shar said, “This Hermes was the first to ponder celestial events and the movement of the stars, and his grandfather Gayumart taught him to discern the hours of day and night. He was the first to build temples to exalt God therein. He was also the first to study and discuss medicine, and he wrote well-measured poems for his contemporaries about things terrestrial and celestial. It is also said that he was the first to predict the Flood and anticipate that a celestial cataclysm would befall the earth in the form of fire or water. He made his residence in Upper Egypt, and chose it to build pyramids and cities of clay. Fearing the destruction of knowledge and the disappearance of the arts in the Flood, he built the great temples; one is a veritable mountain called the Temple in Akhmim, in which he carved representations of the arts and instruments, including engraved explanations of science, in order to pass them on to those who would come after him, lest he see them disappear from the world.”
3. In the account passed down from the early ancestors, it is reported that Idrīs was the first to study books and to investigate the sciences, and that God sent thirty pages down to him. He was the first to sew garments and to wear clothes. God raised him up to a high place.
4. Abu Ma‘shar related a number of absurd stories about him, of which I have related only the truest and most probable. Triumph belongs to God the Exalted!
5. “The second Hermes was a resident of the city of Bābil. He lived in the city of the Chaldeans, which is Bābil, in the time after the Flood, in the days of Naburīzbānī, who was the first to build the city of Bābil after Nimrod, the son of Kush. He exceeded in the arts of medicine and philosophy, he understood the workings of numbers, and his student was Pythagoras the Arithmetician. This Hermes renewed the practice of medicine, philosophy, and mathematics, the arts lost at Bābil in the time of the Flood.” This is what Abu Ma‘shar wrote.
6. This city of the Chaldeans was the city of the philosophers among the Eastern peoples. They were the first to define things and to make laws. They were the philosophers of the sages of the Persians.
7. The third Hermes lived in the city of Egypt, and he lived after the Flood. He is the author of a book called Poisonous Animals. He was both philosopher and physician, skilled in the properties of deadly drugs and toxic animals. He walked about the land, circumambulating it, learning of the foundations of the cities, the character of them, and that of their peoples. He composed a valuable work on the art of alchemy, discoursing on various arts, including the making of glass, the use of precious stones, the making of clay vessels, and other such things.
8. He had a student named Asclepius, who lived in Syria, and about whom there are absurd stories and many more tales besides.
Translation: partially translated by Jason Colavito and partially adapted from the translations of M. Plessner and Kevin van Bladel, with numbering following van Bladel.
Robert of Chester (attributed), Praefatio Castrensis in Liber de compositione alchimiae of “Morienus” (1144).
We read in the histories of the most ancient authors of three who were philosophers, each of whom was called Hermes. The first of them was Enoch, who was also named Hermes, and was called by the alternate name Mercury. The second was Noah, who similarly was otherwise named Hermes and was called by the alternate name Mercury. The third of them was the Hermes who reigned in Egypt after the Flood, and his kingdom lasted for a long time. This one was said by our ancestors to be triplex because of his threefold combination of powers, which had been bestowed upon him by the power of God. This man was a king, philosopher, and prophet. This man was the Hermes who after the Flood was the first to discover and write about all of the arts and disciplines, and even of the mechanical arts, in so many books. All who come after this one follow in his path and retrace the footprints he left.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Translated by Jason Colavito
Liber Hermetis Mercurii Triplicis de VI rerum principiis (1135-1147), prologue
1 Here begins the prologue of the book of Hermes Mercury Triplex Trismegistus of the tribe of Mercury. 2 We read in the ancient histories of divine things that there were three philosophers, of whom Enoch was first. He was said to be named Hermes and otherwise Mercury. Another was Noah, who was similarly named Hermes and Mercury. The third was truly said to be Hermes Mercury Triplex, who flourished as a king, a philosopher, and a prophet. 3 He is so said since after the Flood he held the kingship in Egypt with the greatest equanimity and in generosity, and he prevailed in the mechanical arts, and he was the first to cast light on astronomy. 4 He completed The Golden Bough, The Book of Longitude and Latitude, The Book of Elections, and The Ezich [i.e., Al-Khwārizmī’s Zīj al-Sindhind], that is, the Canons upon the equations for aligning the planets and upon the astrolabe, and many other brilliant works. 5 He is also called Triplex or Trismegistus because among his books his were the first to publish on alchemy. 6 Morienus, truly the greatest philosopher, gave great labor to this in his writings, and he undertook the extensive work of researching the alchemical secrets of nature.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Translated by Jason Colavito
Septem tractatus Hermetis sapientia triplicis (c. twelfth century CE), translator’s prologue
In the histories of divine things, we read of three most excellent men of philosophy, all of whom were called Hermes. The first of these, Enoch, was before the Flood. Accompanied by angels, he went up to heaven in a fiery chariot. The second was Noah, who, by the command of God, was saved in the Ark from the Flood of the many waters. One of them who carried the alternate name Hermes was also called by yet another name, Mercury, to differentiate him from the Hermes who reigned in Egypt after the Flood. This third one was a most famous man, who wore royal regalia and a diadem, reigned for a long time as king of Egypt, and was called Thrice Great because of his triple virtue. This they report since he was a king, a philosopher, and a prophet.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Translated by Jason Colavito
Bar Hebraeus, History of the Dynasties (1286 CE), p. 9
The ancient Greeks called Enoch, Hermes and Trismegistus, because he was the first to ascribe to the Most High Creator the three attributes of existence, wisdom, and life. Arabs call Enoch, Edris, and say there are three Hermeses. 1. He who lived in Upper Egypt, who foretold the flood, and built the pyramids. 2. He who lived in Babylonia, and built Babylon. 3. Hermes Trismegistus, so-called because he was the third Hermes. He wrote his doctrine for his disciple Tatius, in questions and answers…
Summary-translation by S. C. Malan; the Arabic text differs markedly from the Syriac version, where only one Hermes is mentioned.
Summary-translation by S. C. Malan; the Arabic text differs markedly from the Syriac version, where only one Hermes is mentioned.
