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Hermes Trismegistus

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Legendary author of the Hermetica

16th century European depiction of Hermes Trismegistus as an old sage and teacher
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Hermes Trismegistus
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Hermes Trismegistus (fromAncient Greek:Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest") is a legendaryHellenistic period figure that originated as asyncretic combination of the Greek godHermes and the Egyptian godThoth.[a] He is the purported author of theHermetica, a widely diverse series of ancient and medievalpseudepigraphica that laid the basis of various philosophical systems known asHermeticism.

The wisdom attributed to this figure in antiquity combined a knowledge of both the material and the spiritual world, which rendered the writings attributed to him of great relevance to those who were interested in the interrelationship between the material and the divine.[1]

The figure of Hermes Trismegistus can also be found in bothMuslim andBaháʼí writings. In those traditions, Hermes Trismegistus has been associated with the prophetIdris (the BiblicalEnoch).

Origin and identity

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Hermes depicted with a wingedkerykeion, akithara, apetasos andchlamys.
Ancient Egyptian statue of the ibis-headed Thoth.

Hermes Trismegistus may be associated with theGreek godHermes and theEgyptian godThoth.[2][3] Greeks in thePtolemaic Kingdom of Egypt identified Thoth with Hermes through theinterpretatio graeca.[4] Consequently, the two gods were worshiped as one, in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemenu, which was known in theHellenistic period asHermopolis.[5]

Hermes, the Greek god of interpretive communication, was combined with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom. The Egyptian priest andpolymathImhotep had been deified long after his death, and therefore assimilated to Thoth in theclassical andHellenistic periods.[6] The renowned scribeAmenhotep and a wise man named Teôs were coequal deities of wisdom, science, and medicine; and, thus, they were placed alongside Imhotep in shrines dedicated to Thoth–Hermes during the Ptolemaic Kingdom.[7]

Cicero enumerates several deities referred to as "Hermes":

  • "fourthMercury (Hermes) was the son of the Nile, whose name may not be spoken by the Egyptians"
  • "the fifth, who is worshiped by the people ofPheneus [inArcadia], is said to have killedArgus Panoptes, and for this reason to have fled to Egypt, and to have given the Egyptians their laws and alphabet: It is him whom the Egyptians callTheyt"[8](bk. III, ch. 56)

The most likely interpretation of this passage is as two variants on the samesyncretism of Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth (or sometimes other gods): The fourth (where Hermes turns out "actually" to have been a "son of the Nile", (i.e. a native Egyptian god) is the Egyptian perspective, the fifth (who went from Greece to Egypt) is the Arcadian Greek perspective. Both of these early references in Cicero (the oldest Trismegistus material is from the earlycenturiesCE) corroborate the view that Thrice-Great Hermes originated in Hellenistic Egypt through syncretism between Greek and Egyptian gods (theHermetica refer most often toThoth andAmun).[8]

The Hermetic literature of the Egyptians was concerned with conjuring spirits and animating statues, the newly developed practice ofalchemy, and informs the oldest Hellenistic writings on Greco-Babylonianastrology.[9] In a parallel tradition,Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religiouscult practices and offered the adept a means of personal ascension from the constraints of physical being. This latter tradition has led to the conflation of Hermeticism with the contemporaneously developing, but distinct,Gnosticism.[10]

The epithet "thrice great"

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Youthful, athletic Hermes-Thoth, identified byMaat feather between his headdress-wings.[11]
Traditional depiction of Thoth as theibis with said Feather of Truth.

Fowden asserts that the first datable occurrences of the epithet "thrice great" are in theLegatio ofAthenagoras of Athens and in a fragment fromPhilo of Byblos,c. 64–141CE.[12] However, in a later work, Copenhaver reports that this epithet is first found in the minutes of a meeting of the council of theIbiscult, held in 172 BCE nearMemphis in Egypt.[13](p xiv) Hart explains that the epithet is derived from an epithet of Thoth found at the Temple ofEsna, "Thoth the great, the great, the great."[4]

Many Christian writers, includingLactantius,Augustine,Marsilio Ficino,Campanella, andGiovanni Pico della Mirandola, as well asGiordano Bruno, considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wisepagan prophet who foresaw the coming ofChristianity.[14][15] They believed in the existence of aprisca theologia, a single, true theology that threads through all religions. It was given by God to man in antiquity[16][17] and passed through a series of prophets, which includedZoroaster andPlato. In order to demonstrate the verity of theprisca theologia, Christians appropriated the Hermetic teachings for their own purposes. By this account, Hermes Trismegistus was either a contemporary ofMoses,[16](pp 27, 293) or the third in a line of men named Hermes, i.e.Enoch,Noah, and the Egyptian priest king who is known to us as Hermes Trismegistus[16](p 52) on account of being the greatest priest, philosopher, and king.[13](p xlviii)[16](p 52)

Another explanation, in theSuda (10th century), is that "He was called 'Trismegistus' on account of his praise of the trinity, saying there is one divine nature in the trinity."[13](p xli)

Hermetic writings

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Main article:Hermetica

During theMiddle Ages and theRenaissance, theHermetica enjoyed great prestige and were popular among alchemists. Hermes was also strongly associated with astrology, for example by the influential Islamic astrologerAbu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787–886).[18] The "Hermetic tradition" consequently refers to alchemy, magic, astrology, and related subjects. By modern convention the texts are usually subdivided into two categories:

philosophical hermetica  deals mainly withphilosophy andcosmology
technical hermeticaconcerns practicalmagic,potions, andalchemy

The expressionhermetically sealed comes from the alchemical procedure to make thePhilosopher's Stone. This required a mixture of materials to be placed in a glass vessel which was sealed by melting and fusing the neck closed, a procedure known as the "Seal of Hermes". The vessel was then heated for 30–40 days.[19]

During theRenaissance, it was accepted that Hermes Trismegistus was a contemporary ofMoses. However, afterIsaac Casaubon's demonstration in 1614 that the Hermetic writings must postdate the advent of Christianity, the whole of Renaissance Hermeticism collapsed.[20] As to their actual authorship:

... they were certainly not written in remotest antiquity by an all wise Egyptian priest, as the Renaissance believed, but by various unknown authors, all probably Greeks, and they contain popular Greek philosophy of the period, a mixture ofPlatonism andStoicism, combined with some Jewish and probably some Persian influences.[16](pp 2–3)

The FrenchfiguristJesuit missionary to ChinaJoachim Bouvet thought that Hermes Trismegistus,Zoroaster and the Chinese cultural heroFuxi were actually the Biblical patriarchEnoch.[21]

Various critical editions of the Hermetica have been published in modern academia, such asHermetica byBrian Copenhaver.

Islamic tradition

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See also:Idris (prophet)
Statue of "the Sage", Hermes Trismegistus, from a 14th century Arabic manuscript.
Idris teaching in Paradise from a 1577Qisas al-Anbiya manuscript.

Faivre (1995) has pointed out that Hermes Trismegistus has a place in theIslamic tradition, although the name Hermes does not appear in theQur'an.[22]Hagiographers and chroniclers of the first centuries of the IslamicHijrah quickly identified Hermes Trismegistus withIdris,[b] theIslamic prophet ofsurahs 19.57 and 21.85, whom Muslims also identified withEnoch (cf. Genesis 5:18–24). According to the account of the Persian astrologerAbu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787–886), Idris / Hermes was termed "Thrice-Wise" Hermes Trismegistus because he had a threefold origin. The first Hermes, comparable toThoth, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world; he carved the principles of this sacred science inhieroglyphs. The second Hermes, inBabylon, was the initiator ofPythagoras. The third Hermes was the first teacher ofalchemy. IslamicistPierre Lory writes:

"A faceless prophet, Hermes[Trismegistus] possesses no concrete or salient characteristics, differing in this regard from most of the major figures of the Bible and the Quran."[23]

Thestar-worshipping sect known as theSabians of Harran also believed that their doctrine descended from Hermes Trismegistus.[24](pp 398–403)

There are least twentyArabicHermetica extant. While some of these Arabic Hermetic writings were translated fromGreek orMiddle-Persian, some were originally written in Arabic.[25] Hermetic fragments are also found in the works ofMuslim alchemists such asJabir ibn Hayyan (diedc. 806–816, cited an early version of theEmerald Tablet in hisKitāb Usṭuqus al-uss)[c]

Baháʼí writings

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Bahá'u'lláh, founder of theBaháʼí Faith, identifiesIdris with Hermes in hisTablet on the Uncompounded Reality.[29]

Footnotes

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  1. ^A survey of the literary and archaeological evidence for the background of Hermes Trismegistus as the Greek godHermes and the Egyptian godThoth may be found inBull (2018).
  2. ^"Abu Mas'har’s biography of Hermes, written approximately between 840 and 860, would establish it as common knowledge."Van Bladel (2009), p. 168
  3. ^Jabir explicitly notes that the version of theEmerald Tablet quoted by him is taken from "Balīnās the Sage" (i.e.,pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana), although it differs slightly from the (probably even earlier) version preserved in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana'sSirr al-khalīqa (The Secret of Creation).[26] SeeWeisser (1980), p. 46[27]Ibn Umaylc. 900 – c. 960, quoted and commented upon Hermetic sayings throughout his work, among them also a commentary on theEmerald Tablet).[28]

References

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  1. ^van den Broek, Roelof (2006). "Hermes Trismegistus I: Antiquity". In Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (ed.).Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Leiden, NL: Brill. pp. 474–478.ISBN 9789004152311.
  2. ^Bull, Christian H. (2018). "The Myth of Hermes Trismegistus".The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian priestly figure as a teacher of Hellenized wisdom. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World. Vol. 186. Leiden, NL / Boston, MA: Brill. pp. 31–96.doi:10.1163/9789004370845_003.ISBN 978-90-04-37081-4.ISSN 0927-7633.S2CID 172059118.
  3. ^Budge, E.A. Wallis (1904).The Gods of the Egyptians. Vol. 1. pp. 414–415 – viaInternet Archive (archive.org).
  4. ^abHart, G., ed. (2005).The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Routledge. p. 158.
  5. ^Bailey, Donald (2012). "Classical architecture". In Riggs, Christina (ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Oxford University Press. p. 192.
  6. ^Artmann, Benno (22 November 2005)."The mathematical conquest of the third dimension"(PDF). About the cover.Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series.43 (2): 231.doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-06-01111-6. Retrieved7 August 2016.
  7. ^Boylan, Patrick (1922).Thoth or the Hermes of Egypt: A study of some aspects of theological thought in ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. pp. 166–168.
  8. ^abCicero, Marcus Tullius."book III".De Natura Deorum [On the Nature of the Gods] (in Latin). Retrieved25 June 2015 – via Thelatinlibrary.com.
  9. ^Fowden (1993), pp. 65–68.
  10. ^"Stages of ascension in Hermetic rebirth". Retrieved25 June 2015 – via Esoteric.msu.edu.
  11. ^Furtwangler 1906, pp. 198f;Furtwangler 1898, p. 103.
  12. ^Fowden, G. (1987).The Egyptian Hermes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 216.
  13. ^abcCopenhaver, B.P. (1992).Hermetica. Cambridge University Press. pp. ,xli,xlviii.
  14. ^Heiser, James D. (2011).Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century (1st ed.). Malone, TX: Repristination Press.ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4.
  15. ^Jafar, Imad (Winter 2015)."Enoch in the Islamic tradition"(PDF).Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity.36: 37 ff.ISSN 1480-6584. Retrieved28 September 2025 – via sacredweb.org.
  16. ^abcdeYates, F.A. (1964).Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 14–18,433–434.ISBN 0-226-95007-7.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  17. ^Hanegraaff, W.J. (1998).New Age Religion and Western Culture. SUNY. p. 360.
  18. ^Van Bladel (2009), 122 ff
  19. ^Principe, L.M. (2013).The Secrets of Alchemy. University of Chicago Press. p. 123.
  20. ^Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (1996).New Age Religion and Western Culture. Leiden, NL: Brill. pp. 390–391.
  21. ^Mungello (1989), p. 321.
  22. ^Faivre, A. (1995).The Eternal Hermes: From Greek god to alchemical magus. Translated by Godwin, Joscelyn. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press.ISBN 0-933999-53-4. Retrieved28 September 2025 – viaInternet Archive.ISBN 978-0-933-999-52-7
  23. ^Faivre (1995), pp. 19–20.
  24. ^Stapleton, Henry E.; Azo, R.F.; Hidayat Husain, M. (1927)."Chemistry in Iraq and Persia in the Tenth Century A.D."Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.VIII (6):317–418.OCLC 706947607.
  25. ^Van Bladel (2009), p. 17, note 42.
  26. ^Zirnis, Peter (1979).The Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Unpublished PhD diss.). New York, NY: New York University. pp. 64–65, 90.
  27. ^Weisser, Ursula (1980). Spies, Otto (ed.).Das "Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung" von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana [The "Book on the Secret of Creation" by Pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana] (in German). Berlin, DE:De Gruyter. p. 46.doi:10.1515/9783110866933.ISBN 978-3-11-086693-3 – via Google.
  28. ^Stapleton, H.E.; Lewis, G.L.;Taylor, F. Sherwood (1949). "The sayings of Hermes quoted in the Māʾ al-waraqī of Ibn Umail".Ambix.3 (3–4):69–90.doi:10.1179/amb.1949.3.3-4.69.
  29. ^"Hermes Trismegistus and Apollonius of Tyana in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh". Retrieved25 June 2015 – via Bahai-library.com.

Bibliography

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  • Aufrère, Sydney H. (2008, in French)Thot Hermès l'Egyptien: De l'infiniment grand à l'infiniment petit. Paris, FR: L'Harmattan.ISBN 978-2296046399.
  • Bull, Christian H. (2018)The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian priestly figure as a teacher of hellenized wisdom. Leiden, NL: Brill. — the standard reference work on the subject.
  • Caciorgna, Marilena & Guerrini, Roberto (2004, in Italian) "Il pavimento del duomo di Siena" inL'arte della tarsia marmorea dal XIV al XIX secolo fonti e simologia. Siena, IT.
  • Caciorgna, Marilena (27–28 September 2002).Studi interdisciplinari sul pavimento del duomo di Siena [Interdisciplinary studies on the floor of the Siena Cathedral]. El convegno internazionale di studi chiesa della SS. Annunziata 27 e 28 settembre 2002 [The International Conference on Studies of the Church of the Holy Annunciation, 27–28 September 2002, Siena]. Collana di studi e ricerche (Opera della Metropolitana di Siena) (in Italian). Vol. 2. Siena, IT: Cantagalli (published 2005).ISBN 978-8-8827-2214-2.OCLC 60390508.
  • Copenhaver, Brian P. (1995)Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English translation, with notes and introduction. Cambridge, UK / New York, NY: Cambridge University Press,ISBN 0-521-42543-3.
  • Ebeling, Florian (2007)The secret history of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from ancient to modern times [translated from the German by David Lorton]. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,ISBN 978-0-8014-4546-0.
  • Festugière, A.-J. (1981, in French)La révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste. 2e éd. Paris, FR.
  • Fowden, Garth (1993) [1986].The Egyptian Hermes: A historical approach to the late pagan mind. Princeton University Press.— deals with Thoth (Hermes) from his most primitive known conception to his later evolution into Hermes Trismegistus, as well as the many books and scripts attributed to him.
  • Furtwangler, Adolf (1906). "Noch einmal zu Hermes-Thot und Apis".Bonner Jahrbücher (in German). pp. 114–115, 198 ff.
  • Furtwangler, Adolf (1898). "Römische Bronzen aus Deutschland".Bonner Jahrbücher (in German). p. 103.
  • Hornung, Erik (2001)The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its impact on the west. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.ISBN 0801438470.
  • Lupini, Carmelo (2010, in Italian) see "Ermete Trismegisto" inDizionario delle Scienze e delle Tecniche di Grecia e Roma, vol. 1. Roma, IT.
  • Merkel, Ingrid &Debus, A.G. (1988)Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual history and the occult in early modern Europe. Washington, DC:Folger Shakespeare Library,ISBN 0-918016-85-1.
  • Mungello, D.E. (1989).Curious Land: Jesuit accommodation and the origins of sinology. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.ISBN 0-8248-1219-0 – via Google.
  • Van Bladel, Kevin (2009).The Arabic Hermes: From pagan sage to prophet of science. Oxford, UK:Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195376135.001.0001.ISBN 978-0-19-537613-5. (the standard reference for Hermes in the Arabic-Islamic world)
  • van den Kerchove, Anna (2012, in French)La voie d’Hermès: Pratiques rituelles et traités hermétiques. Leiden, NL: Brill.
  • Yates, F.A. (1964)Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. University of Chicago Press,ISBN 0-226-95007-7.

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