Hermes Trismégiste

Hermes Trismégiste (which means “three times Master”) is the name greco-Roman of a legendary character, who would have been an Egyptian priest of the god Thot, assimilated after his death to this god even, but whose historical authentification remains a discussed enigma: Hermes is of Greek origin but, before its qualification of triple magister, its worship was returned to Hermopolis Magna that the Greeks of ptolémaïque time had set up, in a desert area but nevertheless on opposite bank and vis-a-vis the ruins of much the more ancient city of Akhenaton known as Amarna. Later, at the end of hermetism trismegistère, of the scholars of the Renaissance such Campanella allotted to Trismegiste construction in Egypt of the town of Adocentyn - i.e. the City of Adon, Adonis, Aton. As for the origin-even of the qualification of " Trismegist " it is located at the beginning of the Christianisme, i.e. right after Rome invaded by the weapons ptolémaïque Egypt, removed César and Cléopâtre and the given up town of Hermopolis Magna, as thousand years before Amarna had been it. Called “the Fathers of the Church” (St Augustin, Lactance and others) as well as the Historians (Strabon) during this time, depicted Hermes Trismegiste like a king or priest of Egypt of a very high antiquity which had established a worship Monothéiste, solar and revolutionary. This information was gathered mainly by the historian Frances Yates (Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition) which gave its name to a department of history of the Royal University of England with London. On the other hand the largest library of current file of Hermetism that is located at Amsterdam (J.R.Ritman Library) does not hold any contemporary work with the research of the historicity of Hermes Trismegiste.

Its pled work:

According to traditional sources Thot, Hermes, Mercure are the three chronological names (Egyptian, Greek, Romain) of the same entity (the Middle Ages or the Rebirth also called it Triplex or Hermes Thoth Trismegiste) - but it evokes also three synchronous initiations: the Egyptian, Braces and Orphée (see Marsile Ficin - Rebirth) Doctrines philosophico-nun the Hermetism, of which he would be the founder, were placed under the patronage of the historical or legendary character; it is presented as a religion gréco-Egyptian woman which claims to interpret old doctrines originating in the valley of the Nile. This syncretism between Egyptian myths and philosophy Neo-Platonist developed in Alexandria and was spread in the whole of the Roman empire. Then Christianity maintains with him the ambiguous reports/ratios: venerated at the origin, sometimes even estimated like initiator of Brace, his doctrines resemble so that the Middle Ages knew like “science” simultaneously with the dogmas of Church - so that with the Rebirth, when the Church enters in conflict with science (stigmatization with Galileo, G. Bruno) Hermetism is finally proscribed by the Enquiry. A long time after its blossoming, the writings of these doctrines were joined together in the Hermeticum Corpus which is a compilation of seventeen briefs and often fragmentary dialogued treaties in which Hermes teaches with his/her Tat son or Asklepios. The Byzantines, perhaps Michel Psellos are the authors of this collection which was carried out between the Life and XIe century. According to the times its manuscripts were moved, for example in Haaran where Islam was worked out. Some only led in Europe very late (Cosme de Medicis). The first of these treaties, Poïmandres gave a long time its title to the whole of the collection. Poïmandres, which is the name of “Us of absolute sovereignty”, would be derived from the Egyptian or the copte P-eime-N-D (knowledge of God Sun Re). Poïmandres and treaty X, present true summaries of the teaching of Hermes (cosmogony, anthropology, eschatology); the other treaties stick to more particular questions (problems of the movement, vacuum, time and eternity, regeneration, etc). In the popular belief, Hermes passed to have written the emerald Table (which one knows today that it is about an Arab text of IXe century). One also discussed historicity and anteriority of these texts; the Enquiry (known) proscribed them with the pretext which they were late/recent (dating of Casaubon). Currently the archeology and the discovery of Nag Hammadi attest of their root at least pre-Christian woman.

Political office and/or scientist:

Hermetism was opposed to dogmatic Christianity; it thus seemed the last bastion of resistance to the Religion of State. It also ran up against the gnostic dualistic doctrines in vogue at the time for which the world is bad. The hermetic myths are different from the gnosticism by a unit and optimistic vision of the world, in which the elected heart can be run away and be melted in the Great Whole. At the 20th century the hermetic texts (hermetica) were learnedly commented on by the Father Festugière (Jesuit?). The alchemical beliefs conveyed by hermetism have just as astrology assured the posterity the doctrines, it only are artificially attached to old Egypt which seems not to have known this practice; it is their circulation out of Egypt which maintained the belief in these origins and ends so that the historical or mythical character of Trismegiste had the appearance of an intellectual guide of the medieval alchemists.

The mythical character gave place to some literary variations.

Baudelaire applies to Satan, comparable with Hermes, the epithet " trismégiste" (" three times very grand" in Greek) in Flowers of the evil ( With the Reader ):

“On the pillow of the evil it is Satan Trismégiste

Which lengthily rocks our enchanted spirit,

And the rich person metal of our will

is very vaporized by this scientist chemist. ”

In the same way, Apollinaire, echoing the text of Baudelaire, will evoke the metamorphosis of the poet in a " harlequin trismégiste" in the poem Twilight (in " Alcohols ") :

“the blind man rocks a beautiful child

the hind passes with its fawns

the dwarf looks of a sad air

Grandir the harlequin trismegist. ”

Table of emerald
Hermetism
Alchemy
Corpus Hermeticum
Hermes
History of the religions, Library of the Pleiad, Gallimard, Volume II article of Jean Doresse Hermetism égyptianisant

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