Extract

The Hellenistic *Hermes, Egyptianized through contact with the Egyptian Thoth. ‘Trismegistos’ derives from the Egyptian superlative obtained through repetition (Hermes appears as ‘Great, Great, Great’ on the Rosetta stone), which is later simplified through the substitution of the prefix tris in the Roman period (Festugière, La Révélation (see below), 1. 73–4). According to *Clement of Alexandria he was the author of 42 ‘fundamental books’ of Egyptian religion, including astrological, cosmological, geographical, medical, and pedagogic books as well as hymns to the gods and instructions on how to worship. The extant corpus of Hermetic writings (in Greek, Latin, and Coptic) includes astrological, alchemical, iatromathematical, and philosophic works. Some elements in some of the philosophical books (especially the Asclepius and Corpus Hermeticum16) are overtly anti-Greek in sentiment, but the basic content of the works is thoroughly Hellenic and offers an insight into ‘popular Platonism’ (see plato(1)) in the Roman world as spread through small groups of literate people who gathered around a teacher for instruction (Fowden, see below).