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Thrice Greatest Hermes (3 Volumes)

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This volume by G. R. S. Mead, published in 1906,
contains 3 books in one. The first volume (or book)
is titled: Prolegomena -- and contains: The Remains
of the Trismegistic Literature/The History of the
Evolution of Opinion/Thoth the Master of Wisdom/
The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult in the Greek Magic
Papyri/The Main Source of the Trismegistic Literature
According To Manetho High Priest of Egypt/An Egyptian
Prototype of the Main Features of the Poemandres'
Cosmogony/The Myth of Man in the Mysteries/Philo of
Alexandria and the Hellenistic Theology/Plutarch:
Concerning the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris/"Hermas"
and "Hermes"/Concerning the Aeon Doctrine/The Seven
Zones and Their Characteristics/Plato: Concerning
Metempsychosis/The Vision of Er/Concerning the
Crater or Cup/The Disciples of Thrice-Greatest
Hermes.
The second volume (or book) contained in this
one volume is: Sermons -- and contains: I Corpus
Hermeticum; and II The Perfect Sermon; or the

Asclepius (English translations of these works --
with copious, useful footnotes).
The third volume (or book) contained in this
one volumes is: Excerpts and Fragments -- and
contains: (I) Excerpts by Strobaeus; (II) References
and Fragments in the [Church] Fathers -- which
includes Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius,
Lactantius, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria,
Suidas, Anonymous; and (III) References and
Fragments in the [Pagan] Philosophers -- which
includes Zosimus, Jamblichus, Julian the
Emperor, Fulgentius the Mythographer.
And finally, there is a Conclusion.
This is an excellent compendium of useful and
provocative readings and sources. The reader
may then want to branch out and read other
compilations and introductions to the Hermetica
(such as Brian P. Copenhaver, Cambridge Univ.
Press) or concentrate also on Gnosticism, such
as the works of Kurt Rudolph (GNOSIS, Harper/
San Francisco) or Hans Jonas (THE GNOSTIC
RELIGION, Beacon Press).
G. R. S. Mead in a faith-full man, but he is
also an in-clusionist. He sees the great mystics
and illuminators and God-filled questers as all
being "Sons of God" -- with not just one particular
one being more "divine" than another. But this is
a God-centered group, not a demonic one. Each man
has the divine spirit -- the spark of the eternal
light -- within him, and the degree to which he
listens to it and is guided by it serves as the
touchstone of his insight and his piety.