Hermetica, Vol. 1: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus (Paperback)

~ Walter Scott (Author) "Once on a time, when I had begun to think about the things that are, and my thoughts had soared high aloft, while my bodily..." (more)
Key Phrases: vel simile quid, huc transposui, vide post, Discourses of Hermes, God the Father, Hermes Trismegislus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Having Scott's translation available again is a welcome event."— Gnosis Magazine --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

First published in 1924, this classic work contains various Greek and Latin writings of religious or philosophic teachings attributed to the Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus, with Walter Scott's extensive notes, commentary, and addenda.

It is said that these teachings are records of private, intimate talks between a teacher and one or two of his disciples. The setting was in Egypt under the Roman Empire, among men who had received some instruction in Greek philosophy, and especially the Platonism of the period, but were not content with merely accepting and repeating the dogmas of the orthodox philosophic schools. Instead, they sought to expound a philosophic religion that would better satisfy their needs.

Included here are the libelli of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Asclepius, the Hermetic excerpts in the Anthologium of Stobaeus, and other fragments. The entire text is produced in the original Greek or Latin, with an English translation on facing pages.

Walter Scott (1855-1925), a classical scholar, devoted much of his life to the study of the Hermetica.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570626308
• ISBN-13: 978-1570626302
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #245,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good., September 24, 2000

By	"alchemist375" (Salmon, Idaho USA) - See all my reviews

This is a pretty fascinating book, containing the works attributed to Hermes in English as well as the non-translated version, revealing one version on one page and the other version on the next page; Thus, when one reads the book, they find the non-translated version on one page and the English version on the other page, with footnotes and stuff to help out. Overall, a good book, and it gives some understanding of the thinking of the ancient Magickians and other Occultists. Worth getting, overall.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The core teachings of Gnosis, May 30, 2004

By	OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I am going to review this volume because I read every single English word of it, cover-to-cover. I admit that I didn't read the corresponding original language text, because my Latin was never all that good, and I have no Greek. I wish that I did, though. Just in English translation I can see where these teachings transport you to an entirely different sort of mind-set, an entirely different world.

Indeed, you will either come to develop a sort of intuitive understanding of the spiritual principles being discused here, or you will simple give up in disgust and dismiss it as meaningless and incomprehensible. Perhaps it is incomprehensible to modern sensibility, but it is far from meaningless. If you are familiar with Plato and Plotinus it will help. I also find that a familiarity with the concept of the Tao helps with understanding what is meant by Kosmos. I suppose that there could be esoteric teachings encoded and hidden in the original text, but personally I find the exoteric spiritual and metaphysical speculations to be quite interesting and valuable in their own right.

There was a reason that these teachings were preserved through so many centuries, while so much else was consigned to flames or left to rot....

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contains Greek And Latin Text Mixxed In, February 12, 2006

By	Jeff Marzano (Essex Junction, VT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hermetica volume 3 (Paperback)

I bought this book because Edgar Cayce had said that Christ in the form of a god named Hermes (together with Horus and Ra Ta) was involved with the construction of the mysterious Great Pyramid.

But maybe Cayce was referring to the 'first' Hermes (also called Thoth) I don't know.

The material in this book was written by the 'second' Hermes who was a philosopher I guess in Egypt about 2,000 years ago.

Since I don't speak Greek or Latin I could only understand about 65 percent of the information in this book.

This definitely had an effect on how much I really understood.

I enjoyed it however since I'm interested in philosophy. This book mentions Plato and Plato's writings a lot. Hermes was apparently influenced by Plato and Plato in turn studied in Egypt and held the wisdom of the Egyptians in 'high esteem' (as did Pythagorus).

So it fits in with my interest in philosophy and metaphysics.

This is not a scientific book. It tells why gods did things and what they did but it doesn't explain scientifically HOW they did them.

In that sense it's more of a metaphysical book.

To me Plato and those other guys were surrounded by a fog of confusion and ignorance anyway as far as their theories about nature.

This is volume 3 of a 4 part series and I have no plans of reading the other volumes at this time.

Jeff Marzano

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