Thrice-Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis (3 books in One ) Volumes I-II-III

by G.R.S. Mead

Complete edition, fully annotated (3 280 footnotes), easy-to-read layout.
G.R.S. Mead was a noted and influential member of the Theosophical Society. He studied the Hermetic and Gnostic religions of Late Antiquity. Mead's huge book-Thrice-Greatest Hermes-is a classic work on the philosophical Hermetica and the figure of Hermes Trismegistus. This complete edition compiles the three volumes in one book. The first volume (Prolegomena) gives an extensive study of the Hermetic corpus and the origins of Hermeticism. The second volume (Sermons) gives a translation of the entire Corpus Hermeticum and the Asclepius, with extensive commentary following each section. The third volume (Excerpts and Fragments) gives the excerpts and fragments that make up the rest of the Hermetica, namely from Stobaeus, but also from the Fathers (Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Augustine, etc.) and the philosophers of antiquity (Zosimus, Jamblichus, Fulgentius, etc.) This work offers substantial quotes from a wealth of sources (edition fully annotated with 3 280 footnotes). This book is well worth reading for all those who wish to study the Corpus Hermeticum in its entirety.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality, Occult, Mythology

1110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

George Robert Stowe Mead, who always published under the initialism G.R.S. Mead, was a historian, writer, editor, translator, and an influential member of the Theosophical Society, as well as founder of the Quest Society. His scholarly works dealt mainly with the Hermetic and Gnostic religions of Late Antiquity, and were exhaustive for the time period.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

5/5 Stars for Mead's monumental effort in writing these three books; utterly destroyed by this publishers edition.

"It is difficult to understand God, to speak of Him impossible." Hermes Trismegistus

Before beginning my review, I would like to explain the title of the book. Notes concerning this Edition of print are appended to the end of this review.

Theosophy is simply the union of philosophy/philology and theology. Hellenism is a branch of theosophy that flourished in the intellectual combination of Greek and Oriental influence, combining their philosophies, religion and mystery-tradition. Gnosis is the discipline to know God, what I like to transcribe as your Higher Self. And Thrice-Greatest Hermes, or Hermes Trismegistus, is the "fictional" author of all the tractates and doctrines associated with the so-called Hermetic scripture.

A Study of Manuscripts
Mead's book is a gateway for "the general reader" to access what is called the "Corpus Hermeticum" or "the extant Hermetic Literature". Scattered throughout volumes, letters and commentary, any scripture connected with this theology are very hard to combine, especially since they come in Greek, Latin, French and German - to name but the most frequent languages in use.

But Mead went through the task of collecting all these references and putting them together into one collection, completely translated into common English of the early 20th century.

Furthermore, he took the extra-mile to educate the reader in the rich and varied symbolism of these writings, while maintaining a clear representation of the actual manuscripts. For ease of access and study, he chose to put the core of this Corpus into Volume II of his Trilogy, and all the Excerpts and Fragments into Volume III.

Prolegomena
Volume I. however is a complete education in the names, terminology and context of the scripture.

The manuscripts concerning Hermes Trismegistus were widely scattered through the last two millenia, and for the last seven hundred years their authenticity and meaning was heatedly debated among such scholars who could no longer imagine a time before Christendom. Mead rightly predicted that without some elementary understanding of theology and history, any reader would be utterly lost among the scriptures.

Therefore, the Prolegomena are the most difficult to read, despite of all Mead's efforts for clarity.

Where to begin?
Much of this you can read in more detail in The Key to Reading Thrice-Greatest Hermes. In effect, there is no easy way to read these Volumes. You may want to start at Volume II. and use Mead's inter-textual references to cherry-pick from the Prolegomena what you need, and don't hesitate to counsel Wikipedia from time to time. Should you be willing, you may start with the Prolegomena as I did and try to read cover-to-cover, but eventually I had no other choice but to open Volume II. and read the Poimandres for myself.

Quality of Research
I obtained two of Mead's sources in print and a random selection of others in digital form - though speaking German is my only perk for verifying anything here. But with such little lingual capacities available to my humble aspirations, I could tell that Mead is referencing his sources with meticulous attention to honesty, accuracy and necessity. The volumes are as big as they are, but Mead included only what was absolutely necessary to deliver the Corpus Hermeticum to the reader.

But what is it all about?
Mysticism and Wisdom-Loving at its finest. The hellenistic traditions lived in a time of international mingling, when all mythologies and religions and sciences of every nation were scrutinized under the light of synthesis, and their actual harmony in heart and mind was discovered. Jesus, Buddah, Osiris - to name but a few of the many Sons of God are, in the eyes of Hellenism, symbols for the unnameable.

When the first people, tribesmen, considered burying what little food they head in order to let new plants grow from these seeds - where did this wisdom come from? When Egyptian scientists observed the movement of the shadow a stick through on the sand and discovered not only the roughly 24 hours of day but also the curve of the world, who gave the scientist this insight? Who taught the first teacher?

This theosophy is about this divine touch every person on earth has, hidden deep within themselves. Arts and Sciences are the divine powers of men - and here we have but the scraps of a doctrine that was dedicated exclusively to the research of these.

Philosophers and mystics, theologians and historians, all kinds of seekers might find their own share of gems within these pages. Last but not least, our modern Hermetics would of course want to give this study a try, too.

Want to read more? For a more in-depth experience of the book, feel free to take a look at my journals at Arcane Afternoon.

Notes on this edition
All footnotes and annotations are missing, and the three Volumes are compressed in formatting to be squeezed into less than 500 pages.

The first thing I did was to buy an annotated version and read the Prolegomena again, when suddenly everything began to make sense thanks to Mead's explanations! I tried to see this as an edition for collectors and specialists of the field, but that, too, is impossible to imagine with so much technical detail being lost together with all the other footnotes.

When you consider that the footnotes reach a phenomenal sum of 2800, it seems no wonder that this edition is less than half the size of the original three Volumes.

So honestly: Don't buy this edition, ever. Get an annotated one, or try ForgottenBooks.com for the scans of the original publications, supplied by the British Museum.

[Kaberoi Rua · Rating 3 out of 5]

In reference to this particular edition, I read one review here on Goodreads and one on Amazon. This is the first book I read on Hermetic Philosophy outside of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth. Thoth supposedly was an Atlantis King and the tablets were supposedly written by him before the fall of that ancient civilization. Why do I bring up Thoth during a book review tilted Thrice Greatest Hermes? Thoth according to my knowledge and research supposedly reincarnated as Hermes. With all that said, outside of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth this particular edition is the first I read on Hermetic Philosophy. I can't give an honest opinion on this particular edition in comparison to older editions. I will stand behind the two reviews I read by stating don't buy this edition. According to the reviews I read all footnotes and annotations are missing, and the three Volumes are compressed in formatting to be squeezed into less than 500 pages. I will find an original edition to this title by Mead.

Anyway, Mead did an excellent job researching and the collecting of all these ancient references into one piece of work. The book is divided into three Volumes. Volume I is kind of a back brief to the actual Trismegistic tractates known as the Corpus Hermeticum. Volume I is broken down as followed:

I - The Remains of The Trismegistic Literature

II - The History of the Evolution of Opinion

III - Thoth the Master of Wisdom

IV - The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult in the Greek Magic Papyri

V - The Main Source of the Trismegistic Literature According to Manetho, High Priest of Egypt

VI - An Egyptian Prototype of the Main Features of the Poemandres' Cosmogony

VII - The Myth of Man in the Mysteries 

VIII - Philo of Alexandria and the Hellenistic Theology 

IX - Plutarch: Concerning The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris

X - "Hermas" and " Hermes"

XI - Concerning the Aeon-Doctrine 

XII - The Seven Zones and Their Characteristics

XIII - Plato: Concerning Metempsychosis

XIV - The Vision of Er

XV - Concerning the Crater or Cup

XVI - The Disciples of Thrice Greatest Hermes

As stated volume II and III are the actual Trismegistic tractates known as the Corpus Hermeticum. If you are not familiar with the Emerald Tablets of Thoth or Hermetic writings basicly it's the Philosophy of Transcendence. In other simpler words, as humans we are multidimensional beings with spiritual abilities. Hermes and Thoth's writings are the Philosophy of higher states of consciousness. If you have read the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, if you are familiar with Gnostic Philosophy, and/or you are walking the path of spiritual enlightenment then you will resonate with Hermetic Philosophy. Just don't buy this edition. I wish I would have read these two reviews before buying this edition.

Why do I recommend an original edition of Mead's work if this is the only edition I have read? Because I can relate to the author(s) of these two reviews I read. As a book reader and collector I try to find original work that is not to expensive. There is a book titled, "Be Hold a Pale Horse" by William Cooper. You can find this book on Amazon. The problem is the edition on Amazon is the 2019 edition. The book was written in 1991, the 2019 edition sold by Amazon is missing 60 pages because the dark power running this system felt they need to take out vital information from Cooper's original work. I did find the book on Ebay but had to pay some money for the original edition. 

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/5 Stars for Mead's monumental effort in writing these three books, while the publisher's reprint leaves a lot to be desired

"It is difficult to understand God, to speak of Him impossible." Hermes Trismegistus

Before beginning my review, I would like to explain the title of the book. Notes concerning the Edition of print are appended to the end of this review.

Theosophy is simply the union of philosophy/philology and theology. Hellenism is a branch of theosophy that flourished in the intellectual combination of Greek and Oriental influence, combining their philosophies, religion and mystery-tradition. Gnosis is the discipline to know God, what I like to transcribe as your Higher Self. And Thrice-Greatest Hermes, or Hermes Trismegistus, is the "fictional" author of all the tractates and doctrines associated with the so-called Hermetic scripture.

A Study of Manuscripts
Mead's book is a gateway for "the general reader" to access what is called the "Corpus Hermeticum" or "the extant Hermetic Literature". Scattered throughout volumes, letters and commentary, any scripture connected with this theology are very hard to combine, especially since they come in Greek, Latin, French and German - to name but the most frequent languages in use.

But Mead went through the task of collecting all these references and putting them together into one collection, completely translated into common English of the early 20th century.

Furthermore, he took the extra-mile to educate the reader in the rich and varied symbolism of these writings, while maintaining a clear representation of the actual manuscripts. For ease of access and study, he chose to put the core of this Corpus into Volume II of his Trilogy, and all the Excerpts and Fragments into Volume III.

Prolegomena
Volume I. however is a complete education in the names, terminology and context of the scripture.

The manuscripts concerning Hermes Trismegistus were widely scattered through the last two millenia, and for the last seven hundred years their authenticity and meaning was heatedly debated among such scholars who could no longer imagine a time before Christendom. Mead rightly predicted that without some elementary understanding of theology and history, any reader would be utterly lost among the scriptures.

Therefore, the Prolegomena are the most difficult to read, despite of all Mead's efforts for clarity.

Where to begin?
Much of this you can read in more detail in The Key to Reading Thrice-Greatest Hermes. In effect, there is no easy way to read these Volumes. You may want to start at Volume II. and use Mead's inter-textual references to cherry-pick from the Prolegomena what you need, and don't hesitate to counsel Wikipedia from time to time. Should you be willing, you may start with the Prolegomena as I did and try to read cover-to-cover, but eventually I had no other choice but to open Volume II. and read the Poimandres for myself.

Quality of Research
I obtained two of Mead's sources in print and a random selection of others in digital form - though speaking German is my only perk for verifying anything here. But with such little lingual capacities available to my humble aspirations, I could tell that Mead is referencing his sources with meticulous attention to honesty, accuracy and necessity. The volumes are as big as they are, but Mead included only what was absolutely necessary to deliver the Corpus Hermeticum to the reader.

But what is it all about?
Mysticism and Wisdom-Loving at its finest. The hellenistic traditions lived in a time of international mingling, when all mythologies and religions and sciences of every nation were scrutinized under the light of synthesis, and their actual harmony in heart and mind was discovered. Jesus, Buddah, Osiris - to name but a few of the many Sons of God are, in the eyes of Hellenism, symbols for the unnameable.

When the first people, tribesmen, considered burying what little food they head in order to let new plants grow from these seeds - where did this wisdom come from? When Egyptian scientists observed the movement of the shadow a stick through on the sand and discovered not only the roughly 24 hours of day but also the curve of the world, who gave the scientist this insight? Who taught the first teacher?

This theosophy is about this divine touch every person on earth has, hidden deep within themselves. Arts and Sciences are the divine powers of men - and here we have but the scraps of a doctrine that was dedicated exclusively to the research of these.

Philosophers and mystics, theologians and historians, all kinds of seekers might find their own share of gems within these pages. Last but not least, our modern Hermetics would of course want to give this study a try, too.

Want to read more? For a more in-depth experience of the book, feel free to take a look at my journals at Arcane Afternoon.

Notes on Alicia Editions' reprint

First of all, putting the three Volumes into one print hinders the study. You will want to have Prolegomena, Corpus Hermeticum and the Fragments and Excerpts next to each other, a bookmark in each - which is much harder to accomplish when they are all bound to the same spine.

In Vol. I. Chapter VII., Mead has to distinguish between five authors who collaborated in the creation of the manuscript under inspection here. He chose to switch between lower and larger font-size for clarity. This edition has removed this formatting with no replacement.

References between the Volumes and within each are using page numbers of the original print, rendering these footnotes as good as useless.

Mead references the chapters of Volume II. through their indexing. This edition has removed the indexing, making a huge amount of footnotes hard to use.

The Index is missing entirely, denying ease of reference when needing to look up terms or topics at any time.

The easy-to-read layout forces the reader to always leave a finger or bookmark at the end of each chapter. The original print had the footnotes at the bottom of the page where they occurred, allowing the reader to more easily switch between the translation of the manuscript and Mead's explanatory annotation to terms and phrases.

A couple of footnotes are missing, lost obviously through copy-paste errors. I here append all the footnotes I spotted and could recover thanks to the publications from the British Museum and ForgottenBooks.com:

Commentary "Mind unto Hermes" # 3 copy-paste error:
- Namely, Paul in his Letters, which are earliest of all Christian documents. See my article, "Some Notes on the Gnostics," in The Nineteenth Century and After (Nov. 1902), pp. 822-835; and D. J. L., pp. 353 ff.

Sermon on the Mountain # 29:
- Cf. above, §3: "brought to birth out of God's mercy"; and also §10.

P. S. A. III # 4:
- That is, "This Reason is."

P. S. A. VI # 7:
- Cf. xi. 2.

P.S.A. XXVII # 2:
- Meaning higher sense, presumably; reading sensus for sensibus

P.S.A. XXX missing footnote #10:
- That is, again, in the AEon.

P.S.A Commentary # 1:
- The so-founded opinions of Bernays and Zeller are characterized by Reitzenstein (p. 195) as of as little value as the opinions which made the whole of our literature depend on New Platonism.

P.S.A Commentary # 2:
- Augustine's date is 354-430 A.D.

Excerpt I. Of Piety and [true] Philosophy # 14:
- Lit. of the two.

Excerpt III. Of Truth # 17:
- Lit. genesis.

Excerpt VIII. Of Energy and Feeling # 6:
- Or energizing.

Excerpt XIII. Of the whole Economy # 6:
- Lit. "first has Providence." The following words in parentheses seem to be the gloss of a scribe who was puzzled by the sentence. Usener, however, would detect a lacuna after the parentheses and the beginning of a new excerpt after that, and Wachsmuth agrees with him. This seems to me to be unnecessary.

Page 870, the original "p. 64" appears in the text

Excerpt XX. [The Power of Choice] #2:
- διάνοια

The Virgin of the World Commentary # 24:
- προτογόνῳ - cf. προγενεστέρου πάντων above.

Same place # 30:
- Chron., xl. (ed. Dind., i. 72).

Same place # 60:
- De Defectu Oraculorum,xxi., xxii. (421A-422C),ed. G. N. Bernardakis (Leipzig, 1891), iii. 97-101. See my paper, "Plutarch's Yogi," in The Theosophical Review (Dec. 1891), ix. 295-297.

Same place #69:
- See my Orpheus (London, 1896), pp. 255-262.

Same place #83:
- Ps. Augustine, Quaett. Vet. et Nov. Test. (Migne, P. L., tom. xxxiv. col. 2214 f.).

Same place # 101:
- For the above and other references, see Trümpel's art. "Momus," in Roscher's Lexicon.

From the Sermon of Isis to Horus # 14:
- For Melchizedek, the "Receiver of light and Guide of souls," see P. S., passim, and especially 35-37, 292, 327; for Zorokothora-Melchizedek and Ieou, see "The Books of the Saviour," ibid., 365 ff.; and for Gabriel and Michael, ibid., 138.

I.Justin Martyr ## 8 and 9:
- See Cohort., xxii.; II. Apol., x. Clemens Alex., Origen, Minutius Felix, Lactantius, and other of the Fathers also quote this saying of Plato.
- That is, like Jesus.

VII. Lactantius # 15:
- Cf. C.H., x. (xi.) 5; P. S. A., xxxvii. 1. Also Lact., Epit., 14. In my commentary on the first passage I have shown that Lactantius is probably here referring to a lost Hermetic treatise.

same place # 56:
- Cf. Frag. v.

IX. Cyril of Alexandria # 18:
- δημιουργὸν λόγον.Compare Lact., D. I., iv. 6, 9.

II. Jamblichus # 36:
- Who must be read in the original and not in inelegant and puzzling version of Taylor, the only English translation.

same place # 59:
- Here whole means plane.

IV. Conclusion # 5:
- Seems to be a complete tractate.

[D.B White · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a boring, pedantic, snorefest almost from beginning to end. Why did it make my reading list, and why did I read it from beginning to end over a period of 9 months? Well, for a few reasons:because of a deep curiosity for Hermes Trismegistus, as a semi- mythological character (sort of the way that Hippocrates may have been many people, or no one real), Mead (the author), as a follower of Madame Blavatsky and as an inspiration for Carl Jung, because of the stories concerning Ancient Egyptian history and mythology, a clandestine interest towards gnosticism and the fuss over its esoteric appeal. What was gained by reading this unenjoyable book over nine months? An interesting introduction to Gnosticism, about ideas that evolved side by side with early Christianity as a way to make sense of the world, and were deemed heretical throughout much of Christian history, an immersion into the unfamiliar vocabulary of gnostics (which Mead, who wrote for his cronies, did not help make remotely accessible to the initiate), interesting glimpses into translations of classical texts of authors such as Plutarch, Philo, Plato, etc. and into the ancient worlds and ideas that they have described, interesting interpretations of ancient Egyptian mythologies by turn of the century (read Imperialist) Egyptologists, and quite a few suggestions of who Hermes Trismegistus may have been meant to represent over time (Asclepius, Thoth, Immoteph, and other ancient savants). All in all, not a total waste of time, but I doubt this book will be revisited by myself.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Miley represents a classic case of pathological bibliophilia. Unlike my own relatively benign neurotic affliction, Michael's borders on psychosis. While I am inclined to go on a walk and return with a backpack full of used books obtained at thrift stores and yard sales, Michael will walk right into a Barnes & Noble and use a credit card to buy every book which strikes his overheated fancy. As a consequence, his library looks prettier than mine, his books tending to be much newer, unmarked and with jackets.

Long, long had I admired his three-volume edition of Thrice Greatest Hermes. Having done a thesis on the history of scholarly opinion about the nature and origins of 'gnosticism', these books were clearly more to my desert than his. I'd probably even read the things!

Michael, occasionally awakening from his dogmatic slumbers, noticed this, my attention and true desire, and after many years, he being a kind and compassionate psychotic, presented me the set as a gift, obliging me, of course, to read it immediately upon return from a visit to his library/home in California. This was done primarily at the old Panini Panini Cafe on Sheridan Road and Pratt in Chicago's East Rogers Park neighborhood.

Again, like in my review of his translation of the Pistis Sophia, I compromise between a high score for Mead's early efforts in bringing these materials to the public and a low score for these excruciatingly tedious texts themselves.