Book Review - The Eternal Hermes
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ritaerThe Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus
Antoine Faivre,
Translated by Joscelyn Godwin
Phanes Press, Grand Rapids MI, 1995
0933999526
TPB $18.95
This volume is a clear example of the difference between studying a subject and studying about a subject. It contains virtually no instruction in any of the hermetic arts, nor much information about the role of Hermes in Greek religion or of cult activities devoted to the god.
Faivre's subject is, instead, the history of the writings attributed to the god/mage who became known as Hermes Trismegistus and of the commentaries, discussions and publications devoted to those writings. In the early centuries of the Common era various writings supposed to contain wisdom dating to the ancient Egyptians were collected and attributed to Hermes Trismegistus together with various origin stories accounting for both the supposed author and the contents of the works. Since this was a time in which ancient pedigree was far more valued than any pretense at originality the works were given dates as far back in human history as the collectors of the myths could conceive. More recent scholarship dates such works as the Corpus Hermeticum to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.
Faivre traces the evolution of ideas about these works, publication and translations of the works themselves and their role in the history of magical thought in the West. As an example of the esteem the works were held in by some he cites the priorities of Cosimo de' Medici, who had his court translator delay work on Plato to translate the newly rediscovered Corpus into Latin. With this and other hermetic works returned to circulation among the learned classes the ideas they contained worked their way into the pictorial arts and into subsequent occult societies, such as the Rosicrucians and the various Masonic Lodges.
One chapter of this book is comprised of black and white plates reproducing paintings and prints which contain images of Hermes Trismegistus as imagined by various generations. Unfortunately some of these plates are not very clear in their detail, possibly from having been reduced from much larger formats It would also have been helpful for the extensive discussion of the details and symbolism of the plates to have been printed next the work described rather than in a separate chapter.
The greatest part of the work consists of references to other works, an extensive list of works about hermeticism published through the ages, including books and articles. This is the sort of work that can serve as a springboard for further research.
Antoine Faivre,
Translated by Joscelyn Godwin
Phanes Press, Grand Rapids MI, 1995
0933999526
TPB $18.95
This volume is a clear example of the difference between studying a subject and studying about a subject. It contains virtually no instruction in any of the hermetic arts, nor much information about the role of Hermes in Greek religion or of cult activities devoted to the god.
Faivre's subject is, instead, the history of the writings attributed to the god/mage who became known as Hermes Trismegistus and of the commentaries, discussions and publications devoted to those writings. In the early centuries of the Common era various writings supposed to contain wisdom dating to the ancient Egyptians were collected and attributed to Hermes Trismegistus together with various origin stories accounting for both the supposed author and the contents of the works. Since this was a time in which ancient pedigree was far more valued than any pretense at originality the works were given dates as far back in human history as the collectors of the myths could conceive. More recent scholarship dates such works as the Corpus Hermeticum to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.
Faivre traces the evolution of ideas about these works, publication and translations of the works themselves and their role in the history of magical thought in the West. As an example of the esteem the works were held in by some he cites the priorities of Cosimo de' Medici, who had his court translator delay work on Plato to translate the newly rediscovered Corpus into Latin. With this and other hermetic works returned to circulation among the learned classes the ideas they contained worked their way into the pictorial arts and into subsequent occult societies, such as the Rosicrucians and the various Masonic Lodges.
One chapter of this book is comprised of black and white plates reproducing paintings and prints which contain images of Hermes Trismegistus as imagined by various generations. Unfortunately some of these plates are not very clear in their detail, possibly from having been reduced from much larger formats It would also have been helpful for the extensive discussion of the details and symbolism of the plates to have been printed next the work described rather than in a separate chapter.
The greatest part of the work consists of references to other works, an extensive list of works about hermeticism published through the ages, including books and articles. This is the sort of work that can serve as a springboard for further research.
