It appears clear that a certain number of the books bearing the name of Hermes Trismegistus were trans- lated into (ireek about the time of the Ptolemies. The authenticity of the fragments of these translations which have come down to us is more doubtful. It was the time when so many supposititious works of Orpheus, Zo- roaster, Pythagoras, etc., were composed. Leaving aside Augustine's testimony {De cicitate Dei. 1. viii, c. 26), ChampoUion junior considers the books of Hermes Tris- megistus as containing really the old Egyptian doctrines, of which some traces can be foimd in the hieroglyphics. Besides, a careful examination of these remaining frag- ments discloses a theological system somewhat similar from that of Plato in liis Timceus ; a doctrine which dif- fers entirel}' from those of all the other Greek schools, and which therefore was supposed to have been brought by him from Egypt, where he had been to consult with the priests of that country. They are written in a barbar- ous Greek, in which it is easy to perceive the effort made by translators to follow literally the text of the original rather than the sense. INIenard, a recent translator of Hermes, views the Hermetic books " as representing the final aspirations of the higher Greek wisdom, dimly an- ticipating the fidler revelation of the Christian faith ; as a mystical system, hovering between the negations of Greek thought and the dogmas of the Christian faith" (Am. Pres. Ber. Janiiar*-, 1869, p. 195). The following works, attributed to Hermes, have been published : A<i- yoQ TsXtiog ; the Greek original, quoted by Lactantius (Div. Instit. vii, 18), is lost, and there remains only a Lat- in translation of it, attributed to Apuleius of Madaiu-a, and which is entitled A sckpius, or Hei-metis Trismegisti Asclepiiis, sive <Ie naiitra deoritm dialorpis. This work appears to have been written shorth' before the time of Lactantius, and in Egypt, probably at Alexandria. It is in the form of a dialogue between Hermes and Asclc- j)ius, his disciple, on (iod, the universe, nature, etc. The spirit of this work is thoroughly Neo - Platonic, and tliough the ■\\Titer ilirects it against Christianity, he evi- dently borrowed many Christian doctrines to serve his end. The Asclepiiis was embodied in several editions of Apideius, and in those of the Pcemimder by Ficinus and Patricius. These latter editions, and the Pcemander of Adrian Turnebus, contain Opot 'ArTK\r}~iov tvooq "Aft- /Moi'a [SaaiXsa, probably a translation by the author of the preceding work, and treating also of God, matter, and man. 'Epnov rov TpiapeyhTov JJointlvSpriQ is an extensive work. The title Iloificii'^pi](;, or Pammukr; from Troij.u'ir, pastor or shephenl, seems to be imitated from the Tioipiiv or Pastor of Hennas. See Hkijmas. Indeed, the latter has sometimes been considered as the author of the Pacmandtr. It is ^mtten in the form of a dialogue, and coidd hardly have been composed before the 4th centurj'. It treats of nature, creation, and God. These different subjects are viewed from the Tseo-Platonic stand-pomt, but intermingled with Chris- tian, Jewish, and Eastern notions. The Pcemander was at first published as a Latin translation by Ticinus, mi dcr the title Mcrcurii Trismer/isii Liber de. Potesfate et Sajnentia Dei (Treves, 1471, fol. ; often reprinted at Yen- ice). The Greek text, with Ficinus's translation, was first published by Adr. Tiunebus (Paris. 1554, 4to ; latest edit., v.ith a commentarj-, Cologne, 1630, fol.). It was translated into French by G. du Preau, under the title Deux livres de Mercure Trismerjiste, Fun De la Puissutice et Sapience de Dieu, V autre De la Volonte de Dieu (Paris, 1557, 8vo) ; and by others :— 'Iorpo/(a0»7f<ar(ica i) -Trtpi KararXiffewg voaovvrwv Trpoyi'oJGriKa tic rijg pa6i}pa- TiKtjs tTricirijptig Trno^'Xpfnuva AijinrTiov ; this trea-
tise, much less important than the preceding one, gives the means of foretelling the issue of a sickness liy means of astrologj'-. — De Revolutionihus naticitatmii, another treatise on astrology (Basle, 1559, fol.) : — ApJiorismi, sive centum, sententice astrologiccf, called also Centihigiiinm, supposed to have been written originally in Arabic, but of which we possess but the Latin translation (Venice, 149-2. 1'(.1. : latest edit. Uhn, 1672, 12mo) :— Liber pihysico- tnedir/is Kii-di.hlinn Kirani, id est regis I'ersarum, vere aur(ii.< i/>iiiiii(ii.<, another astrological work, which is known to us only in the Latin translation published by Andr. Privinus, though the Greek text is yet extant iii MS. at jNIadrid. Some of the books bearing the name of Hermes Trismegistus were evidently productions of the Middle Ages; these are Tractatus vere aureus de I^apidis ])hilosopJiici Decreto, i. e. on the philosopher's stone (Latin, by D. Gnosius, Leipz. 1610, 1613, 8vo; and translated into French by G. Joly and F. Habert, Paris, 1626, 8vo) ; Tabula smaragdina, an essay on the art of gold-making, published in Latin (Xuremburg, 1541, 4to; Strasb. 1566, 8vo) ; ITfpi fSoravoJv xv\uatiij<;, pidjlished at the end of Riither's edition of L. Lydus's De Mensibus, with notes by Biihr; Jltpl aiiapixiv, a fragment con- sisting of sixty-six hexameters, attributed by some to Orpheus: it is to be foxuid in Jlaittaire's Miscellanea (London, 1722, 4to), and in Brimck's Analecta, iii, 127. All the extant fragments of Hermes are given in French by IMenard, Hermes Trivnegiste (2d edit. Paris, 1868). See J. H. Ursinus, Exercitatio de Jtfercvrio Trismegisto, etc. (Niu-emb. 1661, 8 vo); Roeser, De Hermete Trisme- gisto litterarum inventore (Wittemb. 1686, 4to) ; Colberg, De libris antiquitatem mententibus, sibyllarum, Hei-metis, Zoroastris (Greifswald, 1694,8vo) ; G. W. Wedel, Zfe Ta- bula Hermetis smaragdina (Jena, 1704, 4to) ; Baumgarten- Crusius, De Libi-onim Hermeticorum Origine, etc. (Jena, 1827, 4to); Fabricius, Bibl. Grceca, i, 46, 94; F. Hoefer, Hi^t. de In Chimie, i, 244 ; Pauly, Eeal-Fnq/Mop. ; Hoe- fer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxiv, 377 ; Smith, Dictionary of Mythology and Biography, vol. ii ; Warbiu-ton, Divine Legation, i, 442; Mosheim, Commentaries, i, 290; Cud- worth, True Intellectual System oftlie Universe.