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    The Hymns of Hermes
    The Hymns of Hermes
    The Hymns of Hermes
    Ebook45 pages1 hour

    The Hymns of Hermes

    By G.R.S. Mead

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    Clement of Alexandria tells us that the whole of the religious philosophy-that is, the wisdom, discipline and multifarious arts and sciences-of the Egyptian priesthood was contained in the Books of Hermes, that is of Thoth. These Books, he informs us further, were classified under forty-two heads and divided into a number of groups according to the various septs or divisions of the priests.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInteractive Media
    Release dateSep 19, 2016
    ISBN9781911535362

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      I didn't expect much from this book - picked it up out of curiosity - but it turns out to be an exposition of the subtlest form of metaphysics - how the absolute is a union of opposites - and more.

    Book preview

    The Hymns of Hermes - G.R.S. Mead

    G. R. S. Mead

    The Hymns

    of Hermes

    Christian Classics

    THE BIG NEST

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    New Edition

    Published by The Big Nest

    www.thebignest.co.uk

    This Edition first published in 2016

    Copyright © 2016 The Big Nest

    Images and Illustrations © 2016 Stocklibrary.org

    All Rights Reserved.

    ISBN: 9781911535362

    Contents

    THE HYMNS OF HERMES

    THE HYMNS OF HERMES

    THE SERVICE OF SONG

    Clement of Alexandria tells us that the whole of the religious philosophy-that is, the wisdom, discipline and multifarious arts and sciences-of the Egyptian priesthood was contained in the Books of Hermes, that is of Thoth. These Books, he informs us further, were classified under forty-two heads and divided into a number of groups according to the various septs or divisions of the priests.

    In describing a certain sacred ceremonial-a procession of priests in their various orders-Clement tells us that it was headed by a representative of the order of Singers, who were distinguished by appropriate symbols of music, some of which were apparently carried in the hands and others embroidered on the robes.

    These Singers had to make themselves masters of, that is, learn by heart, two of the divisions of the Books of Hermes, namely, those which contained collections of Hymns in Honour of the Gods or God, and Encomia or Hymns in Praise of the Kings (iii, 222).

    Many specimens of similar hymns in praise of the Gods are preserved to us in Egyptian inscriptions and papyri, and some of them are most noble outpourings of the soul in praise of the majesty and transcendency of the Supreme, in terms that may be not unfavorably compared with similar praise giving in other great scriptures. But, alas! the hymnbooks of Thoth, to which Clement refers, are lost to us. He may, of course, have been mistaken in so definitely designating them, just as he was indubitably mistaken in thinking that they were collections of hymns composed by a single individual, Hermes.

    The grandiose conception of Thoth as the inspirer of all sacred writings and the teacher of all religion and philosophy was Egyptian and not Greek; and it was but a sorry equivalent that the Greeks could find in their own pantheon when, in the change of God-names, they were forced to ‘translate’ Thoth by Hermes.

    Thoth, as the inspirer of all sacred writings and the president of all priestly discipline, was, as Iamblichus tells us, a name which was held by the Egyptians to be common to all priests-that is to say, every priest as priest was a Thoth, because he showed forth in his sacred office some characteristic or other of the Great Priest or Master Hierophant among the Gods whose earthy name was Thoth Tehuti.

    Thoth was thus the Oversoul of all priests; and when some of the Greeks came to know better what the inner discipline of the true priestly mysteries connoted, they so felt the inadequacy of plain Hermes as a suitable equivalent for the Egyptian name which designated this great ideal, that they qualified ‘Egyptian Hermes’ with the honorific epithet ‘Thrice-greatest.’

    It is of the Hymns of this Thrice-greatest Hermes that I shall treat in the present small volume hymns that were inspired by the still-living tradition of what was best in the wisdom of ancient

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