The reflection in the water — Man's Narcissus
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Καὶ ὁ τῶν θνητῶν τοῦ κόσμου ζώων καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων ἔχων πᾶσαν ἐξουσίαν διὰ τῆς ἁρμονίας παρέκυψεν, ἀναρρήξας τὸ κράτος τῶν κύκλων, καὶ ἔδειξε τῇ κατωφερεῖ φύσει τὴν καλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ μορφὴν. ἣν ἰδοῦσα ἀκόρεστον κάλλος· καὶ πᾶσαν ἐνέργειαν ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἔχουσαν τῶν ἑπτὰ διοικητόρων, τήν τε μορφὴν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐμειδίασεν ἔρωτι, ἅτε τῆς καλλίστης μορφῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ εἶδος ἐν τῷ ὕδατι ἰδοῦσα, καὶ τὸ σκίασμα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. ὁ δὲ ἰδὼν τὴν ὁμοίαν αὐτῷ μορφὴν, ἐν ἑαυτῷ οὖσαν, ἐν τῷ ὕδατι, ἐφίλησε καὶ ἠβουλήθη αὐτῇ συνοικεῖν· ἅμα δὲ τῇ βουλῇ ἐγένετο ἐνέργεια, καὶ ἐκύησε τὴν ἄλογον μορφήν.
And he who had all authority over the world's mortal and irrational living things bent down through the harmony, breaking through the dominion of the circles, and showed to downward Nature the beautiful form of God. And Nature, seeing him of insatiable beauty — holding in herself all the energy of the seven Governors, and the form of God — smiled with love, inasmuch as she had seen the image of Man's most beautiful form in the water, and its shadow on the earth. And he, seeing in himself the form like to his own, present in the water, loved it and willed to dwell with it; and together with the will came the act, and he begot the irrational form.
The turning point. Man bends down through the harmony, breaks the dominion of the circles, and shows the beautiful form of God to downward Nature. Nature sees the image of Man's form in the water and its shadow on earth; and Man, seeing his own likeness in the water, loves it and longs to dwell with it. With the will comes the act, and he begets the 'irrational form' — the Hermetic Narcissus, spirit falling for its own reflection.
This is the Hermetic Narcissus, and one of the most haunting pages in ancient religion. Man leans down through the planetary frame and shows Nature the divine form he bears; Nature, seeing that beauty, smiles up at it with love. But Man too looks down — and sees his own likeness in the water, his shadow on the earth, and falls in love with his reflection. Desire (ἔρως) and its consummation are one motion: 'together with the will came the act.'
The undercurrent is that the fall is a mutual seduction of image and reflection, spirit and matter each enamoured of the other across the surface of the water. What Man begets from it is the ἄλογος μορφή, the 'irrational form' — embodied human life, beautiful and speechless, made not by sin but by love of a reflected beauty. The interlinear keeps the two loves distinct that English blurs: Nature ἐμειδίασεν ἔρωτι (smiled with desire), Man ἐφίλησε (loved fondly) — and both are undone by looking.
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Corpus Hermeticum CH1.14 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH1.14/