God wills to be known — the knowledge of God, the only salvation, the ascent to Olympus
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Hermes — οὐ γὰρ ἀγνοεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὁ θεός, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάνυ γνωρίζει καὶ θέλει γνωρίζεσθαι. τοῦτο μόνον σωτήριον ἀνθρώπῳ ἐστίν, ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ θεοῦ. αὕτη εἰς τὸν ῎Ολυμπον ἀνάβασις· οὕτω μόνως ἀγαθὴ ψυχή, καὶ οὐδέποτε ἀγαθὴ ἀεί, κακὴ δὲ γίνεται· κατ' ἀνάγκην γίνεται.
Tat — Πῶς τοῦτο λέγεις, ὦ Τρισμέγιστε;
Hermes — Ψυχὴν παιδὸς θέασαι, ὦ τέκνον, αὐτὴν διάλυσιν αὐτῆς μηδέπω ἐπιδεχομένην, τοῦ σώματος αὐτῆς ἔτι ὀλίγον ὄγκωτο καὶ μηδέπω τὸ πᾶν ὠγκωμένου, πῶς καλὴν μὲν βλέπειν πανταχοῦ, μηδέποτε δὲ τεθολωμένην ὑπὸ τῶν τοῦ σώματος παθῶν, ἔτι σχεδὸν ἠρτημένην τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ψυχῆς· ὅταν δὲ ὀγκωθῇ τὸ σῶμα καὶ κατασπάσῃ αὐτὴν εἰς τοὺς τοῦ σώματος ὄγκους, διαλύσασα δὲ ἑαυτὴν ἐγγεννᾷ λήθην, καὶ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ ἀγαθοῦ οὐ μεταλαμβάνει· ἡ δὲ λήθη κακία γίνεται.
For God is not ignorant of man, but even utterly knows him and wills to be known. This alone is saving for man: the knowledge of God. This is the ascent to Olympus; thus alone does the soul become good — and it is never good always, but becomes evil, and by necessity it becomes so. — How do you mean this, O Trismegistus? — Behold the soul of a child, O child, which does not yet admit its own dissolution, its body still having swelled but a little and not yet wholly grown bulky: how beautiful it is to behold everywhere, never yet clouded by the passions of the body, still almost hanging from the soul of the cosmos. But when the body swells and drags it down into the bulks of the body, having dissolved itself it engenders forgetfulness, and does not partake of the beautiful and good; and the forgetfulness becomes vice.
For God is not ignorant of man, but knows him utterly and wills to be known. This alone is saving for man: the knowledge of God. This is the ascent to Olympus; thus alone does the soul become good — and it is never good always, but becomes evil, and becomes so by necessity. Tat: how do you mean this, Trismegistus? Hermes: behold the soul of a child, which does not yet admit its own dissolution, its body having swelled but a little and not yet wholly grown bulky — how beautiful it is to behold everywhere, never yet clouded by the body's passions, still almost hanging from the soul of the cosmos. But when the body swells and drags it down into the body's bulks, having dissolved itself it engenders forgetfulness, and does not partake of the beautiful and good; and the forgetfulness becomes vice.
Now the treatise's warmest turn, and its deepest reassurance: 'God is not ignorant of man, but utterly knows him and wills to be known (θέλει γνωρίζεσθαι).' The whole ascent is possible because it is answered from above — the God who is 'neither spoken nor heard' nevertheless wants to be found. And so the single soteriological claim the Hermetica is remembered for: 'this alone is saving for man, the knowledge of God (τοῦτο μόνον σωτήριον ἀνθρώπῳ… ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ θεοῦ). This is the ascent to Olympus (εἰς τὸν Ὄλυμπον ἀνάβασις).' Gnosis is not information but a climb — the soul's return up the chain to the height of the gods. But Hermes will not sentimentalize it: the soul 'is never good always (οὐδέποτε ἀγαθὴ ἀεί), but becomes evil, and by necessity (κατ' ἀνάγκην).' There is a gravity pulling the other way.
Tat asks how, and Hermes answers not with argument but with an image of heartbreaking gentleness: 'behold the soul of a child (ψυχὴν παιδὸς θέασαι).' While the body 'has swelled but a little (ὀλίγον ὄγκωτο),' the soul is 'beautiful to behold everywhere, never yet clouded by the passions of the body (μηδέποτε τεθολωμένην ὑπὸ τῶν τοῦ σώματος παθῶν), still almost hanging from the soul of the cosmos (σχεδὸν ἠρτημένην τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ψυχῆς).' It is one of the most tender sentences in the corpus — the child's soul still trailing clarity from the world-soul it barely left, clear water before the silt is stirred. Then the fall, told as growth: 'when the body swells (ὀγκωθῇ) and drags it down (κατασπάσῃ) into the body's bulks,' the soul 'engenders forgetfulness (ἐγγεννᾷ λήθην)' and loses the beautiful and good — 'and the forgetfulness becomes vice (ἡ… λήθη κακία γίνεται).' This is the whole Hermetic anthropology in one figure: we are not born wicked but born clear, and vice is what accrues as the body thickens and the soul forgets. Evil is λήθη, forgetting — and salvation is γνῶσις, its undoing. Even the 'necessity' is gentle: it is simply what happens as a body grows, unless the ascent is made.
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