The pious soul becomes wholly mind — the impious, self-punished, may not fall into a beast
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Hermes — ψυχὴ δὲ ἀνθρωπίνη, οὐ πᾶσα μέν, ἡ δὲ εὐσεβής, δαιμονία τίς ἐστι καὶ θεία· καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἀπαλλαγῆναι τοῦ σώματος τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀγῶνα ἠγωνισμένη (ἀγὼν δὲ εὐσεβείας, τὸ γνῶναι τὸ θεῖον καὶ μηδένα ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῆσαι), ὅλη νοῦς γίνεται. ἡ δὲ ἀσεβὴς ψυχὴ μένει ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας οὐσίας, ὑφ' ἑαυτῆς κολαζομένη, καὶ γήινον σῶμα ζητοῦσα εἰς ὃ εἰσέλθῃ, εἰς ἀνθρώπινον δέ· ἄλλο γὰρ σῶμα οὐ χωρεῖ ἀνθρωπίνην ψυχήν, οὐδὲ θέμις ἐστὶν εἰς ἀλόγου ζῴου σῶμα ψυχὴν ἀνθρωπίνην καταπεσεῖν. θεοῦ γὰρ νόμος οὗτος, φυλάσσειν ψυχὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀπὸ τῆς τοσαύτης ὕβρεως.
But a human soul — not every one indeed, but the pious one — is something daemonic and divine; and such a one, even after being freed from the body, having contended the contest of piety (and the contest of piety is to know the divine and to wrong no one of men), becomes wholly mind. But the impious soul remains in its own essence, punished by itself, seeking an earthy body into which it may enter — a human one; for another body does not hold a human soul, nor is it lawful for a human soul to fall into the body of an irrational animal. For the law of God is this: to guard a human soul from so great an outrage.
But a human soul — not every one, but the pious — is something daemonic and divine; and such a one, even after being freed from the body, having contended the contest of piety (and the contest of piety is to know the divine and to wrong no one), becomes wholly mind. But the impious soul remains in its own essence, punished by itself, seeking an earthy body to enter — a human one; for another body does not hold a human soul, nor is it lawful for a human soul to fall into the body of an irrational animal. For the law of God is this: to guard the human soul from so great an outrage.
Two destinies, drawn sharply. The pious soul 'is something daemonic and divine (δαιμονία τίς… καὶ θεία)' — already, in life, of the order of the daimons, the intermediary spirits — and after death, having 'contended the contest of piety (τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀγῶνα ἠγωνισμένη),' it 'becomes wholly mind (ὅλη νοῦς γίνεται).' The parenthesis defines that contest with beautiful economy: 'to know the divine and to wrong no one (τὸ γνῶναι τὸ θεῖον καὶ μηδένα ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῆσαι)' — the whole of religion in a knowing and an ethic, contemplation and justice bound together. (Paul's 'I have fought the good fight,' ἀγῶνα, is the same athletic metaphor.) The reward is not a place but a transformation: the pious soul is promoted up the chain to become the νοῦς it served.
The impious soul has the opposite fate, and it is self-inflicted: it 'remains in its own essence, punished by itself (ὑφ' ἑαυτῆς κολαζομένη).' No external judge is needed — the vice is the punishment (the next section will make this explicit). It hunts for another earthy body 'to enter,' but here the treatise plants its flag against the dominant Greek doctrine: the reborn body can only be human. 'It is not lawful (οὐδὲ θέμις) for a human soul to fall (καταπεσεῖν) into the body of an irrational animal.' Where Plato (Timaeus, Phaedrus) and the Pythagoreans taught that degraded souls return as beasts, the Hermetist forbids it outright, and grounds the ban in divine statute: 'the law of God (θεοῦ νόμος) is to guard the human soul from so great an outrage (ὕβρεως).' Human dignity is protected by law from below as it is opened to divinity from above — a soul may rise to god or sink in torment, but it may not become an animal.
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