A soul without mind is like a beast — and the true man is equal to the heavenly gods
Read the full text in our reader
Hermes — ψυχὴ γὰρ χωρὶς νοῦ οὔτε τι εἰπεῖν οὔτ' ἔρξαι δύναται. πολλάκις γὰρ ἐξίπταται ὁ νοῦς τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ οὔτε βλέπει ἡ ψυχὴ οὔτε ἀκούει, ἀλλ' ἀλόγῳ ζῴῳ ἔοικε· τηλικαύτη δύναμίς ἐστι τοῦ νοῦ. ἀλλ' οὐδὲ νωθρᾶς ψυχῆς ἀνέχεται, ἀλλὰ καταλείπει τὴν τοιαύτην ψυχὴν τῷ σώματι προσηρτημένην καὶ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἀγχομένην κάτω. ἡ δὲ τοιαύτη ψυχή, ὦ τέκνον, νοῦν οὐκ ἔχει· ὅθεν οὐδὲ ἄνθρωπον δεῖ λέγεσθαι τὸν τοιοῦτον· ὁ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος ζῷόν ἐστι θεῖον καὶ οὐδὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις συγκρινόμενον τῶν ἐπιγείων ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄνω λεγομένοις θεοῖς· μᾶλλον δ' εἰ χρὴ τολμήσαντα εἰπεῖν τὸ ἀληθές, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐκείνους ἐστὶν ὁ ὄντως ἄνθρωπος, ἢ πάντως γε ἰσοδυναμοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις.
For a soul without mind can neither say anything nor do; for often the mind flies out of the soul, and in that hour the soul neither sees nor hears, but resembles an irrational animal — so great is the power of the mind. But neither does it endure a sluggish soul, but leaves such a soul attached to the body and throttled down by it. And such a soul, O child, does not have mind; whence such a one should not even be called a man. For man is a divine living being, not to be compared with the other earthly living beings, but with those called gods above in heaven — rather, if one must dare to speak the truth, the real man is even above them, or at all events they are at least equal in power with one another.
For a soul without mind can neither say nor do anything; for often the mind flies out of the soul, and in that hour the soul neither sees nor hears, but resembles an irrational animal — so great is the power of the mind. But neither does it endure a sluggish soul; it leaves such a soul attached to the body and throttled down by it. Such a soul, child, has no mind; whence such a one should not even be called a man. For man is a divine living being, not to be compared with the other earthly animals, but with the gods called above in heaven — rather, if one must dare to speak the truth, the real man is even above them, or at least they are equal in power with one another.
The two-minds doctrine yields a startling anthropology of degree: not every soul has the good mind, and a soul lacking it barely counts as human. 'A soul without mind can neither say nor do anything (ψυχὴ… χωρὶς νοῦ οὔτε τι εἰπεῖν οὔτ' ἔρξαι δύναται)' — mind is the enabling condition of both speech and act. And the mind is not a fixture: 'often the mind flies out of the soul (ἐξίπταται ὁ νοῦς τῆς ψυχῆς),' and in that hour the soul 'neither sees nor hears, but resembles an irrational animal.' It can also refuse to stay: 'it does not endure a sluggish soul (νωθρᾶς ψυχῆς οὐκ ἀνέχεται),' abandoning it 'attached to the body and throttled down (ἀγχομένην κάτω)' — the same strangling downward pull of CH VII and CH X.18. Spiritual sloth literally drives the mind away. Of such a mindless soul the treatise renders a severe verdict: 'such a one should not even be called a man (οὐδὲ ἄνθρωπον δεῖ λέγεσθαι).' Humanity is not a biological given but an achievement, forfeitable by the loss of Mind.
And then, having set the floor so low, the treatise raises the ceiling to its highest point. 'Man is a divine living being (ζῷον… θεῖον), not to be compared with the other earthly animals, but with the gods above in heaven.' The comparison that §22 forbade downward is now made upward — and then pushed past even that: 'if one must dare to speak the truth (εἰ χρὴ τολμήσαντα εἰπεῖν τὸ ἀληθές), the real man (ὁ ὄντως ἄνθρωπος) is even above them, or at least equal in power (ἰσοδυναμοῦσιν).' The phrase 'the real man' — ὁ ὄντως ἄνθρωπος — is doing enormous work: not everyone who walks upright, but the human being who has become wholly mind. That one is not merely godlike but a peer of the gods, perhaps their superior. The daring is deliberate ('if one must dare'): the Hermetist knows he is saying something the pious might flinch at, and says it anyway. Human dignity, in 'The Key,' has no ceiling short of divinity itself — which is exactly what the treatise's final sentence will proclaim.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Corpus Hermeticum CH10.24 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Corpus Hermeticum — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Corpus Hermeticum CH10.24 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH10.24/