Each god sends forth its kind — and mankind, to know and to rule
Read the full text in our reader
Hermes — ἀνῆκε δὲ ἕκαστος θεὸς διὰ τῆς ἰδίας δυνάμεως τὸ προσταχθὲν αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐγένετο θηρία τετράποδα καὶ ἑρπετὰ καὶ ἔνυδρα καὶ πτηνὰ καὶ πᾶσα σπορὰ ἔνσπορος καὶ χόρτος καὶ ἄνθους παντὸς χλόη, τὸ σπέρμα τῆς παλιγγενεσίας ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχοντες· ἐσπερμολόγουν τε τὰς γενέσεις τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰς ἔργων θείων γνῶσιν καὶ φύσεως ἐνεργοῦσαν μαρτυρίαν καὶ πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων εἰς πάντων τῶν ὑπ' οὐρανὸν δεσποτείαν καὶ ἀγαθῶν ἐπίγνωσιν, εἰς τὸ αὐξάνεσθαι ἐν αὐξήσει καὶ πληθύνεσθαι ἐν πλήθει, καὶ πᾶσαν ἐν σαρκὶ ψυχὴν διὰ δρομήματος θεῶν ἐγκυκλίων τερασπορίας, εἰς κατοπτίαν οὐρανοῦ καὶ δρομήματος οὐρανίων θεῶν καὶ ἔργων θείων καὶ φύσεως ἐνεργείας εἴς τε σημεῖα ἀγαθῶν, εἰς γνῶσιν θείας δυνάμεως μοίρας ὀχλουμένης γνῶναι ἀγαθῶν καὶ φαύλων, καὶ πασῶν ἀγαθῶν δαιδαλουργίαν εὑρεῖν.
And each god sent forth, through its own power, what was enjoined upon it: and there came to be four-footed beasts and creeping things and water-creatures and winged things, and every seed-bearing sowing, and grass, and the green shoot of every flower — all holding the seed of rebirth in themselves. And they sowed broadcast the generations of mankind, for the knowledge of divine works and the working witness of nature, and a multitude of men for dominion over all things under heaven and the recognition of good things; that they should increase in increase and multiply in multitude, and that every soul in flesh, through the course of the encircling gods — a sowing of wonders — should come to the beholding of heaven and the course of the heavenly gods and the works of God and the working of nature; to signs of good things, to the knowledge of divine power, to know good and ill, and to discover the intricate craft of all good things.
Each god sent forth, through its own power, what was enjoined upon it: and there came to be four-footed beasts and creeping things and water-creatures and winged things, and every seed-bearing sowing, and grass, and the green shoot of every flower — all holding the seed of rebirth in themselves. And they sowed broadcast the generations of mankind — for the knowledge of divine works, and the working witness of nature, and a multitude of men to have dominion over all things under heaven and the recognition of good things; that they should increase in increase and multiply in multitude, and that every soul in flesh, through the course of the encircling gods, should come to the beholding of heaven and the course of the heavenly gods and the works of God and the working of nature; to signs of good things, to the knowledge of divine power, to know good and ill, and to discover the intricate craft of all good things.
The creation of life follows, and it is unmistakably a retelling of Genesis 1. The kinds appear in the biblical order and grouping — 'four-footed beasts and creeping things and water-creatures and winged things (θηρία τετράποδα καὶ ἑρπετὰ καὶ ἔνυδρα καὶ πτηνά)' — followed by the seeding plants, each 'holding the seed of rebirth in itself,' which is Genesis's 'seed after its kind.' Then mankind, and with it the treatise's most direct scriptural quotation: 'increase in increase and multiply in multitude (αὐξάνεσθαι ἐν αὐξήσει καὶ πληθύνεσθαι ἐν πλήθει)' — the αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε of Genesis 1:28 LXX, already echoed in CH I and returning here as the charter of the human race. The interlinear keeps the αὐξ-/πληθ- roots visible so the quotation is unmistakable.
But the Hermetic stamp is on the purpose. Mankind is sown not merely to breed and rule but for a chain of knowing: 'the knowledge of divine works (ἔργων θείων γνῶσιν),' 'the beholding of heaven (κατοπτίαν οὐρανοῦ),' 'the knowledge of divine power,' 'to know good and ill,' and finally 'to discover the intricate craft of all good things (πασῶν ἀγαθῶν δαιδαλουργίαν εὑρεῖν)' — the human being as contemplative and inventor, made to read the cosmos and to make. Dominion (δεσποτεία, Genesis's grant of rule) is here subordinated to gnosis: we rule in order to understand. One phrase resists translation — μοίρας ὀχλουμένης, roughly 'as fate/one's portion is set in motion,' which Parthey's text marks as doubtful; it is rendered here as the syntax allows and flagged for the reconciliation the edition still owes. The section is the Corpus binding Genesis to gnosis: the image of God is a knower.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Corpus Hermeticum CH3.3 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 CH3.3 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH3.3/