To live, grow wise, and be renewed — nature established in the divine
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Hermes — ἄρχεται αὐτῶν βιῶσαί τε καὶ σοφισθῆναι πρὸς μοῖραν δρομήματος κυκλίων θεῶν, καὶ ἀναλυθῆναι εἰς τοῦτο· καὶ ἔσονται μεγάλα ἀπομνημονεύματα τεχνουργημάτων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καταλιπόντες ἐν ἀνανεώσει χρόνων ἀμαύρωσιν. καὶ πᾶσα γένεσις ἐμψύχου σαρκὸς καὶ καρποῦ σπορᾶς καὶ πάσης τεχνουργίας τὰ ἐλαττούμενα ἀνανεωθήσεται ἀνάγκῃ καὶ ἀνανεώσει θεῶν καὶ φύσεως κύκλου ἐναριθμίου δρομήματι. τὸ γὰρ θεῖον ἡ πᾶσα κοσμικὴ σύγκρασις φύσει ἀνανεουμένη· ἐν γὰρ τῷ θείῳ καὶ ἡ φύσις συγκαθέστηκεν.
It begins for them both to live and to grow wise, according to the portion of the course of the circling gods, and then to be dissolved back into this. And there shall be great memorials of their works of craft upon the earth, leaving a fading in the renewal of times. And every coming-to-be of ensouled flesh, and of the fruit of seed, and of every craft — the things that diminish shall be renewed by necessity and by the renewal of the gods and by the course of nature's numbered cycle. For the divine is the whole cosmic blending, renewed by nature; and in the divine, nature too is established together.
It begins for them both to live and to grow wise, according to the portion of the course of the circling gods, and then to be dissolved back into this. And there shall be great memorials of their works of craft upon the earth, leaving a fading in the renewal of times. And every coming-to-be of ensouled flesh, and of the fruit of seed, and of every craft — the things that diminish shall be renewed by necessity and by the renewal of the gods and by the course of nature's numbered cycle. For the divine is the whole cosmic blending, renewed by nature; and in the divine, nature too is established together.
The Sacred Discourse closes on its keynote: renewal. Human life is set within the wheel — mortals 'live and grow wise (βιῶσαί τε καὶ σοφισθῆναι) according to the portion of the course of the circling gods,' then are 'dissolved back into this (ἀναλυθῆναι εἰς τοῦτο),' resolved again into the cosmic cycle from which they came. Their achievements are real but not permanent: 'great memorials of works of craft (μεγάλα ἀπομνημονεύματα τεχνουργημάτων)' will stand on the earth, yet even these leave only 'a fading (ἀμαύρωσιν) in the renewal of times.' It is a serene, almost melancholy view of history — civilizations as monuments that dim as the ages turn.
But the dimming is not loss, because nothing is finally lost. Everything that decays — 'ensouled flesh, the fruit of seed, every craft' — 'shall be renewed (ἀνανεωθήσεται) by necessity and by the renewal of the gods and by the course of nature's numbered cycle.' The interlinear keeps the ἀνανε- root ringing through the close (ἀνανέωσις, ἀνανεωθήσεται, ἀνανεουμένη) because the treatise's whole answer to death and decay is this word: renovation, not annihilation. The last sentence grounds it in the divine: 'the whole cosmic blending (πᾶσα κοσμικὴ σύγκρασις) is the divine, renewed by nature; for in the divine, nature too is established together (ἐν τῷ θείῳ καὶ ἡ φύσις συγκαθέστηκεν).' Nature and God are not two: nature is co-established in the divine, so the world's endless self-renewal is simply God's own life, turning. The Sacred Discourse ends where it began — with God as the beginning, the necessity, the end, and the renewal of all.
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Corpus Hermeticum CH3.4 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH3.4/