The Monad — root and beginning of all, containing and begetting every number
Read the full text in our reader
Hermes — αὕτη διαφορὰ τοῦ ὁμοίου πρὸς τὸ ἀνόμοιον, καὶ τῷ ἀνομοίῳ ὑστέρημα πρὸς τὸ ὅμοιον. ἡ γὰρ μονάς, οὖσα πάντων ἀρχὴ καὶ ῥίζα, ἐν πᾶσίν ἐστιν ὡς ἂν ῥίζα καὶ ἀρχή. ἄνευ δὲ ἀρχῆς οὐδὲν, ἀρχὴ δὲ ἐξ οὐδενὸς ἀλλ' ἐξ αὐτῆς, εἴ γε ἀρχή ἐστι τῶν ἑτέρων. μονὰς οὖσα οὖν ἀρχὴ πάντα ἀριθμὸν ἐμπεριέχει, ὑπὸ μηδενὸς ἐμπεριεχομένη, καὶ πάντα ἀριθμὸν γεννᾷ ὑπὸ μηδενὸς γεννωμένη ἑτέρου ἀριθμοῦ.
This is the difference of the like toward the unlike, and to the unlike a deficiency toward the like. For the Monad, being the beginning and root of all, is in all as root and beginning. Without a beginning, nothing; and a beginning is from nothing but from itself, if indeed it is a beginning of the others. The Monad, then, being the beginning, contains every number but is contained by none, and generates every number but is generated by no other number.
This is the difference of the like toward the unlike, and to the unlike a deficiency toward the like. For the Monad, being the beginning and root of all, is in all as root and beginning. Without a beginning, nothing; and a beginning is from nothing but from itself, if indeed it is a beginning of the others. The Monad, then, being the beginning, contains every number but is contained by none, and generates every number but is generated by no other number.
The treatise now gives its second title — 'or the Monad' — its full weight, turning to arithmetic to image the divine. The Monad (μονάς), the number one, is 'the beginning and root of all (πάντων ἀρχὴ καὶ ῥίζα),' present in every number as their source. The reveal layer keeps ἀρχή and ῥίζα paired because the Greek fuses two metaphors — the logical 'first-principle' and the organic 'root' — so that God-as-One is at once the axiom and the living stock from which all multiplicity grows.
The logic that follows is tight and is meant to mirror theology exactly: 'without a beginning, nothing (ἄνευ… ἀρχῆς οὐδέν); and a beginning is from nothing but from itself (ἀρχὴ… ἐξ οὐδενὸς ἀλλ' ἐξ αὐτῆς).' A true beginning must be self-derived, or it would not be a beginning. Then the two great predicates, each a perfect antithesis, which the interlinear lines up: the Monad 'contains every number but is contained by none (πάντα ἀριθμὸν ἐμπεριέχει, ὑπὸ μηδενὸς ἐμπεριεχομένη),' and 'generates every number but is generated by no other (γεννᾷ… ὑπὸ μηδενὸς γεννωμένη).' This is CH II.12's God — 'container of all,' cause of being to all — restated in the language of number: the uncontained container, the ungenerated generator. Arithmology becomes theology; the One that fathers all number is the image of the God who fathers all being, and IV.11 will say so outright.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Corpus Hermeticum CH4.10 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 CH4.10 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH4.10/