Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00144)

That's an interesting story, if true. Didn't the ancient Greeks also have a 
similar legendary God/messenger whom they called Mercury? I wonder why in 
all those legends, they seem to have the same personage represented as 
similar characters with the same functions and teachings? Could it be that 
they are all recollections of the same culturally distorted ancient history 
of real people, who, through ages of word of mouth transmission, eventually 
became legends? (If so, it could be possible that their similar esoteric 
teachings and philosophies may have been kept intact through the "Mystery 
Schools" or "Priests" of each of these cultures -- who later wrote down some 
of these teachings allogorically -- similar to the Emerald Tablet?)

LHM

In a message dated 03/06/02 12:10:38 PM, bri_mue@yahoo.com writes:

>Hermes Trismegistus" didn't exist, and never wrote any books.
>
>The idea of an "Hermes Trismegistus" stems from the Egyptian God 
>Thoth who is frequently written about in connection with the
>goddess Maat, embodiment of the order of the cosmos. 
>
>Thot was originally personified by the ibis, and millions of
>carefully wrapped ibis mummies testify to the worship of this animal 
>sacred to Thoth. 
>
>The "mythic" figure of Thoth did not write any books, and Plato or
>any of the contemporaries of Plato never claimed to have seen or read 
>any book from Toth or "Hermes Trismegistus," where Plato would have 
>learned "all" of his philosophy from.
>
>A few tausend years later in the Egyptian periods Thoth
>then was transformed into the universal Hermes Trismegistus. 
>
>Howeveer the Tabula Smaragdina , also called "Kybalion," is the work 
>of an Arab alchemist of the ninth century, its first western publication,
>in the form of a Latin text, was first published in 1541.
>
> And certainly was also not of any influence on Plato, but the other way
>round , the 9e century "Kybalion," was influenced by neo-Platonism, 
>that also did not have much to with Plato directly but this movement at
>least borrowed his name.
> 
> 
> Bri.
>
>--- In theos-talk@y..., leonmaurer@a... wrote:
>> I don't think any of us would find many books (if any at all) written 
>> by Hermes Trismegistus -- since most such works could have been 
>> destroyed in the burning of the Alexandrian Library. HPB did claim 
>> however that copies of those ancient books were still available in 
>> some secret occultist's library in the Himalayas. I think it would be 
>> difficult for you to prove that HPB lied about that, or that she didn't 
>> have evidence that such books did exist during the time of Plato. 
>> 
>> LHM