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(More customer reviews)While the traditional discussion of the Corpus Hermeticum begins with Marsilio Ficino's 1471 translation for Cosimo de' Medici, the discussion soon stalls with the centuries' old debate of the text and if the ideas it expresses are truly Egyptian wisdom or are merely a Hellenistic patch-work infused with Egyptian atmosphere.
In The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times, Florian Ebeling takes a fresh approach by focusing on the character/author Hermes Trismegistus within countless literary sources attributed to him from Coptic, European and Arabic sources. Florian, beginning in Antiquity, isolates two distinct traditions and then follows them through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the enlightenment up to the twentieth Century, arguing that Hermes Trismegistus did not spontaneously appear in Italy during the Renaissance but was consistently popular, often referenced in both Europe and in the Middle East since his first appearance over 2000 years ago. Ebeling continues by outlining how Hermes as well as hermetic wisdom was eventually discredited then more recently vindicated by historic, religious and scientific opinion.
This new approach benefits from recent scriptural finds from Nag Hammadi, decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and a greater, more critical understanding of the Hellenistic cultural milieu. By building on recent scholarly works like The Eternal Hermes by Antoine Faivre, The Egyptian Hermes by Garth Fowden and Hermetica by Brian P. Copenhaver, Florian Ebeling, breathes fresh life into the religious tradition of the Thrice Great Hermes allowing these ancient scriptures an increasingly wider audience.
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Perhaps Hermeticism has fascinated so many people precisely because it has made it possible to produce many analogies and relationships to various traditions: to Platonism in its many varieties, to Stoicism, to Gnostic ideas, and even to certain Aristotelian doctrines. The Gnostic, the esoteric, the Platonist, or the deist has each been able to find something familiar in the writings. One just had to have a penchant for remote antiquity, for the idea of a Golden Age, in order for Hermeticism, with its aura of an ancient Egyptian revelation, to have enjoyed such outstanding success."--from the IntroductionHermes Trismegistus, "thrice-great Hermes," emerged from the amalgamation of the wisdom gods Hermes and Thoth and is one of the most enigmatic figures of intellectual history. Since antiquity, the legendary "wise Egyptian" has been considered the creator of several mystical and magical writings on such topics as alchemy, astrology, medicine, and the transcendence of God. Philosophers of the Renaissance celebrated Hermes Trismegistus as the founder of philosophy, Freemasons called him their forefather, and Enlightenment thinkers championed religious tolerance in his name. To this day, Hermes Trismegistus is one of the central figures of the occult--his name is synonymous with the esoteric.In this scholarly yet accessible introduction to the history of Hermeticism and its mythical founder, Florian Ebeling provides a concise overview of the Corpus Hermeticum and other writings attributed to Hermes. He traces the impact of Christian and Muslim versions of the figure in medieval Europe, the power of Hermeticism and Paracelsian belief in Renaissance thought, the relationship to Pietism and to Freemasonry in early modern Europe, and the relationship to esotericism and semiotics in the modern world.
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