HERMES TRISMEGISTUS [Lat. "the thrice greatest Hermes] , an honorific designation of the Egyptian Hermes ; i.e., Thoth (q.v.), the god of wisdom. In late hieroglyphic the name of Thoth often has the epithet "the twice very great," sometimes "the thrice very great"; in the popular language (demotic) the corresponding epithet is "the five times very great," found as early as the 3rd century B.C. Greek translations give 6 siyas Kal µEyas and js yLQroc: rptQµeyas occurs in a late magical text: b rptou ytcrros has not yet been found earlier than the and cen tury A.D., but there can now be no doubt of its origin in the Egyptian epithets.
Thoth was "the scribe of the gods," "Lord of divine words," and to Hermes was attributed the authorship of all the strictly sacred books generally called by Greek authors Hermetic. These, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, our sole ancient authority (Strom. vi. p. 268 et seq.) were 42 in number, and dealt with a variety of subjects, mostly ritual. Works are extant in papyri and on temple walls, treating of geography, astronomy, ritual, myths, medicine, etc. It is probable that the native priests would have been ready to ascribe the authorship or inspiration, as well as the care and protection of all their books of sacred lore to Thoth, although there were a goddess of writing (Seshit), and the ancient deified scribes Imuthes and Amenophis, and later inspired doctors Petosiris, Nechepso, etc., to be reckoned with; there are indeed some definite traces of such an attribution extant in individual cases.
Whether a canon of such books was ever established, even in the latest times, may be seriously doubted. Forty-two was the number of divine assessors at the judgment of the dead bef ore Osiris, and was the standard number of the nomes or counties in Egypt. The name of Hermes was at various dates, but especially in the 3rd century A.D. placed at the head of numerous syncretistic writings. These are partly of an Oriental tendency, partly an offshoot of popular Greek philosophy, particularly Stoic. They are all more or less mystical and gnostic in tone, but represent no single dogmatic system. At an unknown, but probably post classical date, a number of these pieces were put together into what is called the Corpus Hermeticum, which still survives. The first of this collection the Poimandres, is the best known. Many other works, now lost, are represented by quotations in Stobaius and other authors, and a few survive in translations, Latin or Arabic. There is no satisfactory edition or translation; the most elaborate is Scott's (see below).
Besides Thoth, Anubis (q.v.) was constantly identified with Hermes; see also HORUS.