HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, Petits, the Greek title of the Egyptian moon god, Thoth, one of the most interesting figures in Egyptian mythology. He is represented as Ibis or with the ibis head, and is fully illus trated in the monuments and papyrus rolls from time to time brought to light. He is the god of time and of its divisions; he is the measurer and the god of measurements. He is the conductor of the dead. He is also the god of human intelligence, to whom are at tributed all the productions of human art. All the literature of Egypt is attributed to him — all the writings that relate to the different sci ences, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, music. These were called by the Greeks the Hermetic Books. Thoth is also credited with the inven tion of alchemy and magic. The Hermetic art is used to mean alchemy. The secrets of this art were handed on from teacher to pupil orally and in secret and this transmission was termed the Hermetic chain. For these reasons
the Greeks identified him with their Hermes, and besides called him Trismegistus, great.° By later writers, Euhemerists, Neo platonists (q.v.) and Christians, Thoth was considered a great Egyptian king, a teacher of mankind, who had left books of magic and mystery behind him. Numerous books of such a sort once existed in Egypt. Clement of Alex andria knew of 42, and so-called Hermetic fragments are still extant, in the works of Stobwus, Cyrillus, Suidas and Lactantius. The Hermetic books as we know them belong probably to no earlier date than the 3d or 4th century of our era and are in Greek and Latin. Consult Mead. G. R. S., Greatest Hermes' (1907).