The Shelves · Philosophy
Asclepius (The Perfect Discourse)
Λόγος τέλειος
Conjecturedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement
◇ Doubted: pseudonymous. Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus; the Latin version was once wrongly credited to Apuleius.
I · The entry, in his form
In the table of Philosophy
Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementAnonymous, under the name of Hermes Trismegistus
Asclepius
Λόγος τέλειος
Opening words not preserved.
Length: not counted
◇ Doubted: pseudonymous. Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus; the Latin version was once wrongly credited to Apuleius.
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
II · Does it survive? Where to read it
Survives only in translation
The Greek is lost except quotations; a Latin translation survives whole and a Coptic excerpt (chapters 21-29) was found at Nag Hammadi (Codex VI,8).
Was it in Alexandria?
ConjecturedOf the Egyptian milieu.
On the ledge: written in Egypt or in a tradition the city shaped; not known in the Library.
Read it today
- Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes vol. 2 (1906) · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
- Scott, Hermetica vol. 1 (1924), Latin and English · original and translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
III · In the show
- Hermes Trismegistus Anachronism Clarified, episode 21, at 36 minutes 47 secondsTranscriptThe Plato–Hermes anachronism corrected.Legend: told story
- Hermes Trismegistus: Historical vs Mythic Figure, episode 21, at 45 minutes 56 secondsTranscriptHistorical versus mythic Hermes (station 1 of Foundations of Hermeticism).Legend: told story
- Hermetic Texts & Pseudonymous Authorship, episode 21, at 50 minutes 55 secondsTranscriptPseudonymous authorship and the dialogue form.Known: probable
+ 38 more
- Mystical Nature of Hermetic Writings, episode 21, at 52 minutes 16 secondsTranscriptThe Hermetic writings as mystical rather than discursive; Poimandres as the mind of God.Known: probable
- Hermetic Texts as Initiatory Manuals, episode 21, at 54 minutes 5 secondsTranscriptThe Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth read as a manual of initiation (also station 4 of Freemasonry and Initiation).Known: probable
- Origins & Transmission of the Hermetica, episode 21, at 55 minutes 46 secondsTranscriptOrigins and transmission.Known: probable
Correction
- What was said
- Ficino translated the Hermetica from Arabic.
- What the sources say
- From a Greek manuscript (Laurenziana 71.33), brought to Florence from Macedonia.
Reference
- Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 71.33
- Corpus Hermeticum vs Full Hermetica, episode 21, at 59 minutes 35 secondsTranscriptThe Corpus as a small part of the whole Hermetica, theoretical and technical.Known: probable
- Practical Hermetica & Magical Texts, episode 21, at 1 hour 44 secondsTranscriptThe practical Hermetica: astrological and talismanic magic, and the Picatrix.Known: probable
- Thoth, Divine Knowledge & Sacred Authorship, episode 21, at 1 hour 3 minutes 53 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
- Hermes Trismegistus as Archetype, Not Deity, episode 21, at 1 hour 11 minutes 10 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
- Thoth, Nous & the Divine Mind, episode 21, at 1 hour 12 minutes 17 secondsTranscriptThoth, Nous and the divine mind in the modern orders.Legend: told story
- Poimandres & the Shepherd of Men, episode 21, at 1 hour 12 minutes 55 secondsTranscriptPoimandres, the Shepherd of Men, and Tat as the young pupil.Known: probable
- Hermetic Influences Behind the Kybalion, episode 18, at 16 minutes 23 secondsTranscriptHermetic influences behind the Kybalion, measured against the Poimandres.Known: probable
- Archons as Prison Guards, Teachers, and Planetary Forces, episode 36, at 35 minutes 11 secondsTranscriptCorpus Hermeticum XIII named, then the vices and virtues of the planets.Known: probable
- Plato: Philosophy, Truth & Misconceptions, episode 21, at 36 minutes 14 secondsTranscript“it's anacronistic to think that Plato Plato learned from Hermes Trish Migistus” (intended: Trismegistus)The co-host's correction, which the next chapter develops.Legend: told story
- Hermes Trismegistus: Historical vs Mythic Figure, episode 21, at 45 minutes 56 secondsTranscript“up until fairly recently it was believed that um Hermes Tris Meistus was a contemporary of Moses the biblical patriarch.”The redating is Casaubon's (1614).Legend: told story
- Mystical Nature of Hermetic Writings, episode 21, at 53 minutes 2 secondsTranscript“the discourse on the eth and the ninth it's another hermetic piece from the nagamadi”Correct: NHC VI,6.Known: probable
- Hermetic Texts as Initiatory Manuals, episode 21, at 54 minutes 5 secondsTranscript“It's a manual for initiation.”Known: probable
- Corpus Hermeticum vs Full Hermetica, episode 21, at 59 minutes 35 secondsTranscript“The corpus hermeticum is just is just a part of the hermetica.”Known: probable
- Egypt, Greece & the Birth of Hermeticism, episode 21, at 1 hour 3 minutes 12 secondsTranscript“Hermetic philosophy was informed by Plato.”The archive's sharpest one-line statement of the modern consensus.Known: probable
- Hermes Trismegistus as Archetype, Not Deity, episode 21, at 1 hour 11 minutes 10 secondsTranscript“Hermes Tris Magajistus was not a god.”Legend: told story
- Beginners in Occult Study & Misconceptions, episode 18, at 15 minutes 7 secondsTranscript“It's inspired by the hermetica, though.”On the Kybalion (1908): not Hermetic literature, but drawing on it.Known: probable
- Pythagoras in Egypt: Initiation & Study, episode 20, at 40 minutes 11 secondsTranscript“Plato talks about the Egyptian god thought you know writing see this great scribe god who invented did numbers, letters, and words”Phaedrus 274c–275b: Theuth (Thoth) invents number, calculation, geometry, astronomy, draughts, dice and letters.Legend: told story
- Path: Foundations of Hermeticism, station 3Read the Poimandres. Read the Poimandres, then Treatise XI.Known: probable
- Path: Foundations of Hermeticism, station 4Hand back the vices. The soul hands back a vice at each planetary zone (CH I.25–26).Known: probable
- Path: Foundations of Hermeticism, station 5Test the modern primer. The Kybalion tested against the Corpus.Known: probable
- Path: Freemasonry and Initiation, station 4Study initiation as form. The Eighth and the Ninth as the shape of initiation.Known: probable
- Path: Alchemy and Inner Transformation, station 6Read the Emerald Tablet. The Emerald Tablet. Not Alexandrian: its earliest text is Arabic, by the 9th century; the site's alchemy dossier says so.Known: probable
- Path: Foundations of Hermeticism, station 1Meet Thrice-Greatest Hermes. Meet Thrice-Greatest Hermes.Legend: told story
- Hermeticism · Corpus Hermeticum XIII: The ten and the twelveThe rebirth treatise drawn as a rite: the twelve tormentors expelled by the ten powers.Known: probable
- Hermeticism · Chronology: The philosophical HermeticaThe philosophical Hermetica composed in Roman Egypt.Known: probable
- Hermeticism · Chronology: Prophet to some, sorcerer to othersThree Hermetic texts copied into the Nag Hammadi codices and buried.Known: probable
- Hermeticism · Chronology: Scholarly recoveryCritical editions and Nag Hammadi re-situate the Hermetica in Roman Egypt.Known: probable
- Hermeticism · Chronology: Thoth becomes Hermes TrismegistusThoth becomes Hermes Trismegistus.Legend: told story
- Decan CalculatorThe decans, Egyptian star-clocks absorbed into Hellenistic astrology; the brief lists Hermeticism among its subjects.Legend: told story
- Fixed StarsThe Behenian stars come from the Liber Hermetis de quindecim stellis, a Latin text of the 12th–13th century: Hermes as an authority-name long after Alexandria.Legend: told story
- Hermetic texts circulate in late antique Egypt'Hermetic texts circulate in late antique Egypt' (1st–3rd c.).Known: probable
IV · Sources and the living entry
Ancient references (3)
- Lactantius, Divine Institutes 4.6.4; 7.18.3
- Augustine, City of God 8.23-26
- Nag Hammadi Codex VI,8
Modern scholarship (3)
- B. P. Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation (Cambridge, 1992)
- G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986)
- J.-P. Mahe, Hermes en Haute-Egypte, 2 vols (Quebec: Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1978-1982).
Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›
ΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΕΛΕΙΟΣ
Beside it on the ledge
- The Gospel of Truthc. 140–180 CE · Survives whole
- Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, and the Prayer of ThanksgivingGreek originals 2nd-3rd century CE; Coptic copies c. 350 · Survives whole
- Plotinus, Enneadswritten 253–270 CE in Rome; edited by Porphyry c. 301 · Survives whole
- Iamblichus of Chalcis, writing as the Egyptian priest Abammon, On the Mysteriesc. 300 CE · Survives whole