The Shelves · Miscellaneous writings
The Forty-Two Books of Hermes carried in the Egyptian priestly procession
Conjecturedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement
I · The entry, in his form
In the table of Miscellaneous writings
Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementEgyptian temple scribes (as described by Clement of Alexandria)
The Forty-Two Books of Hermes carried in the Egyptian priestly procession
Opening words not preserved.
Length: not counted
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
II · Does it survive? Where to read it
Lost
No such canon survives; the Ptolemaic temple of Edfu has a small library room inscribed with a catalogue of the titles it held.
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
- Clement, Stromata, Greek (Scaife Viewer) · the original · link checked 31 Oct 2026
- Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 2 (CCEL) · a 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
- Thoth, Divine Knowledge & Sacred Authorship, episode 21, at 1 hour 3 minutes 53 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
+ 12 more
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 1Meet Thrice-Greatest Hermes. Meet Thrice-Greatest Hermes.Legend: told story
- 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
IV · Sources and the living entry
Ancient references
- Clement, Stromata 6.4.35-37
Modern scholarship (2)
- G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986)
- C. H. Bull, The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom (Leiden: Brill, 2018)
Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›
THE FORTY-TWO BOOKS OF HERMES CARRIED IN THE EGYPTIAN PRIESTLY PROCESSION