The Shelves · Philosophy
Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum I)
Ποιμάνδρης
Conjecturedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement
◇ Doubted: pseudonymous; where it was written is uncertain. Greek texts composed in Roman Egypt; the place (Alexandria is likely but unproven) and authors are unknown.
I · The entry, in his form
In the table of Philosophy
Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementAnonymous, under the name of Hermes Trismegistus
Poimandres
Ποιμάνδρης
Opening words
Ἐννοίας μοί ποτε γενομένης περὶ τῶν ὄντων
Once, when thought came to me about the things that are...
Length: not counted
◇ Doubted: pseudonymous; where it was written is uncertain. Greek texts composed in Roman Egypt; the place (Alexandria is likely but unproven) and authors are unknown.
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
II · Does it survive? Where to read it
Survives whole
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
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 (2)
- Corpus Hermeticum I.24-26 (the ascent through the spheres)
- Zosimos, Final Count (the earliest datable reference to Poimandres)
Modern scholarship (4)
- 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)
- A. D. Nock and A.-J. Festugiere, Corpus Hermeticum, 4 vols (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1945-1954).
- 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 ›
ΠΟΙΜΑΝΔΡΗΣ
Beside it on the ledge
- The Book of Thothcopies 1st-2nd century CE; composition probably Ptolemaic · Survives in fragments
- Corpus Hermeticum II-XVIII1st-3rd century CE; collected in Byzantium by the 11th century · Survives whole
- Gospel of Thomascomposed 1st-2nd century CE; Greek copies c. 200–250 · Survives whole
- Gospel according to the Egyptiansearly-mid 2nd century CE · Survives in fragments