GNOSTIC ELEMENTS in HERMETIC TRADITIONS Islamic
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CHAPTER SEVEN GNOSTIC ELEMENTS IN HERMETIC TRADITIONS Islamic historiographers relate that the Sabaeans of Harran identified Enoch with Hermes, and Seth with Agathodemon, Hermes's teacher: "These are the ancient Sabians who believe in Adimun and Hermes, who are Seth and Idris." 1 According to al-Bi"run1, however, the real Sabaeans, who were not the Harranians, "pretend to be the offspring of Enoch, the son of Seth. " 2 Yet the links between Seth, Enoch, and Hermes did not originate in 8th- or 9th-century Harran; they can be detected much earlier, in the original Hermetic literature of Egypt. Syncellus, quoting the ancient historian Manetho the Sebennyte, men tioned steles inscribed (in hieroglyphs) by Thoth, "the first Hermes." These steles, of unspecified number, were to be found in Egypt in the "Seriadic land" (ev rf, yf, L7'Jpta6iKf,). Syncellus added that after the flood, these inscriptions were translated into Greek and recorded in books by Agathodemon, "the son of the second Hermes. " 3 For the tradition reported by Syncellus, therefore, the relationship between Agathodemon and Hermes was different from the one affirmed by the Islamic his toriographers. Agathodemon came after Hermes (whether "the first" or "the second") and after the flood. He preserved the steles and revealed their contents-just as Cainan did in the "biblical" versions of the myth-but did not actually write them. For the Byzantine chroniclers, Hermes was indeed connected with Seth; Tzetzes related that Hermes Trismegistus had discovered the Egyptian alphabet but that according to 1Shahrastan1, Kitiib al-Mila/ wal-NilJal, II (ed. Th. Haarbrucker; London, I 842), 202, 241; see Haarbrucker's translation, Schahrastani, Religionspartheien um/ Philosophen-Schulen, II (Halle, 1850), 61. Mas'Udi, Les Prairies d'Or, 1.73; Bar Hebraeus, Chronography (ed. E. A. Wallis Budge; Paris, 1898), 5. On these texts, see L. Massignon's appendix on Hermetic Arabic Texts apud Festugiere, Revelation ,/'Hermes Trism/,i:iste, I, 390; Massignon also cites the 12th century theosophist Suhrawardi of Aleppo, ibid., 334, n. 6. Cf. Milik, Enoch, 117 -118. In some texts, the figure of Zaratas is also related to Seth, Hermes, and Agatho demon; R. Eisler, Weltmantel und Himmelzelt, II (Munich: Beck, 1910), 574. On Islamic con ceptions of antediluvian history, see E. Kohlberg, "Some Shi'i Views of the Antediluvian World," Studia /slamica 52 (I 980), 41-66. 2Chrono/ogy 8 (188 Sachau; see also chap. 18, p. 314). See also the text analyzed by G. Monnot, "Sabeens et idolatres selon 'Abd al-Jabbar," Melanges de /'lnstitut Dominicain d'Etudes Orienta/es 12 (I 974), 30. 3Chronography {72-73 Dindorf). See Reitzenstein, Poimandres, 139, and Festugiere, Revelation d'Hermes Trismegiste, I, 74-76. Dr. W. Adler kindly calls my attention to the fact that the letter ascribed to Manetho by Syncellus is clearly pseudepigraphic; there is much evi dence to suggest that the work is either Jewish or Christian. 138 ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS the Hebrews, it was Seth who had discovered the letters. 4 The relationship between Seth and Hermes, however, goes beyond the identification of their names or the similarity of certain themes. Scholars have tried to locate the Egyptian "Seriadic Land" mentioned by Syncellus's source. But once it is clear that Josephus's Seiris stemmed from a Jewish Palestinian tradition, it follows that the land of Hermes's steles was simply the translation into an Egyptian context of the Sethites' land: Seth became Hermes and Seidis), Seirias. Here again, we must remember that traces of the Seth saga do not necessarily imply traces of "Sethian" Gnosticism. Yet the question of the possible relationships between aspects of Gnostic mythology and some Hermetic conceptions is a legitimate one. The closeness of what can be called the "pessimistic," or dualistic, trend in the Hermetic Corpus to Gnosticism is quite obvious, and has often been emphasized. This question, moreover, has become directly relevant to current research since the Nag Hammadi discovery; at least three of the texts found in what was originally described as a "Sethian library" are clearly Hermetic works (CG VI,6, 7, and 8). Jean Doresse was the first to point out some of the literary exchanges between "Sethian" Gnosticism and Hermetism. 5 He noted, for instance, that the way in which elements from Genesis were used in Hermetic myths was very similar to their reinterpretation in Gnostic mythology.6 Doresse's pioneer work, however, was done at a time when most Nag Hammadi texts-including the Hermetic works-were still unpublished. Doresse could thus regard Ste/es Seth, although nominally "Sethian," as Hermetic in content and consider the work to be "an example of the tran sition" between the two movements. 7 The Hermetic texts from Nag Ham madi have subsequently been carefully edited, and their place within the codices of the library has been analyzed in a series of studies.8 But certain 4Chi/iades, 5 (ed. T. Kissling; Leipzig, 1826), 187. For a different early identification of the two figures discovering, then rediscovering and transmitting the science before and after the flood, see the fragments of Pseudo-Eupolemus (in Eusebius, Praeparalio Evanl(elica lX.17: And Abraham lived with · the Egyptian priests in Hieropolis, teaching them many things. And he introduced astrology and other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and he himself discovered them, but he traced the discovery to Enoch. And he [Enoch) was the first to discover astrology, not the Egyptians .... The Greeks say that Atlas discovered astrology, Atlas being the same as Enoch. I quote the translation of B. Z. Wachholder, Eupo/emus: A Swc(v of Judaeo-Greek Li1erc1ure (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1974), 313-314. 5"Hermes et la Gnose: Apropos de l'Asclepius copte," NovT I (1956), 54-69. In Secre1 Books, 278, Doresse speaks about the conjunction between Hermetic and Gnostic writings as a "general practice around the fourth century." One must take exception to Doresse's notion of "Hermetism" as different from, and comparable to, Gnosticism. 6See B. Pearson, "Jewish Elements in Co,pus Her111e1irn111 I (Poimandres)," in van den Broek and Vermaseren, eds., S1udies in Gnos1icism, 336-348. 7"Hermes et la Gnose," 68. 8For a clear and complete review of the s1a1t1s quaes1ionis on the relationships between Hermetic and Gnostic texts, with a complete bibliography, see J.-P. Mahe, Hermes en Hawe-.