144 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



tection/ he says, 'is piety; for over a pious man neither 

 evil demon nor fate has any power ; for God rescues the 

 pious man from all evil ; for the one and the only good 

 thing among men is piety/ And what piety is he testi- 

 fies in another place in these words : ' For piety is the 

 knowledge of God' (0goD /i/wtr/s). Asclepius also, his dis- 

 ciple, more fully expressed the same sentiment in that 

 finished discourse which he wrote to the king. 1 Each of 

 them, in truth, affirms that the demons are the enemies 

 and harassers of men, and on this account Trismegistus 

 calls them wicked angels, so far was he from being ignor- 

 ant that from heavenly beings they were corrupted and 

 began to be earthly." 2 



Ibid. iv. 



" Assuredly He is The very Son of God Who by that wise 

 King Solomon full of Divine inspiration spoke these 

 things which we have added: 'God founded me in the 

 beginning of His ways, &c. (quoting Proverbs viii. 22, 31, 

 from the Septuagint). But on this account Trismegistus 

 spoke of Him as " the Artificer of God." 3 



Ibid. iv. ch. 8. 



" But Hermes also was of the same opinion when He 

 says that He was ' His own Father ' and ' His own 

 mother ' " (Avroirdropa 



Ibid. ch. 9. 



" For the Greeks speak of Him as The Logos, more be- 

 fittingly than we do, as the Word or Speech ; for Logos 

 signifies both Speech and Eeason, inasmuch as He is both 

 the Voice and the Wisdom of God. . . . For Trismegistus 



1 It is plain then that the ""Opoi, or ' Definitions of/ Asclepius to 

 King Ammoii " were written by him, not by our Hermes. 



2 Poemandres, ch. ix. 3, 4; Parthey, 61, 62; ibid. ch. xii. 9; ibid. 

 104. Extracts from Hermes in Stobreus, " Ethica, 358; Meineke,. 

 ii. p. 100." 



3 See Poemandres, i. 10; Parthey, 5. 



4 (q) Poemandres, i. 8; Parthey, 4. 



