Hermes Trismegistus

noun

1. a name variously ascribed by Neoplatonists and others to an Egyptian priest or to the Egyptian god Thoth, to some extent identified with the Grecian Hermes: various mystical, religious, philosophical, astrological, and alchemical writings were ascribed to him.

Hermes Trismegistus

/ ˌtrɪsməˈdʒɪstəs /

noun

1. a Greek name for the Egyptian god Thoth, credited with various works on mysticism and magic

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hermes Trismegistus¹

< Medieval Latin < Greek Hermês Trismégistos Hermes thrice greatest

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hermes Trismegistus¹

Greek: Hermes thrice-greatest

Example Sentences

He quoted Hermes Trismegistus, the mythical author of a corpus of second- and third-century Alexandrian mystical texts: “As above, so below.”

From Slate

The Golden Dawn took the ritual finery of Freemasonry and synthesized it with a kind of mystical Christianity, Jewish Kabbalah, and the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, an invented figure from late antiquity.

From The New Yorker

They are drawn from the ancient works of Hermes Trismegistus, whose writings became popular during the Renaissance and Reformation.

From BBC

According to a passage in Manetho, much suspected, however, of being an interpolation, Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus had himself, before the cataclysm, inscribed on stelæ in hieroglyphical and sacred language the principles of all knowledge.

From Project Gutenberg

Why, Sir, your Julius Cæsar, who gave the operation a name;—and your Hermes Trismegistus, who was born so before ever the operation had a name;——your Scipio Africanus; your Manlius Torquatus; our Edward the Sixth,—who, had he lived, would have done the same honour to the hypothesis:——These, and many more who figured high in the annals of fame,—all came side-way, Sir, into the world.

From Project Gutenberg