A New Proposal for the Origin of the Hermetic God Poimandres Author(s): Howard M.

Jackson Source: Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 128 (1999), pp. 95-106 Published by: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20190521 . Accessed: 14/05/2013 15:09
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95

A New
What

Proposal

for

the Origin
solution

of

the Hermetic

God

Poimandres

I offer here

is a case for a new

for centuries:

whence

did the revealer-divinity

to a problem Poimandres

that has plagued scholars of the Herm?tica of the first treatise of the Corpus Hermeti

cum (CH) derive his name and,with that,his being?

to the two cultural soils of tradition at a solution fall into two basic groups corresponding Attempts a Greek origin for the name, and those which is rooted, that which in which Hermetism proposes an share the Both that the name Poimandres did not view, however, groups propose origin. Egyptian was its appearance in CH I but coined ad hoc by or for the have an independent history antedating author of the Hermetic an artificial construct, treatise. The awkward a name with problems occasioned no real and close connection by this view of the name's origin as to the environment of living Graeco god Poimandres lurks an

are obviated by the new proposal. Behind the Hermetic onomastics, Egyptian a in Hellenistic and vibrant cult actual divinity with late early Roman Egypt. in modern times particularly by Richard The Greek solution, championed derivation followers from 7coipr|v and ocvr|p and has the name mean "shepherd to passages in CH Xlll and in a treatise of the alchemist it appears in which clear, they found in what

a advocates Reitzenstein, of men".1 Reitzenstein and his

point to early 4th century A.D.) where name (and to CH I as the context

of Panopolis Zosimos (later 3rd are all but certainly punning allusions to the the name), that the name Poimandres was, or at

least could be, interpreted as having this meaning.2 in CH I to indicate that the There is nothing, however or, at the very least, nothing at all specific for the name.3 Itmay simply be a matter of later emergence, author intended such a meaning in CH XIII 1Richard Reitzenstein, Poimandres. Studien zur griechisch-?gyptischen undfr?hchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1904) 8with n. 1, 32; idemwith H. H. Schaeder, Studien zum antiken Synkretismus aus Iran und Griechenland (SBW 7; Leipzig & Berlin, 1926) 9-10; idem, review of Walter Scott, Herm?tica II (see n. 5 below), Gnomon 3 (1927) 267-268. Among those
who follow Reitzenstein in favouring the Greek derivation are Hans Jonas, Gnosis und sp?tantiker Geist I. Die mytholo

gische Gnosis (3. Aufl.; G?ttingen, 1964) 344; H. Gundel, Poimandres, PW XXI 1193.1-2; Ernst Haenchen, Aufbau und Theologie des 'Poimandres', ZThK 53 (1956) 152-53; Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis. The Nature and History of Gnosticism (trans. Robert McLachlan Wilson; San Francisco, 1983 [1980]) 26; B. A. Pearson, Jewish Elements in Corpus Hermeticum I (Poimandres), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions presented to Gilles Quispelon the Occasion of his 65th Birth day (EPRO 91; ed. R. van den Broek andM. J.Vermaseren; Leiden, 1981) 340 n. 12; and J?rg B?chli, Der Poimandres: Ein paganisiertes Evangelium. Sprachliche und begriffliche Untersuchungen zum 1. Traktat des Corpus Hermeticum (WUNT, 2. Reihe, 27; T?bingen, 1987) 15-16. 2 C7/XIII, after earlier (? 15)mentioning Poimandres by name and in a context that suggests direct reference to CH I (e.g., by identifying Poimandres as ? tfj? oc?Oevx?acvo?? as does CHI ??2, 30), further on (? 19) has Hermes Trismegistos
instruct Hermeticum TeXema?a (?nwi%ox)Ga) his initiand . . . tov g?v that A?yov 83 in the Nock-Festugi?re 7toiu<x?v?i ? Nove, edition of the Corpus (Note remarks ad loc: "L'auteur fait d?river de 7ioi|xr|v, et av?pa?".) In his [II 217-8] ?oiu?vopric rcoijia?vco, otocv his Zosimos orders addressee Theosebeia: tote ?? Kai TeXeicoOe?oav, oou)tt|v (? 8) 'knoxh eTityvcp? xcov (pvoiKcov Tfj? vXx\q KaT?rcTuaov Kai ?ajmoOeioa Kai Kaia?pauo?ca ?rc! tov uoiuivavopa T<p Kpaxfipi Tat

?va?pajie erci to y?vo? t? c?v. (I cite the superior text offered by Festugi?re in La r?v?lation d'Herm?s Trism?giste I. L'astrologie et les sciences occultes [Paris, 1986 (1950)] 368, replacing the earlier Berthelot-Ruelle edition.) The form in
which Zosimos cites the name -

for the first element of the original form noijiav?pri? and with a third declension ending on the second element - makes it
clear that he wants Theosebeia to see rcoiurjv + ?vrjp, "shepherd-man", in the name Poimandres. On this passage and on

?oiu?vavOpa,

without

the syncopation

of-ev-

posited

by

the

theory

of Greek

derivation

Zosimos' dependence on CH I see Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes. A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge etc., 1986) 122-123, 125. 3Reitzenstein proposed the theory, first in his Poimandres 11-13, 32-36, and later summarily in his Studien zum anti ken Synkretismus 10, that among themany details that the Shepherd (IIoiut|v) of Hermas adapted from CH I in some earlier form or other is the revelatory being who appears axiiuccTi rcoijieviKcp inVis. V 1-3 and after whom the Christian work is
named; similarly Haenchen, and Martin Aufbau und Theologie Der des 'Poimandres' 153 n. 6. Even if this theory were true, howeverand

it is doubtful enough (to select but two scholars, Gustave Bardy, Le Pasteur d'Hennas et les livres herm?tiques, RB 20
[1911] 391-407, Dibelius, Offenbarungstr?ger im 'Hirten' des Hermas, Harnack-Ehrung. Beitr?ge zur

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96

H. M. Jackson

and more

in Zosimos, often

of

the common existence

passion and combined original meaning ignorance name a to be gratify in the cultural milieu from Greek be teased Greek derivation meaningful enough to the view that the is obviously very inconvenient ing.4 But the silence from the author of CH I himself was coined by or for him with this intended meaning, name Poimandres in that case since one would than not, with as to its actual expect him

extraction

for which

of a Greek meaning phenomenon in Greek transliteration and the Greek

foisted

upon a word for etymology

of foreign together, to ensure that a

of this intended to have been forthcoming with some direct reference to and/or exploitation never a name had encountered before. of the his Critics Greek derivation for readership hypo meaning thesis rightly stress this as a substantial chink in its armour. They also point out that with the presuppo

sition of Greek coinage it is problematic that the form lToip?v8pr|c (genitive -8po\) CH I ?? 7, 30)
as owing Reitzenstein the malformation its of proper Greek onomastics. explains to avoidance of convergence with the name rioipocv?po? existence attested as possessed the by mythical in Boeotia, but other properly-formed founder of Tanagra options of equivalent or potentially equivalent One is left wondering existed why the author of CH I did not meaning (IToip?vcop or Iloipev?vcop). violates the rules choose To one of them but chose turn now an un-Hellenic barbarism instead.5 derivation of the name Poimandres, the earli favouring an Egyptian it Frank to est to advocate is the he entertain seems, was, Granger. Though willing it is Granger's existed from the start in both Coptic and Greek, that the Corpus Hermeticum possibility was in and view he that that the is a corpus proposes composed originally Coptic, preferred Iloipav?pri? to the hypotheses such an etymology Greek transliteration of what was for this original meaning an original Coptic nurlTpe, "the witness". He posits a mythological of the name in the role of Thoth as adjudicator of the quarrel of

background

Kirchengeschichte ihrem Lehrer Adolf vonHarnack zu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstage (7.Mai 1921) dargebracht von einer Reihe seiner Sch?ler [Leipzig, 1921] 112-114, will have none of it) - itwould prove nothing about what the Hermetist
intended in Poimandres' name. (For his part B?chli, Der Poimandres 20-21, posits the influence of the shepherd-motif going

in the reverse direction.) Haenchen (p. 152) argues, as equally B?chli (p. 15), that Poimandres as "Hirtenmann"makes him a "Schutzgott" and that this role of his is alluded to in Poimandres' statement (? 2) cruveijii ooi rcavTa%o? and in the god's
protective remarks at the end of ? 22, but these passages are, to say the least, at best extremely tenuous support.

Though I do not think that the proposal for the Coptic origin of the name Poimandres presented by Peter Kingsley
one, it is one of the great merits of his, the most recent article devoted to the subject, Poimandres: The Etymology

is

the correct

of the Name and the Origins of the Herm?tica, JWCI56 (1993) 1-24, that it recognizes that a Greek etymology and an Egyptian etymology are not mutually exclusive; the former may overlie the latter (Kingsley, Poimandres 3, 11-15, a fine
discussion, or ?iostems citing excellent + examples). and For other examples, involving with the names of Egyptian divinities proved to have a

< the io gratifying Greek significance and/or origin note Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris ? 2: "Isis"means "knowledge" CIoi?
of ei??vai -gi?) ? 60: "Isis" means "hastening knowledge" (TIoi? < i'ea?ai U?t' ?tuottjutic); ? 61:

"Osiris" means "holy (and) sacred" ("Ooipi? < ooio? (Kai) iepo?), together with J.Gwyn Griffiths' comments, Plutarch's De hide et Osiride (University of Wales, 1970) 258-259, 515-516, 517 (here noting the Egyptian etymology for Osiris given earlier in ? 10).
5 Reitzenstein's explanation which is at Poimandres 8 n. 1. Critics of the Greek derivation hypothesis to Hermes include Frank Granger, on

The Poemandres of Hermes Trismegistus, JThS 5 (1904) 395?412, particularly p. 400; Walter Scott, Herm?tica. The Ancient
Greek and Latin Writings Contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings Ascribed Trismegistus II. Notes

the Corpus Hermeticum (Oxford, 1925) 15;Kingsley, Poimandres 3. For the onomastic problem posed by the form noiuxxv Spri? and for the alternative options available the discussion by C. F. Georg Heinrici, Die Hermes-Mystik und das Neue Testament (Leipzig, 1918) 15-16 and n. 1, presented with the aid of the eminent Classical philologist and grammarian of
Karl Indo-European languages name in the noiuxxv?prj?, ?prj? Brugmann, syncopated is particularly thorough, from noijievouotvopric, though reflects that the element Brugmann's suggestion in Asia the name of a divinity worshipped -uav Minor

Mandra], PW XIV 1042.19-1043.20) is unlikely on a number of grounds, not (on whom see [A.] Burckhardt, Mandros [oder the least of which is the difficulty of explaining how and why so obscure and alien a divinity should appear in a document
from so strongly Egyptian a milieu as Hermetism. (B?chli, Der Poimandres 16, finds Brugmann's hypothesis attractive,

see [O.] H?fer, Poimandros, Roscher's Lexikon III 2601.13?2602.12; though with a twist of his own.) On noijiav?po? Gerhard Radke, Poimandros, PW XXI 1207.52-1209.52; W. Pape & G. Benseier, W?rterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen
(3. Aufl.; alternatives occurs as Graz, as names noiuotvcopand formed 1216 s. v. The onomastically available 1959 [1911]) noijievocvcop properly s. vv. as a were never possessed at shows the former to noiuocv?pric (though by anyone, glance Pape-Benseler no reason so that there was to avoid noun a common them on the grounds in Aeschylus, Persians 241), for avoidance of noijiav?po?. posits

Reitzenstein

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The Origin

of theHermetic

God Poimandres

97

Horus

and Seth, though in the Corpus Hermeticum, but rather the herald of the "witness" Poimandres. assumption that nM?Tpe/IToip?vopric Granger finds support was for his proposed

he holds, Hermes/Thoth is not himself the witness, as once common does he but the untenable Sharing of CH I but of the whole he holds in what to be allusions of the Corpus to the

the title not only etymology

Hermeticum,

Egyptian myth and to heraldic testimony from the Hermetic Hermes in CH XIII 13 ?voc \m\ obpev
xcov ?v?potmcov ei? ?pycov and in CH III ? 3 xoc? ... yev?oei? Sioc?o^oi tov rcccvTo? ei? to?? nolXovc, Kai 8e?cov yvcoGiv (p-uaeoo? evepyovaav paprup?av.6 It is not surprising that Granger's aside the dubious value proposal never won acceptance. Leaving as evidence for influence of the myth of Thoth as arbitrator in the quarrel of Horus of the cited passages - to in CH I it is now clear, as it was not to Granger, which and Seth, there is nothing whatsoever that we must restrict ourselves if the name Poimandres was an ad hoc Hermetic to support the role creation of Poimandres knows how utterly was Hermeticum) is more, anyone who knows the early history of Coptic What literature a on it number of I that CH alone of the whole the is, unlikely grounds, (let Corpus in Coptic, not even on the view, adhered to by Granger but composed originally shared by no one now, that the corpus is of Christian origin.7 It is fair to say that Granger's proposal for name a Coptic etymology is improbable. for the Poimandres All the other as "the witness".

an Egyptian proposals positing origin for the name Poimandres suggest a equally a all abandon Granger's of Coptic original for CHI. But the Coptic etymology. They hypothesis wisely an or someone remains author coin that would have coin for it the name Poiman general improbability on not dres from Coptic. This improbability the of pertains primarily grounds offered by the advocates the Greek derivation hypothesis, that Greek readers could not have understood the name and would not have had a clue as to its Coptic origin.8 Rather it is that early Coptic literature, including texts in "Old" is replete with bizarre names, and many of them have an ultimately Egyptian origin, but they are Coptic, never formed directly from Coptic. It is unlikely that the name Poimandres in CH I is a lone exception. claim seem to have in their favour is that they both thing, at least, the two other Coptic derivations a solid grounding in CH I itself, something all prior solutions, whether Greek or Coptic, sorely see in ? Tfj? a?Geviioc? lack. They both present Coptic which vou?, the phrase which etymologies One

Poimandres uses to describe himself when he first introduces himself (CH I ? 2), a Greek translation of
the Coptic etymology. stems from the eminent Egyptologist The first of the two new Coptic derivations Francis Llewellyn a that consulted is Greek transliteration of Coptic neme Griffith, who, by Scott, proposed noipav?pri? "the knowledge of the Sun-god", and that, in the Greek phrase which quali ?pH with the literal meaning 6

Granger, The Poemandres of Hermes Trismegistus 398-402. Granger prints nuilTpe as nRFiTpe, which evidently represents (so too Scott, Herm?tica II 16, assumes) a proposed vocalization of the Coptic intended to demonstrate how
is or could be a transliteration thereof. account for why Granger no-tu-av?pn.? (This may consistently with the diphthong, his article.) But the form is "Poemandres", notnav?pri? eschewing throughout f?MHTpe own artificial a back-formation name from the very Greek it is meant to explain; the word is never creation, Granger's (and could never be) written this way by Coptic and in any case the Greek no-iji-av?pr|? could not possibly be a phoneti scribes, of the Coptic strokes. cally representative replication supralinear closely renders the Greek

7 For the early history and development of Coptic and literature in Coptic see, for example, Siegfried Morenz, Das 1 (?gyptische Schrift und Sprache) (Leiden, 1959) 90-93; Jan Koptische, Handbuch der Orientalistik I, i (?gyptologie), De la OLP de r?criture 13 Quaegebeur, copte, pr?histoire (1982) 125-36; Helmut Satzinger, Die altkoptischen Texte als Zeugnisse der Beziehungen zwischen ?gyptern und Griechen, Graeco-Coptica. Griechen und Kopten im byzantinischen Aegypten (ed. Peter Nagel; Halle, 1984) 137-146; Tito Orlandi, La traduzioni dal greco e lo sviluppo della letteratura copta, ibid. 181-203. 8 Reitzenstein, review of Scott, Herm?tica II, 268; Haenchen, Aufbau und Theologie des 'Poimandres' 152; B?chli,
Der Poimandres 15. Reitzenstein, 268 n. 1, also points out that, on the reckoning that the name was coined from Coptic and

(as is true of all the Coptic origin hypotheses) that the initial letter of the name represents theCoptic definite article, it is odd that in CH I the name is always additionally accompanied by theGreek definite article as well. The author's readership may not have been aware of this doubling, but the author himself certainly would if the name was his own creation. I shall offer a
reason for the presence of the Greek definite article later.

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98

H. M.

Jackson

fies

the name,

vou?

renders eme

and auGevx?oc

renders

pH.9A partly

different

Coptic

etymology

was

"the reason of sovereignty" from Coptic neme ?TM?Tepo, i.e., with into with then rendered Greek Marcus holds this oc?Gevc?oc. M?Tepo, reign" Coptic literally "kingdom, to have been, in turn, an attempt to render what still more originally was the Stoic technical original "the ruling (element)". As if this chain from Greek term for the rational part of the soul, to fiyepoviKov, and proposes a derivation rendered back into Coptic to Greek noipav?pri?, approximation rendered ment, transcription phonetic itwould not be unlikely inherent The improbabilities fulsome closer particle ?Te than Griffith's would into Greek Marcus were

laterproposed by Ralph Marcus. While he thoughtGriffith's neme

difficult satisfactory, he found FipH

be peimentmentero" to occur, for haplophony inMarcus'

not complexity to get a closer Coptic enough, further proposes that neme ?TM?Tepo "[i]n broad and "[bjecause of the syllable of the reduplication makes

giving a form peimentero".10 are patent enough, and Peter Kingsley hypothesis

short shrift of it.11Kingsley himself offers a refinement of the Griffith etymology, with the more
genitive to -voprjc substituted for Griffith's mounts ?pH.12 Kingsley ?-, partly on the grounds that ?Te pH brings us an impressive defense of the essential features voe?v; Egyptian underlie that Re/Helios

of the Griffith etymology (erne rendered by vo??, pHby oc?oevx?a), demonstrating with formidable
erudition translates Greek that the Coptic verb erne frequently that the Classical the status of oc?Gevxioc, "supreme authority"; or sons of Re might as associates edge", and Hw, "Command", the appearance understandable.13 make of Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, frequently personifications the Coptic neme I as "the enjoys "Knowl Sj3, ?Te pH and of Re"

that the common affiliation of Sj3 with Thoth and the equation of Thoth with the heart (= the vo??) of
Re would perfectly in CH intelligence

This is all certainly very attractive, but theGriffith Coptic derivation hypothesis' claim that ? xfi?
has its own speci oc?OevT?occ vou? is a Greek translation of the Coptic original in the name Poimandres as neme ?- or ?Te pH is attested in fic problems. As Kingsley himself notes,14 no such expression an or in the newer; the phrase is in fact in the so-called "Old" Coptic utterly artificial Coptic, whether noun rare enough but the translate creation.15 The verb erne may, as Kingsley erne, voe?v, points out, one a Coptic never either for renders voC?; in itself (and mostly Bohairic), Noyc or, rather, expects, word of Egyptian origin, 2HT, which is attested as rendering vo??. Moreover, as Griffith points out,16 "the "the

rc/pH (or pe) does occur without the definite article in lateEgyptian (Demotic or "Old"Coptic), but it is
becoming imperial period the god Re is increasingly rarely, largely because by the early Roman with translation of ?pH, in his suggested Coptic etymology, Sun" or "the god Sun" (hence Griffith's

Scott, Herm?tica II 16-17. In his study of Hellenistic Judaism and the Herm?tica C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (London, 1935) 99 n. 1, accepts Griffith's etymology; similarly later in The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge, 1954) 30 (with n. 2) -31. 10 Ralph Marcus, The Name Poimandres, JNES 8 (1949) 40-43, particularly pp. 42-43.
11 Poimandres about with Greek Marcus' (see n. 4 above) 4 n. philosophical etymology terminology". lie elsewhere. The 15. Kingsley brands Marcus' unfairly proposal term to TjyeuoviK?v is indeed what Marcus "based avers on some it to have ideas very confused been. The problems

12Poimandres 5. Kingsley
450. remarks: "Its

(5 n. 19) owes this refinement to Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures (Garden City,
[viz.

. . . 'Poimandres' has not been discovered the name Poimandres'] etymology superfi 1987) Layton nte 'the knowledge stem andrthe Greek resembles three words: 'man'; and Copticp-eime Greekpoim?n 'shepherd'; cially or Coptic, Greek statements that he found none of the proposed of." These suggest convincing. etymologies, *3 Poimandres 5-10.

14Poimandres 7. 15 Itwas doubtless for this reason that Bentley Layton (see n. 12), himself an expert Coptologist, declined to invest any faith in it. Itwas probably equally for this reason that others with expertise inCoptic (e.g., Kurt Rudolph and Birger Pearson
cited in n. 1) favour the Greek derivation hypothesis over any of the Coptic ones.

16 In

Scott, Herm?tica II 16.

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The Origin

of theHermetic

God Poimandres

99

not with Sun-god", learned and solemn would

have a more that "pH without the article would Griffith claims "Re").17 When one for solemnity than the ordinary n-pH" it is simply special pleading; appearance whether Greek

or Coptic, present problems which make the origin of the name Poimandres. Most stem from the universal presupposition that the name was coined ad hoc by of these problems ultimately an artificial creation. In fact, as I stated at the or for the author of CH I and that it is thus onomastically the truth about outset, behind the name This Poimandres lurks a real and actual is, indeed, exactly what we would expect of the Herm?tica other dramatis personae Isis and her and early Roman divinity of Hellenistic to find to have been the case with Poiman Hermes Askle Trismegistos/Thoth, - are and some others actual Ammon/Amun, to keep that conspired in the centred cult, deity's

rather expect nipH. In sum, all of these proposed etymologies, that any one of them represents it improbable

period Egypt. dres: all the pios/Imouthes,

son Horus, Tat (Thoth), a divinities with contemporary living cult in Egypt, not artificial creations.18 native Egyptian There were several things true of Poimandres' predecessor the Hermetic where god's identity it originated, was, real hidden. In the first the Egyptian

place, to the to that area and, from restricted evidence, judge surviving Fayyum seem to not does have it. however outside the there, spread beyond Secondly, enormously popular on it, the evidence and those, like Zosimos, Corpus Hermeticum dependent attesting to the god and his not literary, and thus is not widely known. Lastly, and papyrological, like his compa cult is epigraphic triot divinities Kamephis and Arnebeschenis, mentioned name John of Stobi, Poimandres' originally Egyptian Greek, but his relatively obscure local status meant that universally accepted Greek form achieved by the more extracts preserved by by name in two Hermetic was Hellenized various into by transcriptions name never more his achieved the standardized,

famous among his fellows in the Herm?tica like or never in the enumerated and his Horus list had bestowed above, Ammon, Isis, person upon it the a or an Hermes Imouthes Greek made Thoth that and that thus assured their wider identity Asklepios a in Hellenocentric world.19 familiarity dress instances of the Egyptian first by listing all known pre-Hermetic god's name in Greek a occur as to provenance context of the in with which details and and they together description the broader parameters of the Fayyum and the Ptolemaic date, within period that apply to all of them. I context and then turn to shall then briefly trace the roots of the cult into its earlier, Pharaonic Egyptian I proceed the more Herm?tica this Egyptian important issue here, under what circumstances there. and why his name has the form noipav?pri? divinity became a god of the

The list is as follows: 1)npapocppfj? from Soknopaiou Nesos (probably), dated 104 B.C. Stele showing the god, with
on his brow and grasping a w3s-sceptre, seated behind Souchos uraeus-serpent (Sobk, the crocodile-god a dedicatory who was lord of the Fayyum). Below, from the of a cult-society members of the inscription eK auv?Sou 0eo? or, perhaps, better, npapccpprjou? xfj]? [pe]yoc?,r|? god ([oi npapappe[i]oTj? son of Eirenaios, the inscription goes on to tell us, was the pey?Axn)) whose priest for life, Eirenaios, auyyevri? connected of the man to the power currently elite. serving as e7upe?tr|Tr|? and thus himself a man of high standing, well

case

5 n. 18, asserts Poimandres that "it is hardly Kingsley, of ?- or FlTe pH "is out of the ordinary", but the proper were nevertheless formed after Classical

17

true names

that omission Kingsley

of cites

the article in support

in such

a case"

i.e., Ranke,

in the Die

from Hermann

?gyptischen Personennamen,
contexts,

and Erich L?ddeckens (et al.), Demotisches Namenbuch, while most are from Late Egyptian
Egyptian models or precedents, not ex nihilo in Coptic.

18See Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes (above n. 2) 32-33. 19 On Kamephis (Stobaei fragmentum XXIII ?32) = K3-Mwt-fsee theNock-Festugi?re edition of the Corpus Hermeti cum III clxii; H(elmuth) Ja(cobsohn), Kamutef, LdAe III 309-310. On Arnebeschenis (Stobaeifragmentum XXVI ?9) = Hr nb-Shn see J(an) Q(uaegebeur), Harnebeschenis, LdAe II 998-999. Arnebeschenis' experience with multiple Greek tran scription of his name parallels that of the god behind the Hermetic Poimandres, and for the same reasons: he is a local god (Horus of Letopolis) with no international connections and no Greek identity.

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100

H. M. Jackson

from Soknopaiou Nesos, dated 104 B.C. Dedicatory from one Diony 2) npepocppfi? inscription son to wife of and Isis of his their Sononais and to sos, Thases, Philon, Demetrios, children, daughter and our god ('Ap7to%p?xT) Kai npepa[p]pe?, the latter as her Oeo?? E\)%apiaxoi?) Harpokhrates a cost of the the direct from the for road assumption synnaoi? recording temple of Premarres an to for locales and altar. other (npepocppeiou?) of uncertain from Hawara, date. Stele with relief showing the god, wearing the 3) Opocpocpfj? as crown of Lower Egypt, a seated behind another divinity, in Souchos/Sobk and with 1), probably

dedication Opocpocpfjxi0ecppey?Axppey?Axpfrom one Akhilion, son of Akousilos. - from Hawara, reign of Ptolemy XIII Neos Dionysos. Stele with relief showing 4) npeapappfj?
the god seated in a chapel and holds the wls-sceptre; inscription father was on top of which are sprawled. The god wears royal headdress two crocodiles behind the chapel stands Isis. Below the relief, a heavily damaged dedicatory in conjunction with Souchos/Sobk, from one Petenephies, whose probably

[??p]eapappei, a Prophet of Souchos/Sobk.

5) ??peepappfi?
pey?cAxp of a propylon

- from Euhemeria, probably 172-170 B.C. Ex-voto dedication npeepocppfjxi Geco

in an unnamed of uncertain son of Sokomenis, and his sons. temple by one Nekhthnibis, tax and date provenance (Gurob?) (3rd century B.C.?). Papyrus one such orchard associated with an altar of Premanres (npepocv II. Memorandum to Zenon

6) npepocvpfi? account of palm orchards mentioning p?oTj?) in the village of Apollonias. 7) ??opepavpfi? Philadelphia, who is probably from Herakleides, known from elsewhere, animals

requesting from a neighbouring canal. At the foot floodwaters from encroaching a the canal and the location of the requested palisade, has drawn map showing a physician to the temple of Poremanres named Artemidoros, past a Hermaion, Narmouthis (Medinet Madi), 8) noppocpavprj? early 1st century B.C. hymns of one Isidoros inscribed on the pillars at the entrance into the vestibule mouthis/Renenutet ascribes the foundation call noppocp?vpr)v the Egyptians 33-34) The hymn of Isidoros, discovered evidence (cp. the royal dress in 1), 3), and 4)):

late in the reign of Ptolemy probably of the pig-breeding the superintendent to Zenon the construction help underwrite

industry at Philadelphia to protect his of a palisade of the letter Herakleides to run from the house of

(nopepocvpfjxo?). (?). The last of the four

of the temple of Ther of the temple to a god-king whom Isidoros informs us (lines ... x?v (or x?v p?yav aG?vaxov).20 p?yocv, aG?vaxov on other in 1935, confirmed what had already been deduced our Hellenistic Egyptian god is none other than the

deified Amenemhet III, the great Middle Kingdom pharaoh of the Xllth Dynasty, whose

long reign

-pocppfj?, etc. renders Amenem spanned most of the second half of the 19th century B.C. The element etc. renders Pr-C3, "Pharaoh", following het Ill's throne-name N(j)-M3c.t-Rc, and the initial npoc-, npe-, the common this title to royal names. The variants convention, begun around 1000 B.C., of prefixing etc. in the Greek transcription of Pr-C3 preserve contemporary variation of the dialectical upa-, npe-, sort reflected forms of the title's Coptic descendant in Sahidic later in the various and ("king") 201): SB 1269; O. Rubensohn, Pramarres, ZAeS 42 (1905) 111-115 with pi. VI; Ulrich Wilcken, report on Rubensohn's article, APF 4 (1908) 211-212 (no. 51); Winfried J. R. R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte in Faijum w?hrend der griechisch r?misch-byzantinischen Zeit (Bonn, 1974) 161. 2): J. P. Mahaffy, A New Inscription from the Fayy?m, Hermathena 21 (1895) 243-247;S5 8884; OGIS 175;R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte 161. 3): SB 5755; W. M. Flinders P?trie, Roman Portraits andMemphis (IV) (London, 1911) 21 and pl. XX,2. 4): Max L. Strack, Inschriften aus ptolem?ischer Zeit III,APF 3 (1906) 136 (no. 17);R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte 91.5): SB 10046; R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte 84. 6): John P. Mahaffy, The Flinders P?trie Papyri with Transcriptions, Commentaries and Index II (Dublin, 1893) 141 (no. XLIIIb, lines 65-66); R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte 58. 7): Campbell Cowan Edgar, Zenon Papyri in the University ofMichigan Collection (Ann Arbor, 1931) 162-163 with pl. VI (no. 84); R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte 144. 8): Achille Vogliano, Gli scavi della Missione Archeologica Milanese a Tebtynis, Atti del IV Congresso internazionale di Papirologia (Milano, 1936) 485^196; SB 8141; SEG VIII 551; Nicola Turchi, I quattro inni di Isidoro, SMSR 22 (1958) 139-148, particularly pp. 146-148; Etienne Bernand, Inscriptions
m?triques de l'Egypte gr?co-romaine. Recherches sur la po?sie ?pigrammatique des Grecs en Egypte (ALUB 98; Paris,

1969) no. 175, particularly pp. 635-636, 640-641, 648-652; Vera Frederika Vanderlip, The Four Greek Hymns oflsidorus and the Cult of Isis (ASP 12;Toronto, 1972), especially pp. 9-16, 63-74, and pl. IX; J. Boll?k, Du probl?me de la datation des hymnes d'Isidore, StudAeg 1 (1974) 27-37, arguing for a date late in the 3rd century B.C.

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The Origin

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101

Akhmimic

in our 1), 3), (n)ppo, for example, but (n)ppa, Fayyumic, whence ??pa-, Opa-, npea-, ??oppacase our In Ill's all the Greek forms attested in the of Amenemhet list reflect throne-name, 4), and 8). or to to its assimilation into due either the the loss of N(j)-, propretonic position evidently following m, one wnm to in choose Classical the latter a phenomenon apparent, example, Egyptian becoming Coptic This loss of N(j)III is included

Amenemhet

in a Demotic is also present the deified papyrus of 180/179 B.C., where as other divinities of the Pr-C3-M3c.t-Rc. The among -pp Fayyum doubling a common in in the Greek of the throne-name and is 4), 1), 2), 5) transcriptions equally phenomenon, in Coptic ppo and its variants for Pr-C3, and the -vp- in 6), 7), and 8) is, visible, for example, precisely on one view, an example of the dissimilation of the double rho which is also commonly attested in one to in select but Bohairic for Akhmimic.21 MGNpe-, mgnpit Heppe-, MeppiT example, Coptic again The personal names of individuals named after the god (minus the prefix element representing Pr-C3 of oycuM. course) show the

same range of variants in transcribing Amenemhet Ill's throne-name: Mocpfj?, even and (once) Mocvppfj?.22 Mocppfj?, Mocvpfj?, to the cult of the god-king Pr-C3 M3c(.t)-Rcet Together with the evidence attesting npocpocppfj? in the list in these date the from the 3rd al., presented above, spanning anthroponyms, period early to the great and long-lasting popularity of the cult of century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D., bear witness the deified het III who pharaoh. That the cult was centred in the Fayyum was due to the facts that it was Amenem the prodigious of land reclamation and project, begun by his predecessors, the of for whole the basin and that he dedicated engineering hydraulic Fayyum many consequently over there. The grandest of these was the king's (southern) pyramid at Hawara, splendid monuments a the Nile channel into the architectural whose central and, it, looking Fayyum, adjoining huge complex in which focus was the king's mortuary his funerary cult was celebrated in conjunction, temple, completed local deities of the Fayyum. evidently, with the cult of other gods, probably The cult of the god-king Amenemhet in and with III, having originated that the village of Apollonias ancient is modern show. The extensive new this mortuary reclamation is

temple, under

again attested atHawara in theHellenistic period, as our 3) and 4) (and 6) as well, ifRubensohn is right
Hawara) efforts

taken in the Fayyum, roughly 15 centuries later,by Ptolemy II Philadelphos broughtwith them a revival
of the cult of Ptolemy's useful encouragement, in this reclamation deified predecessor effort, doubtless with politically or direct a coinci It is not likely to be merely indirect, from royal patronage. to the renewed cult of the god-king, on our dence, then, that the earliest attestation list, probably dates 7) from late in Ptolemy IF s reign. If it had not already done so, itwas probably at this time, consequently, III spread to other sites in the Fayyum. Nor is it a surprise, equally conse that the cult of Amenemhet in addition to native Egyptians 2), though 3), and Dionysos, in 4) and Nekhthnibis in (Petenephies the latter's wife Thases bears an Egyp

that native Greeks appear, quently, as 5), both (Akhilion, worshippers

Rubensohn, Pramarres 113-114; Wilcken, report on Rubensohn 211-212; Wilhelm Spiegelberg, Aegyptologische Randglossen zu Herodot 1.K?nig Moiris, ZAeS 43 (1906) 84-86, particularly pp. 85 with nn. 5, 8-10, and 86 n. 6 on the loss of the feminine ending .t inm3c.t (common in Late Egyptian: Jaroslav Cerny and Sarah Israelit Groll, A Late Egyptian Grammar; 3rd ed.; Rome, 1984; 6 [? 1.9]); idem, Catalogue g?n?ral des antiquit?s ?gyptiennes du Mus?e du Caire. Die demotischen Denkm?ler II.Die demotischen Papyrus (Stra?burg, 1908) 286-290 (no. 31178), particularly p. 290 (verso, col. 5); Giulio Farina, Noterelle egizie agli inni greci di Isidoro scoperti nel Fayy?m, RSO 17 (1938) 280; Jozef Vergote, Le Roi Moiris-Mar?s, ZAeS 87 (1962) 66-76, particularly pp. 74-75, proposing a different view of the relationship of -jiocppiic to -uxxvpfj?.For -vp- from -pp- see Ludwig Stern, Koptische Grammatik (Leipzig, 1880) 52 (? 103) and n. 2. On the original meaning of N(j)-M3c.t-Rc see Wolfhart Westendorf, L?mares und Rathures als Kronzeugen f?r die mit nj- gebildeten Namen?, Festschrift Wolfgang Helckzu seinem 70. Geburtstag (SAK 11;Hamburg, 1984) 381-397. A stele possibly from Hawara and perhaps dating to as late as the Roman period shows, however, that the cult of Amenemhet III still knew the pharaoh's throne-name in its original form; the stele shows the god-king infriendly encounter with Souchos/Sobk and their
names, written in hieroglyphs, in cartouches between them: O. Gu?raud, Une st?le gr?co-romaine au cartouche

21

d'Amenemhet III,ASAE 40 (1940) 553-560 with pl. LVII.

22 See Preisigke's Namenbuch s. vv.; Foraboschi's Onomasticon alterum papyrologicum s. vv. Mavpfj? and Mocppfj?; J.

Vergote, Les noms propres du P. Bruxelles

inv.E. 7616. Essai d'interpr?tation (PLB 7; Leiden, 1954) 9-10.

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102

H. M. Jackson

tian name) and as life-long officiants (Eirenaios, 1)) in the cult, in the latter case a native Greek well men in to in the government. connected high position to the cult that from Hero like Eirenaios in devotion It can only have served to encourage Greeks dotus' time on the god-king's mortuary complex Herodotus calls it a labyrinth for its maze was on the "must see" list of attractions for visitors to of courts and chambers, asserting that it surpasses even in indescribability; small wonder, tourists after him then, that so many Greek and Roman to the site to marvel at the Egyptian Labyrinth's size and many wonders. Herodotus gigantic a or successors as lot is often of what anachronistic inaccurate, garbled, preserve information, the function others

Egypt. the Pyramids trekked and his usual,

of the complex and about the king who built it. Even without the help of with and Diodorus with Siculus, Manetho, however, (pseudo?)-Eratosthenes, Mapr)?, M?v?ri? ov xive? M?ppov and Strabo, with Top?vSric and Mappo? 7ipoaovop?Coi)aiv), (?ocGiAea M?v?rjv knew the builder by names that, like the anthroponyms alluded to above, (Mociv?ri? the Epitomizer) or seem to Amenemhet throne-name. sort Eirenaios from Ill's Educated Greeks of the is derive, derive, about to Greek had access traditions that lionized the god-king and his likely to have been consequently to help foster their faith in "Pharaoh Marres/Manres".23 achievements Native Egyptians naturally had their own tales to tell. For these Isidoros' fourth hymn (8) above) is on local and contem it is directly dependent, he says (lines 7, 17-19, 35-39), of great interest because informants, probably porary native Egyptian I offer a translation of lines 7-40, inscribed. and so it shows us what the hymns are priests of the cult in the temple on which an aretalogy since the hymn is virtually of Porramanres, of the cult of the god-king Amenemhet III was like early in the 1st

the theology to be the correct one). That, B.C. in the 3rd century B.C., if the alternate dating happens late century (or to make the leap to Porramanres' as in turn, will provide us with a springboard from which appearance in CHI. The opening lines of the hymn (1-6) ask who it was, what god, the Hermetic god Poimandres a home for its divine inhabitants and provided the temple of Thermouthis as synnaoi. Isidoros then proceeds: and Sokonopis together with her son Anchoes built Isis-Thermouthis

who

They

lord of every land, rich and pious, say there was a divine king of Egypt who revealed himself and wondrous his his excellence rivalled that of heaven. of /10 power; glory omnipotent possessed sea and the rivers with their all For earth and lovely streams, and the blowing obeyed his command, it rises sends out sweet light so resplendently for all, /15 and the and the sun that when of the winds, races of winged creatures heeded him with one accord, and all of these, at his command, obeyed

him. It is clear that birds heeded him because those who have read through the inscriptions of the
temples bringing a crow to send a message, /20 and it returned with a letter, say that once he commanded nor was he born of a mortal lord. He was the him a reply. For he was not a mortal man, the son, Souchos the all-powerful, the great, great, and of a great, eternal god; of Souchos

offspring father is the giver of life, most great good god, he appeared on earth as lord. /25 His mother's as well, and Asia; that is why all things obeyed himself all who is the Zeus of Greece Ammon, races name on creatures sort all the of the of the skies. and What of that crawl earth winged things had he? Who nurtured him, gave it him? who /30 What Seso?sis,

It was he that ruler, what king, what one of the immortals? name of of heaven, has gone to the West that gave him the beautiful

23 On the foregoing three paragraphs: Rubensohn, Pramarres 114-115; Wilcken, report on Rubensohn 212; Spiegel berg, Aegyptologische Randglossen zu Herodot 84-86; Vergote, Le Roi Moiris-Mar?s 66-76; W. L. Westemiann, Land Reclamation in the Fayum under Ptolemies Philadelphus and Euergetes I,CP 12 (1917) 426-430; (H.) Kees, Labyrinthos 4: Aegyptisches Labyrinth, PW XII 323.50-326.58; Ch. Audebeau Bey, La l?gende du Lac Moeris, BIE 11 (1928-1929) 105-127; W. G. Waddell, Manetho (LCL 350; Cambridge, Mass., 1940) 68-73, 225 with n. 1; Wolfgang Helck, Unter Henri Le culte d'Amenemhat III au zu den Manetho und 34-35; Riad, (Berlin, 1956) K?nigslisten ?gyptischen suchungen Fayoum ? l'?poque ptol?ma?que, ASAE 55 (1958) 203-206 with pl. I;Alan B. Lloyd, The Egyptian Labyrinth, JEA 56 (1970) 81-100; id., Herodotus Book II. Commentary 1-98 (EPRO 43; Leiden, 1976) 34; Commentary 99-182 (Leiden, 1988) 120-121, 124-128; Anne Burton, Diodorus Siculus Book I. A Commentary (EPRO 29; Leiden, 1972) 181-182,
196-200.

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The Origin

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God Poimandres

103

the brilliant /35 a wheels

wonderful

call him Porramanres, Sun, but in their own language the Egyptians cruise on marvel also I heard from others, how he would having learned all this reliably from the men who give

the great, immortal. the mountains with account of it I have

and sail. And

myself
king,

in turn interpreted it for Greeks and made it public record here, the power of the god and
/40 how no other mortal ever had an equal power.

informants about the cult knew that Pr-C3 M3c(.t)-Rc the hymn that Isidoros' Egyptian name Isidoros an that a king whose ancient and transcribes with Egyptian king /noppocpocvpric was his father. They also furnished Isidoros with two Wunder er Z?hlungen, III) (Sesostris Eeao?xn? It is clear from was or ignorant misreading to fill the need for them, either from purposeful of hiero supplied, over on a cart to III Amenemhet had the desert with sails the effect that and that he parasailed glyphs, had a crow for a carrier pigeon (the latter also retailed, of a king he names Mapr)?, by Aelian, On the perhaps Characteristics most important of Animals VI, 7). But, to judge element of the cult for Isidoros from the extent of his focus as for his informants on it, what was was what was indeed clearly the the central

focus of the cult of the god-king from its inception: the ancient Egyptian theology of kingship which
sons of god and lords of the cosmic order. Far from having the pharaohs lost its relevance, this was a in not element of the to vital Hellenistic least due the theology Greco-Egyptian religion period, use made of it by the Ptolemies Machiavellian and their Seleucid cousins. With it Isidoros has worked made up what a typically Hellenistic in line 8 and ecp?vr] ?rcicpavri? (cp. ?^ecp?vr] and "appeared on earth" respectively). himself is consequently It is this typically Hellenistic gence of the deified Amenemhet an accident that so many the god incarnate, the ?e?c aretalogy of the god-man, in line 24, rendered in the translation with "revealed

the later emer yearning for direct contact with divinity that underlies in Isidoros' the form in of Poimandres CHI. It is not III, Porramanres, personae of the Herm?tica had either actually once been

others of the dramatis

human beings but had long before become gods, like Imouthes/Asklepios, who was Imhotep, the deified
vizier were of Zoser, divinities the Hermetic Isis (and Osiris), Ammon, and Hermes Trismegistos himself, as human beings a manner treated by the Herm?tica in true to ancient largely because, to earth in human form, on some primeval occasion, to assist or tradition, they had descended or But whether humankind.24 the of divinities humans-become-gods gods-become-humans in the twilight the worlds between live zone between the two worlds. of humankind and divinity, Isidoros' intimately. is now They and with live there because show that they they are that the two or, as with

Egyptian

enlighten the Herm?tica intermediaries worlds zone. double

can, after all, intersect, and intersect In the hymn Isidoros wavers: Porramanres nature that made him

a perfect candidate for III, even as a Hellenistic oc?OevT?cc? vou? seems too grand a new identity for old Amenemhet man-god, one need only reflect on how central a doctrine the identity of divine voo? and human vo?? is in CH I, how frequently and purposefully the two are in it (particularly confused 16, 21-23, ??6, 7-8, 30), to this new identity for the god-king the god appreciate how appropriate actually is. In Isidoros' aretalogy man Poimandres more ruled the world and commanded its elements; what suitable Greek Mind of God that is identity for him, then, than the Nou?, the world-ordering philosophical/theological incarnate inmankind? CHTs theology the ancient Egyptian is merely an updated, Greek theology of Poimandres of kingship embodied in the cult of Pr-C3 M3c(.t)-Rc. rationalist version of

too, lives in this twilight Porramanres, now man. mortal It was precisely that god, in inclusion the Hermetic If ? ifj? pantheon.

24 For theHerm?tica see Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes 24-29, 174with n. 83, 205 (Hermes Trismegistos); 32 with n. as an 140 viewed ancient king); 40, 174 n. 83 (Asklepios/Imouthes). For deities come to earth note, for exam 115, (Ammon, Stobaei 5-6 ple, fragmentum XXIII, (Hermes), 64-69 (Isis and Osiris); on this theologoumenon in classical Egyptian tradi tion see Fowden, ibid. 59, of Thoth in the late Egyptian Setne-Khamwas romance; on Imhotep see Kurt Sethe, Imhotep, der Asklepios der Aegypter. Ein verg?tterter Mensch aus der Zeit des K?nigs Djoser (Leipzig, 1902); Dietrich Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep. Gottwerdung im alten Aegypten (MAeS 36; M?nchen & Berlin, 1977).

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104

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Jackson

There Roman

continue

in its original throne-name bearing the god-king's as as are 21 that be late Roman ad the and there terracottas may (note early fin.) imperial period, attest to cult be of this the that may and may equally date.25 The date of CH I is similarly uncertain, a to turn for around of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. are cumula the the arguments dating although form fairly weighty.26 of CH I. composition tively But it is in any case probable that the cult was still alive at the time of the

anthroponyms into the 2nd century A.D., make it likely names the personal there is the stele from Hawara

is precious period. The

little evidence

attesting derived

to the cult of Pr-C3 M3c(.t)-Rc/Uoppa\iavp,r\q et al. into the as we saw, from Amenemhet Ill's throne-name, which, that the cult survived at least until then. Aside from

This, in turn, might explain notable features of the Hermetic understand by the author, who speaks in the first person singular, been granted the vision, from whom he has received the revelation, evangelize

tractate. We

are repeatedly given to that he and the god of whom he has he is commissioned to have level, label deri

the world with its content share a remarkably warm We relationship. seen on are two on a the level the of but that, co-substantial, already vo??, ontologically personal and his devotee are close enough to prompt Haenchen and B?chli too, Poimandres (above n. 3) to a "Schutzgott" and to find in this support for the shepherd-motif Poimandres inherent in the Greek vation but

and by whom and intimate

It may not be adequate in the god's name from 7ioipr|v, support for deriving ?oiphypothesis. goi navza%ox) of role the is the intimately at the initial from god protective palpable oweipi in ? 2, through their chatty exchanges of Poimandres intimate even for the appearance unusually as we are are divinities human and humans in divine saw, where, Herm?tica, ?? 3, 6, 16, and 20-22, to the evangelizing in the Herm?tica, in ? 26. I xi p?A?ei?; commission, unique begun with Xoinov, would suggest that what accounts for this intimacy, for the evangelizing a confessional first person singular is that the author of CH Iwas himself whose name he transcribes with and for the use of commission, a fervent devotee of the cult of

Pr-C3 M3%t)-Rc, habitual presence

(I shall turn to this issue shortly). The noipav?pri? name in the work would of the definite article with the god's thus, on this reckoning, common in the papyri, of the article's use, as Edwin Mayser be an example, it, "wo von categorizes wenn am anwe die Kultformen Rede der lokalen Verfasser bestimmten Kultort ist, insbesondere send ist oder selbst unter dem Schutz If the author was indeed a devotee des betreffenden Gottes steht".27

of the god-king, it is consequently likely that CH I was written and probably, in the Fayyum, somewhere after all, then, at some cult-site of the god-king. The Fayyum, as a with and of result IPs settled been reclamation efforts had by Greeks, beginning Ptolemy heavily are equally indebted, Greek and the Herm?tica there alluded to earlier, so that the two cultures to which Egyptian, had been mingling there for centuries by the time CH I was written.28 What is more, if CH I

Weber, Die ?gyptisch-griechischen Terrakotten (Berlin, 1914) 138-143 with Taf. 21 (no. 214); Joseph Vogt, Expedition Ernst von Sieglin. Ausgrabungen in Alexandria II, 2. Terrakotten (Leipzig, 1924) Taf. 2,2 p. 84 (non vidi);
Paul Graindor, 26 For Terres the various cuites de l'Egypte gr?co-romaine and (Antwerpen, the rationale 1939) 124-125 and pl. XVIII century late A.D. (no. 45). see Gundel, 1st. Like Poimandres proposals (up to 1951) for a dating to the 2nd

25Wilhelm

(above n. 1) 1194.53-1195.32;
201-209, arguing on plausible n.

add the long and important discussion by Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks
grounds for a date early favours in the 2nd century A.D. or even in the

(above n. 9)
Dodd, Jonas,

Gnosis

und sp?tantike Geist I (above n. 1) 348, favors an early 2nd century date; Haenchen, Aufbau und Theologie
(above 1) 191, ignoring Dodd, one late in the century. See now Fowden, The Egyptian

des

'Poimandres' 10-11,161-162.

Hermes

27 Edwin
(p. 3), citing

Mayser, Grammatik der griechischen Papyri aus der Ptolem?erzeit

examples.

II, 2 (Berlin und Leipzig,

1934) ? 53.2b

many

28 Greeks and Egyptians mixing in the Fayyum: see, for example, Claire Pr?aux, Les Grecs en Egypte d'apr?s les archives de Zenon (Bruxelles, 1947) 68-70; Dorothy J. Crawford, Kerkeosiris. An Egyptian Village in the Ptolemaic Period (Cambridge, 1971); Deborah H. Samuel, Greeks and Romans at Socnopaiou Nesos, Proceedings of the Sixteenth Interna tional Congress ofPapyrology (ASP 23; ed. Roger S. Bagnall et al.; Chico, 1981) 389-403. Note further that this bicultural situation in the Fayyum is exemplified in the facts thatDionysos and Thases, the husband and wife who are the dedicants in
2) in our list of attestations to the cult of the god-king, are of Greek and Egyptian extraction, respectively, and that, with a

father named Philon, Thases herself is likely to have been the offspring of a bicultural marriage.

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The Origin

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as it is commonly itmeans that the held to be, the earliest treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, strain Hermetism to have been the where the of is (as place 'philosophical' likely Fayyum equally was I is CH Hermes to There "Hermetic" about born. the i.e., nothing 'technical') explicitly opposed - so or that it might actually better be labeled pre-Hermetic does not figure in the work Trismegistos was widespread of Thoth/Hermes, in the and specifically But the cult of Thoth, proto-Hermetic. is also, Fayyum, visionary and there was devotee thus plenty of occasion for a movement to become et a/./Poimandres of Pramarres to focus on Hermes/Thoth may actually have begun with a "Hermetic" and then, later, to make the which facilitated by the existing close asso a coincidence to be merely

recipient of the revelation in CH IHermes Trismegistos himself, as CH XIII (? 15) seems to have
done.29 The ciation transition would have been in the Fayyum. It is not likely of the god-king with Thoth/Hermes a next sat at Phila of Thoth/Hermes door to a temple of Poremanres shrine i.e., just letter to Zenon, 7) in our list above.30 If Labib Haba delphia, as we saw from the map in Herakleides' that the figures of a man in what was evidently pharaonic dress, a chi is right, as he is in all probability, that a Hermaion a baboon, and a crocodile on a monument to early from Crocodilopolis, dating probably hippopotamus, Pr-C3 in the Hellenistic the and Taweret/Tho?ris, Thoth, represent M3c(.t)-Rc, period, god-king it means that Thoth/Hermes and the god-king Sobk/Souchos, respectively, already had a friendship

stretching back hundreds of years by the time theHermetist of CH XIII, long after the death of the
I, identified CH F s "I" with Hermes Trismegistos, making him a pupil of the god-king.31 now properly "Hermetic", in the movement, of Thoth-as-Hermes With the rise to prominence the object from the movement's founder slipped into oblivion because, unlike Thoth, the of such fervent devotion author of CH discussed god-king had the deficiencies no international connections. tity and We latest cannot attested trace what Hellenized earlier: he was a strictly provincial divinity with no Greek iden

noppocp?vpric, theless, that the form noip?voprjc represents a final accusative Pr-C3 M3c(.t)-Rc. Isidoros' noppocp?vpr|v

Isidoros'

in the two hundred years or so that separate the stages, if any, intervened in the Hellenistic form of the god-king's throne-name period, probably in CHI. But it is clear, never from the form noipav?pri? the name assumes

of the name stage in the process of Hellenization shows that the name has already assumed the we as CHVs that declension Greek -r|?, -od, -t), -r)v proper (genitive saw) equally -?poi), noipdv?pri? name show either the -r)?, -eioi)?/-r|o\)?, forms of the god-king's evinces, where earlier, less Hellenized names transcribed directly ei or -T|?, -r)To?, -t|ti that are both characteristic of Egyptian into Greek.32 insertion consonant of the stop ? into -vp- was inevitable due both to the impossibility as names to in in combination well of Greek imitation Greek -vpand, perhaps, -ocvSpo? common in the Hellenistic of the first rho (or double rho), period. As for the disappearance of the voiced dental

The

particularly it is plausibly

as a case of the common phenomenon to be explained of loss of a liquid as a result of a second rho in -pocv(?)pr|? at the end of the word so, for dissimilation, namely from the presence of in ocKO?p-ua for ccKpo?pua and (pocxpioc for (ppocxpia.33 With attested example, of rho the disappearance from a form like Herakleides' nopeor Isidoros' IIoppoc- the diphthong oi would be the natural result.

29 For the popularity of the cult of Thoth/Hermes in the Fayyum see Crawford, Kerkeosiris 87-88 with n. 2; R?bsam, G?tter und Kulte 37-38,77,97, 113, 120, 168-169, 185-186, 199,223. 30 Sir Harold I. Bell, Popular Religion inGraeco-Roman Egypt, JEA 34 (1948) 85, and Graeco-Egyptian Religion, MH 10 (1953) 225-226, rightly maintains that the Hermaion at Philadelphia is much more likely to have been a shrine of Thoth/Hermes than of Olympian Hermes. 31 Labib Habachi, A Strange Monument of the Ptolemaic Period from Crocodilopolis, JEA 41 (1955) 106-111 with pl. XXI. The monument probably originally stood in the "Great Hall" Amenemhet III constructed for the temple of Sobk in the capital of the Fayyum. 32 See May ser, Grammatik der griechischen Papyri I, 2 ? 63, Anhang 6 (p. 34), and ? 64, Anhang (pp. 41-42), citing
examples.

33 See Eduard M?nchen, Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik I (HAW II, i, 1; Grammatik der griechischen Papyri I, 1 ? 36.1a (pp. 159-160), with examples.

1939) 259-260, with examples; May ser,

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106

H. M. Jackson

assert that the distance of the form noip?cv of Coptic derivation hypotheses commonly might be the product of an effort by the author of ?prj? from the various proposed Coptic etymologies the name to what the Greek derivation hypothesis would have itmean.34 But in fact CH I to assimilate on the principles to noipav?pri? from Pr-C3 M3%t)-Rc is perfectly the name's evolution of explicable Advocates If Greek onomastics and Greek linguistics. helped him in the case of -ccv?p-, that would have Egyptian it furthered his theology of the co-substantiality of human and divine vou?, for which been because the him with furnished Pr-C3 the But M3c(.t)-Rc primeval exemplar. god-man noip/Uoi\i?vdpi]q suggested

by 7ioipr|v is a different matter. It does not fit his theology of Poimandres as ? xfj? oc?Oevx?acvo??, and
as "shepherd-man" aware that noipdv?pri? or "shepherd of men" he could be re-etymologized was no name meant. and what the It was only Zosimos gives sign of it. He knew who "noipav?pri?" and the author of CH XIII who, much the name, in the case of later, took the step of re-etymologizing + more to it make it Zosimos Zosimos and the author of CH XIII 7toipr|v avrjp. explicitly by altering if he was to them, outside the Fayyum so in the case of to re-etymologize the name because (certainly no not concern. if at his cult and then the least of were, utterly unknown, Zosimos), god-king By their time the focus had shifted to Hermes/Thoth. needed was an actual contemporary sum up then, Poimandres Graeco-Egyptian divinity with the author of CH I was himself a fervent devotee. The name noipav5pr)? cult, a cult of which an ad hoc coinage of the author of CH I to lend personality to a hypostasis of God,35 but rather Hellenization of the earlier, still more purely transcriptional Greek forms of the throne-name of To a living was not a further

the god were an The derivation III. of in Amenemhet advocates Coptic hypotheses king right positing Egyptian that -pri? transcribed RcIsidoros' Egyptian origin for the name, and Griffith was correct in proposing ... gave him the beautiful name of the brilliant informants knew this too ("Seso?sis Sun"). But the rest some name two the evolution antedates of and the thousand years. is wrong, Coptic by actually

Claremont

Howard

M.

Jackson

34

Scott, Herm?tica II 15 n. 3;Marcus, The Name Poimandres, 43; Kingsley, Poimandres 11, 12. 35 For this debate see Gundel, Poimandres (see n. 1 above) 1206.57-1207.28.

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