Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction (Volume 0)

Great if you enjoy pondering the mysteries of the Divine and having your mind blown. Excellent translation too. Worth it even with the high price.

I love ancient, hidden knowledge and this treatise fits the bill perfectly. I am just beginning to scratch the surface of occultism/Hermeticism so I believe this will provide some very useful insights. Couldn't be happier with this purchase. The book is a perfect size and the text is very readable. Author's notes should be very helpful as I go along.

This is a comprehensive collection of Hermetic literature. The translations seem complete and true, there are plenty of notes for more detailed analysis presented in a way that does not interrupt the primary original translation, and the content is beautiful and wonderful. Other sources I have studied also reference this specific edition, further supporting my notion that this is an invaluable resource for anyone investigating material of this nature. The portions that seem to have religious significance are written in an inclusive manner that is unlikely to offend even devout followers of specific faiths. I lack the words to recommend it more highly.

Rare is the mind that can meet the Hermetica in the middle. The profundity enclosed in each sentence comes from understanding that is as far beyond the Modernity as it is coded to confusion. For me, it is painfully difficult to unpack, but thus is the present state of the patriarchy. One should spend months on this collection and still not plumb its depths. From the source texts, Brian P Copenhaver has recreated an exact rendition. It's an astounding work of translation. The confusion of the Hermetica is placed further back than our oldest copies. The text itself says it is encoded. Hardly can I picture an encoded text being passed on without alteration. And then to be translated across languages. The Hermetica is truly cryptic. Truly, it is a deep sea.

Excellent read.

Copenhaver's new edition and translation of the Greek corpus hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius provide the interested reader with an immensely readable and professionally done English translation, as well as a solid introduction and copious notes. Copenhaver intends to replace Scott's classic edition and translation, and claims to improve upon what he sees as the rather idiosyncratic Greek and Latin texts which Scott put together and from which he translates. But the extent to which he succeeds is difficult to judge--read on. The one, major drawback of this volume is that while Copenhaver offers extensive endnotes which fill in--to some extent--for a full critical apparatus, he does not give us the Greek and Latin texts. Without these, it is difficult for a professional scholar or an informed general reader to evaluate Copenhaver's work for him/herself. In fairness to Copenhaver, it was never his intent to produce a work that could be used in the way I describe. In one sense, then, he succeeds magnificently at what he set out to do. But the addition of facing page texts in the original languages (provided in Scott's classic edition) would have made this book much, much better--and much more useful to a wider audience. Although the size of such an audience is not exactly vast, it may well be greater than Copenhaver imagined. In short, it's an excellent text for anyone interested in the Hermetica who does not read Greek or Latin. It is a very good text for students and scholars who will find much in Copenhaver's insightful editing, translation, and commentary, but may feel disappointment over the missing original texts and will only be able to use it within its obvious limitations. If he ever puts out a fuller edition with the Greek and Latin, I'll be first in line to buy it.

This is an excellent translation with plenty of informative footnotes. As a newcomer to this sort of thing, I found the book as accessible as one could hope and the exhaustive notes helped build context. A great one for anyone interested in esoteric whathaveyous.

Great reading

If the concept of required reading persists in our current educational framework, this ought to be prioritised across disciplines. The simplicity of the discourse and dialogue has preserved huge wisdoms timelessly, and the greatest pearls to be seem only by the 'light' (luminescence not weight) of heart - these will (having read the text) be better equipped to identify third-party interference that would imposed upon their return journey to harmony (to be saved and reborn). For the scholar, it is well notated - a reader can seek further interpretations or thoughts on translation process in the second half of this publication.

Excellent

Walter Scott called the authors of this text Egyptian Platonists. Most likely written in the late Neoplatonist period, it is a beautiful reminder of the influence of Egyptian and Jewish theology on Platonism. Even though it has been scrubbed clean of references to mystery rites and magic (possibly by medieval Christian hands), it is impossible not to still see the traditional Greek religious soil from which the Corpus Hermeticum was grown. Highly recommended reading!

Um excelente livro sobre o Hermetismo. Está em inglês, e é uma leitura difícil, mas aprendi muitas coisas. Recomendo.

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