PREFACE

The title of this collection encompasses two figures who are both distinct and complementary: Hermes-Mercuri us, the God with the caduceus, who belongs to Greek and Roman mythology, and Hermes Trismegistus, whose appearance can be traced back to the early Alexan dian epoch. Each of the six chapters stands on its own, having been published separately, and deals either with the God Hermes, or with Hermes Trismegistus—or with both. Given the similar inspiration running through all six essays, David Fideler and Joscelyn Godwin suggested that they might constitute an anthology endowed with some homogeneity. Therefore, for the purpose of the present edition, the articles in this volume have been for the most part corrected and enlarged, and their inevitable overlappings have been reduced. In their original version, they were published as follows:

Chapter 1: “Hermès,” in Dictionnaire des mythes littéraires, ed. Pierre Brunel (Paris: Editions du Rocher, 1988), pp. 705-732.

Chapter 2: “The Children of Hermes and the Science of Man,” published in English in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Moder Europe), ed. Ingrid Merkel and Allen G. Debus (Washington: The Folger Shakespeare Library; London and Toronto: Associated Presses, 1988), pp.24-48. From Symposium held in March, 1982, at thelnstitute for Renaissance and Eighteenth Century Studies in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

Chapter 3: “D'Hermès-Mercure à Hermès Trismégiste: au confluent du mythe et du mythique,” in Présence d'Hermès Trismégiste, ed. Antoine Faivre and Frédérick Tristan (Paris: Albin Michel, series “Cahiers de l'Hermétisme,” 1988). From Symposium held in July, 1985, in Cerisy-La-Salle on “The Myth and the Mythical.”

Chapter 4: “Présence d'Hermès dans la ville (Le Picatrix, Gustav Meyrink, Luis Bufñuel, George Miller),” in O Imaginário da Cidáde, ed. Yvette K. Centeno (Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Acardte, 1989), pp.337-349. From Symposium held in October, 1985, in Lisbon on “The Imaginary of the Town.”

Chapter 5: “Visages d'Hermès Trismégiste,” in Présence d'Hermès Trisrégiste [see above], pp.49-99.

Chapter 6: “La postérité de l'hermétisme alexandrin: rèperes historiques et bibliographiques,” in Présence d'Hermès Trisrégiste [see above], pp.13-23.

I offer my personal thanks to Joscelyn Godwin, not only for translating the entire volume, but also for enriching it with new references. My thanks also goes to David Fideler for his editorial counsel, and to Jean-Pierre Mahé for completing my information on some particular aspects of the Hermetica.

—ANTOINE FAIVRE