The Notion of Good and Evil in the Corpus Hermeticum
Abstract
The Corpus Hermeticum (CH) is a selection of seventeen Greek treatises attributed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistos. This collection, however, does not contain one homogeneous and coherent thought. For this reason we cannot give an unambiguous answer to the questions “what is good?” and “what is evil?” in the Corpus Hermeticum. Although some texts in the CH contain internal inconsistencies and differences to the hermetic “mainstream,” a careful analysis of individual treatises permits us to draw a few general conclusions about the terms “good” and “evil.” In hermetic thought the supreme god is absolute good; the world cannot be good, because it is material, but it is not evil because of its immortality. On the other hand, the human, as a mortal being, is evil. However, a person can be saved from evil by piety which for hermetics means the knowledge of god.
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