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Storytime: Reading the Hermetic Kyranides, Part II

We explore section Η (ēta) of Book I of the Kyranides. Unknown plants turn into scorpions, phoenixes might be flamingoes (or vice versa), the soul is shewn definitely to be immortal and mantic, and hoopoe-hearts are eaten.

Works Cited in this Episode:

The Campbell-Bonner Magical Gems Database rocks the house.

Primary:

Pliny on the stones called ‘firestone’ (pyritēs): H.N. 36, 137–138. On hephaistitis: ibid. 166.

Hermes to Asclepios, the Book Called ‘Sacred’: find it in pp. 140–143 of André-Jean Festugière. La révélation d’Hermes Trismegiste. J. Gabalda, Paris, 1944-1954. 4 vols, or pp. 156–159 in the new edition of 2014.

Corpus Hermeticum XI, 19: ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ αὐτῇ οὐδὲν ἐμπόδιον, οὐ τοῦ ἡλίου πῦρ, οὐχ ὁ αἰθήρ, οὐχ ἡ δίνη, οὐχὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἀστέρων σώματα· πάντα δὲ διατεμοῦσα ἀναπτήσεται μέχρι τοῦ ἐσχάτου σώματος. εἰ δὲ βουληθείης καὶ αὐτὸ ὅλον διαρρήξασθαι καὶ τὰ ἐκτός (εἴ γέ τι ἐκτὸς τοῦ κόσμου) θεάσασθαι, ἔξεστί σοι.

Secondary:

David Bain. ΜΕΛΑΝΙΤΙΣ ΓΗ in the Cyranides and Related Texts: New Evidence for the Origins and Etymology of Alchemy? In Todd Klutz, editor, Magic in the Biblical World: From the Rod of Aaron to the Ring of Solomon, number 245 in Journal of the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series, pages 191–218. T & T Clark, London/New York, NY, 2003, quoting p. 205.

Hans Dieter Betz. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, volume 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1996.

D’Arcy Thompson. A Glossary of Greek Birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1895.

Maryse Waegeman. Amulet and Alphabet: Magical Amulets in the First Book of Cyranides. J. C. Gieben, Amsterdam, 1987.

Martin L. West. Magnus and Marcellinus: Unnoticed Acrostics in the Cyranides. Classical Quarterley, New Series, 32:480–81, 1982.