Corpus Hermeticum XVIII: The Encomium of Kings
§ About this work
The collection opens with the narrator's vision of the Being Man-Shepherd (Poimandres), Mind of all-masterhood, who reveals the Light, the making of Man, the ascent through the Harmony to the Eighth, and sends the narrator to preach Gnosis. In the Serapeum, Hermes leads Asclepius to establish that the bodiless space containing all motion is God, Cause named Good and Father. The Sacred Sermon narrates cosmogony from Chaos, Darkness, and Water to men born for gnosis. Hermes then addresses Tat across several discourses: the Epistles, where Mind is set as a prize in a Cup; a discourse on the Unmanifest God who is all names and no name; the All-Father, locating Good in God alone; the Seven Powers, rebuking ignorance; and the Eight Sphere, denying true death. The Decalogue treats sense and thought and Cosmos as God's Son; the Sermon on the Mount describes souls' transformations and Gnosis as the Way Up. In the Hymn, Mind instructs Thrice-greatest Hermes on God, Aeon, Cosmos, Time, and Becoming; the Prayer teaches Mind as pilot against passion and Fate; the Discourse to Tat unfolds Rebirth, the twelve Tormentors driven out by ten Powers, and the Secret Hymnody. Hermes writes to Asclepius (to Ammon) on the One Maker who sows Immortality, Change, Life, and Motion. In the Definitions, Asclepius addresses King Ammon on God as All and One, the Sun as Demiurge, and Heimarmenē; a fragmentary discourse treats bodiless things in bodies and reflexions, the King postponing converse. The Encomium of Kings closes with musician analogies, ascending to God then descending to praise Kings, where Love works the harmony.
The text opens with the analogy of musicians whose weak instruments spoil their playing; blame falls on the instruments, not the artist, and the Natural Musician-God is never wearied. When a musician enters a contest, faults are attributed to the false instrument, not the music-maker. The audience should not blame the Race for the body's weakness, since God is Unwearied Spirit. The Pheidias-Demiurge is not blamed for lacking matter; rather the slack or tight string is faulted. The worse the instrument, the more the Artist's reputation grows. The speaker recalls an artist who used himself as instrument, and the harper favored by the God of music, whose broken string was replaced by a grasshopper sent by the Better One, winning fame. The speaker likens this to his own case, waking his muse to sing of the King. He tunes his lyre to Kings, ascending first to God, greatest King of wholes and Glorious Victor, then descending to Kings. The theme blends its end with its beginning in blessing the Better One, using the Sun analogy. Ten thousand tongues should bless the Father of souls; Babes give thanks per their strength. The King likewise receives praise. God is Good, and Love works the harmony. The singer praises God, then Kings, whose name establishes peace and whose likeness wins victory.
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