ABSTRACT
Hermetism (as a religious doctrine of Antiquity, differing from Hermeticism, a more general and rather modern attitude) is known to us through Hermetic literature – i.e., Greek books ascribed to the Egyptian Hermes called Trismegistos – the development of which extends over nearly six centuries (3rd c. bc to 3rd c. ad). Although the astrological Hermetica have reached us in much later documents, they appear as early as in the 3rd–2nd cc. bc. The alchemical texts appear in the 2nd–1st cc. bc, the magical recipes somewhat later, and most of the philosophical treatises in the 2nd–3rd cc. ad (Mahé 1982: 25–6, n. 139; Festugière 1942).
