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The eighth and final text in NHC VI (Nag Hammadi Writings) is a Coptic translation of an excerpt from The Perfect Discourse, a dialogue between Hermes Trismegistus and his disciples, Asclepius, Tat, and Ammon; this dialogue is said to occur in the inner sanctuary of an Egyptian temple. The full treatise was originally written in Greek around the 3rd century CE, but is only preserved in a Latin translation, commonly known as the Asclepius, which was transmitted alongside the philosophical works of Apuleius of Madaura. This fact led to the now mostly abandoned idea t…

The modern term “Hermetism” is sometimes used in a manner near-synonymous to such terms as “esotericism,” “occultism,” and “Gnosticism,” but is more properly used to refer to the teachings contained in the treatises attributed to the Egyptian divine sage Hermes Trismegistus or his associates. These treatises, referred to as Hermetica, consisting most often of dialogues (Dialogue) between Hermes and his disciples, were all authored in Greek, though some are now only available in Latin, Coptic, or Armenian translations. Their dating remains …