The hermetic logos : reading the "Corpus Hermeticum" as a reflection of Graeco-Egyptian mentality

This study analyses Hermetic literature and focuses on the seventeen treatises of the so-called Corpus Hermeticum. It takes as its starting point the assumption that what are nowadays known as the Philosophical Hermetica emerged as a product of a Graeco-Egyptian process of self-perception. As will be demonstrated, Hermetic literature helps our understanding of how reformulations of symbolic universes led to a specific Graeco-Egyptian mentality. The Hermetica will be treated as the result of cross-cultural exchange between Greek and Egyptian symbolic universes. Hermetic literature will therefore be analysed according to its historical context, i.e. as part of a Greek-Egyptian dialogue.