ABSTRACT
The mystical gnostic religion of Hermes Trismegistus was one of several cults that thrived in the late Classical period. The chapter contends that the new interest in the Asclepius can be associated with a renaissance of Hermeticism, when a concerted attempt was made to supplement from Arabic sources the dearth of theoretical and technical Hermetic works in Latin. The Corpus Hermeticum became available in the West through the Latin translation of its fourteen texts by Marsilio Ficino in 1463. The language of the Asclepius, in common with that of the rest of the Corpus Hermeticum, is that of a mystery religion. Two English works written within the twelfth century betray a sympathetic knowledge of the new Hermetica: the Philosophia of Daniel of Morley; and the Liber Hermetis de sex rerum principiis. The legends pointed out the continuity of the mystical-philosophical learning preserved and revealed by a succession of avatars of the God Hermes, and gave a rationale for medieval scholars.
