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Poimandres

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Poimandres

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Also known as Pimander

Poimandres (; also known as Poemandres, Poemander or Pimander) is the first tractate in the Corpus Hermeticum, named after its main character Poimandres, the nous of a supreme deity.

Book · Open Library

Author
Richard Reitzenstein
First published
1904
Editions
12
Subjects
Religion, Corpus Hermeticum, Early Christian literature, Hellenism, History and criticism, Poimandres (anoniem), 08.21 Ancient philosophy, Littérature chrétienne primitive

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Wikidata facts

Instance of
literary work
Genre
essay
Image
Marsilio Ficino De Potestate et Sapientia Dei title page.png
Show 2 more facts
language of work or name
Ancient Greek
title
Ποιμάνδρης
Sources (4)

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Encyclopedic overview

5 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Description
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Poimandres (; also known as Poemandres, Poemander or Pimander) is the first tractate in the Corpus Hermeticum, named after its main character Poimandres, the nous of a supreme deity.

==Etymology== Originally written in Greek, the title was formerly understood to mean "shepherd of men" from the words ποιμήν and ἀνήρ. For example, this is how Zosimus of Panopolis interpreted the name. Others, such as F. Ll. Griffith, proposed that it is actually derived from the Coptic phrase ⲡⲉⲓⲙⲉ ⲛ̅ⲧⲉ ⲣⲏ peime nte rē meaning "the knowledge of Re" or "the understanding of Re". Yet another theory is that the name ultimately derives from the name of the popular deified Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhet III, whose name was transliterated into Greek in various forms, including Πορεμανρῆς. Poimandros (Ποίμανδρος) of Greek mythology was the son of Chaeresilaus and Stratonice.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Poimandres” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.