THE ARGUMENT OF MARSILIO FICINI THE FLORENTINE ON THE BOOK OF MERCURY TRISMEGISTUS TO COSIMO DE' MEDICI, FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY.

At that time when Moses was born, the astrologer Atlas flourished, the brother of Prometheus the physician and the maternal grandfather of the elder Mercury original: "Mercurius"; Ficino is distinguishing between different generations of legendary figures to create a historical timeline, whose grandson was Mercury Trismegistus. Moreover, Augustine writes this about him—though Cicero and Lactantius maintain there were five Mercuries in succession, and that the fifth was the one called by the Egyptians [Thoth] and by the Greeks Trismegistus. They assert that he killed Argus a hundred-eyed giant from Greek mythology whom Mercury/Hermes lulled to sleep and slew, ruled over the Egyptians, and gave them laws and letters original: "litteras"; meaning the art of writing and literature. Indeed, he established the characters of their writing in the forms of animals and trees a Renaissance description of Egyptian hieroglyphs. He was held in such great veneration by men that he was counted among the number of the gods. Very many temples were built to his divinity. It was not permitted for the common people to pronounce his proper name casually or rashly, out of a certain reverence. The first month of the year among the Egyptians is named after him. A town was founded by him which even now is called in Greek the City of Mercury original: "Mercurii ciuitas"; referring to the city of Hermopolis. They called him Trismegistus—that is, "Thrice-Greatest" original: "ter maximum"—because he stood out as the greatest philosopher, the greatest priest, and the greatest king. The custom...