THE LATIN ASCLEPIUS

Title. The beginning and end of the manuscripts of the Latin Asclepius show that the title the translator found at the head of his Greek text was "The Sacred Book of Hermes Trismegistus, addressed to Asclepius." However, the Greek document was known to Lactantius and Lydus by the title "The Perfect Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus." original: "Λόγος τέλειος" Lactantius quotes under this title both from Asclepius I and Asclepius III. One of his quotations is taken from the Epilogue (the narrative passage appended at the end of Asclepius III), which is connected with and presupposes the Prologue prefixed to Asclepius I. It appears, therefore, that the "Perfect Discourse" as known to Lactantius included everything contained in our Latin Asclepius. The title "Perfect Discourse" may have been given to the document by the editor who joined Asclepius I, II, and III together.

Stobaeus (4. 52. 47) quotes the Greek of Asclepius III. 27e (vol. i, p. 364) under the heading "From the works of Hermes addressed to Asclepius." It is possible, therefore, that the Greek original of Asclepius III, as a separate document, was included in the Hermes to Asclepius collection, and that Stobaeus knew it in that form rather than as part of the larger whole to which the title "Perfect Discourse" was applied. Cyril (Against Julian 4. 130 E) quotes a passage from Hermes Trismegistus "in [the work] addressed to Asclepius," which appears to be a lengthened form of the beginning of Asclepius III. 29b. It is possible that the original of Asclepius III was known to him as a separate document as well.

The full title of the composite document was probably "The Sacred Book of Hermes Trismegistus, addressed to Asclepius, called the Perfect Discourse." The title "Perfect Discourse" means "a discourse in which the teaching is brought to completion," meaning one which follows on and completes the instruction given in earlier discourses.