Theater of Fate

Following the custom of the ancients, by which the Pythagoreans attributed exceptional inventions to Pythagoras, the Egyptians attributed them to Hermes. Because this custom prevailed in that very age of ignorance, there is a great dissonance and inequality in the writings attributed to Hermes. You would believe the author of some of them to be barely of sound mind, while the authority of others, though doubtful, is not to be entirely rejected. Among these is a pair of writings: one inscribed Poemander, the other Asclepius. In these, Hermes Trismegistus [though he is not the author himself, but rather a younger man, as it seems, from the School of Plato] is introduced discussing divine matters, wisdom, providence, and fate. Apuleius of Madaura already translated Asclepius into the Latin language, if we are to believe it. Leonardo of Pistoia, an honest monk, brought Poemander from Macedonia to Marsilio Ficino, who gave it Latinity and published it. This is evident in both treatises, as they appear in the Works of Ficino (Basel, 1576, folio) and in that truncated collection of Platonists made by Jean de Tournes (1607, in 12mo). Lambecius Lambecius, Commentaries on the Vienna Library, book 7, page 35. mentions a manuscript copy from the Imperial Library, which I do not think differs from the books on Providence and Fate which he attributes to the same Hermes in book 7 Ibid., page 27. of his Commentaries.