Legend tells of sacred texts written by a mysterious figure known as Hermes Trismegistus, explaining the fundamental laws of how the universe worked, in cryptic dialogues with his pupils. Hermes Trismegistus is a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian God Thoth. The Hermetic tradition claims Hermes to have been the third reincarnation of Thoth.
One of the most well-known pieces of the so-called "Hermetica" is the Emerald Tablet. It is said to have been discovered by another mysterious figure, Balinas (sometimes identified with Apollonius of Tyana). Balinas paints a dramatic picture of how he found the tablet clutched in the hands of an old corpse on a golden throne inside a vault below a statue of Hermes in Tyana.
World History and Mythology
EMERALD TABLET
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