Eternal Hermes_ From Greek God to Alchemical Magus

'Esoteric traditions are, well, esoterically complex as a rule, and that goes especially for Hermes Trismegistus, the emblematic figure representing--even personifying--the Western Esoteric tradition in its long and convoluted history. Who is he? Good question. Perhaps he's indeed a highly complex amalgam of the Egyptian god Thoth, the classical gods Hermes and Mercury, a priest in Alexandrian Egypt, and a legendary human sage roughly contemporary with Moses--among other things. God or man, angel or devil, master alchemist or proto-pharmacist, culture hero or trickster? Depends on who you ask. For anyone interested in this subject, then, it's all too easy to get lost without some guideposts of some sort.And that's exactly what Antoine Faivre provides in "The Eternal Hermes" here. It's an excellently helpful overview, road-map, or starter kit, if you will. A collection of six separate articles, it gives the curious reader a good solid grasp of the general outlines of Hermes Trismegistus in a sympathetically objective scholarly tone. Chapter one, "Hermes in the Western Imagination" traces in as much detail as possible under the circumstances the varying influences contributing to Hermes' composite character and differing perceptions and characterizations of him throughout history from antiquity to the present. Chapter two, "The Children of Hermes and the Science of Man" attempts to define this figure's distinguishing orientations and spiritual traits (and of the movements which recognize him as their guardian and inspiration). Chapter Three, "From Hermes-Mercury to Hermes Trismegistus: The Confluence of Myth and the Mythical" focuses more on Hermes' slippery nature somewhere between deity and pseudo-historical personage, with obscure half-states in between.Chapter four, "Hermes's Presence in the City" then remarkably demonstrates how the figure of Hermes, perhaps under other names but recognizable nonetheless, can be identified and analyzed in works of modern culture, both literature and film--in this case, Gustav