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GYÖRGY E. SZÖNYI
the work in his history of Renaissance Hermeticism, but Hanegraaffs recent
study identifies Lazzarelli as a characteristic and unmistakably individual
voice next to the syncretism of Ficino and Pico.
The Crater Hermetis starts with Lazzarelli’s announcement according to
which he had been transfigured by the divine Piamander and thus received
authorization to become a spiritual teacher. This is the same claim he had
made in Epistola Enoch, however this time he does not identify himself as
the biblical patriarch. In this capacity, he promises to reveal great mysteries
to his audience, the king and his chancellor. The structure of the work can be
summarized as follows:
01 Introduction (1.1-2.2)
02 Hermes on Self-Knowledge - A Prayer to God (2.3-5.3)
03 The Meaning of Paradise Trees (6.1-9.4)
04 The Meaning of the Woman in Proverbs (10.1—12.4)
05 The Spiritual Meaning of Myths (13.1-13.4)
06 The Meaning of the “Daughters of Men” (14.1-14.5)
07 The Fall of Man — A Sad Complaint (15.1-16.3, 17.1-17.2)
08 Knowledge of the Self and of God (18.1-20.5)
09 The Human Soul and the True Man — The Hymn of Contemplation (21.1-23.3)
10 The Fertility of God — The Hymn of Divine Generation (24.1-27.1)
11 The Mystery (28.1-29.8)
12 Conclusion — A Hymn of Praise (30.1-30.6)
The dialogues are dominated by the presence of Hermes Trismegistus, but
the gnostic teachings are mixed with meditations on some biblical questions,
such as “The Meaning of Paradise Trees,” “The Meaning of the Woman
in Proverbs,” “The Spiritual Meaning of Myths,” and “The Meaning of
the ‘Daughters of Men,” recalling the Enoch theme from Lazzarelli’s earlier
mystical adventures.
Prior to the last meditation, Lazzarelli explained the allegorical meaning¬
creation of myths, using among others a metaphor from Plato, who had
suggested that nature itself is “a poem full of enigmas, and not just anybody
can read them correctly” (Crater 13.4, cf. Plato, Alcibiades 147b). Upon this,
the king asks about “those women,” and Lazzarelli here gives a figurative
reading of the daughters of men, “unto whom the sons of God—or angels—
came in.” Ihe reference, of course, is to Genesis 6:1-7, but the wicked race
which was born of the union of the “baleful” angels and the daughters of men
is also recalled in the Asclepius:
How mournful when the gods withdraw from mankind! Only the baleful angels
remain to mingle with humans, seizing the wretches and driving them to every
outrageous crime—war, looting, trickery, and all that is contrary to the nature of
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