Gods as Parts of the Soul: A quote from the Corpus Hermeticum in John Italos’ Treatise ‘On Threefold Existence’ (Qu. 68)

The deals with a quote from the Corpus Hermeticum (Hermet. XXIX) in one of the treatises (Qu. 68) by the Byzantine philosopher of the 11th century John Italos. On the one hand, this quotation is a scholia to the treatise – its author could be either John Italos himself, or his disciple or follower already in the 12th century – in the manuscript tradition “fused” with the main text. On the other hand, this scholia plays an important role, illustrating and developing the main idea of the treatise – at each level of being, the cause of this category of being is reproduced in a variety of what it is the cause of. Qu. 68 carries out this idea in relation to all levels of being, with the exception of the individual psychological level: it is this lacuna that is filled by a quote from the Corpus Hermeticum, where pagan gods act as metaphorical images for parts of a single human soul. A probable source of such teaching for John Italos and, possibly, for a later tradition is Michael Psellus, who in the treatise De omnifaria doctrina (O.D. 39-40), based on the commentary of pseudo-Simplicius “On the Soul” by Aristotle, speaks about the fundamental unity of all parts and properties of the soul.