Three Greek hymns in the Corpus Hermeticum: an analysis of marked language and function

The Corpus Hermeticum, a series of 17 Graeco-Egyptian treatises preserved from late antiquity and containing diverse literary forms, contains material in its first, fifth, and thirteenth tractates that the texts themselves identify as hymnic. These hymns are appended to preceding dialogues between characters, usually identified as Hermes Trismegistos and his son, that treat subjects such as god, the cosmos, and the ultimate nature of man. Numerous scholars have remarked on their peculiar structure and lack of apparent quantitative meter. This study interrogates the definition of hymn from the Greek perspective, analyzes the text of the hymns to discover their form and structure, and tries to determine their function within the tractates in which they are embedded