| Abbreviations | |
| Preface to the 1993 edition | |
| Preface (1986) | |
| Introduction: The texts | 1 |
| Pt. I | Modes of Cultural Interaction | |
| 1 | The durability of Egypt | 13 |
| The gods of Egypt | 14 |
| Hermes Trismegistus | 22 |
| The Hermetica | 31 |
| 2 | Translation and interpretation | 45 |
| Aretalogies of Isis and Asclepius | 45 |
| Manetho and Chaeremon | 52 |
| Books of Thoth and technical Hermetica | 57 |
| Instructions and philosophical Hermetica | 68 |
| Pt. II | The Way of Hermes | |
| 3 | Magister omnium physicorum | 75 |
| Sympatheia | 75 |
| Magic | 79 |
| Occult properties and alchemy | 87 |
| Astrology | 91 |
| 4 | Religio mentis | 95 |
| The philosophical paideia | 97 |
| Gnosis | 104 |
| 5 | Towards a via universalis | 116 |
| Technique and philosophy: interactions | 116 |
| Zosimus of Panopolis | 120 |
| Pre-Iamblichan theurgy | 126 |
| Iamblichus of Apamea | 131 |
| 6 | Hermetism and theurgy | 142 |
| The role and understanding of ritual | 142 |
| Bitys | 150 |
| Pt. III | The Milieu of Hermetism | |
| 7 | Hermetism in Egypt | 155 |
| The evidence of the Hermetica | 156 |
| First-century Alexandria - and beyond | 161 |
| Temples and priests | 166 |
| Upper Egypt | 168 |
| Late antique Alexandria | 177 |
| The milieu of Hermetism: a socio-intellectual description | 186 |
| 8 | Aegypti sacra deportata | 196 |
| Conclusion | 213 |
| Appendix: Earliest testimonies to the name 'Hermes Trismegistus' | 216 |
| Bibliography | 218 |
| Index | 237 |
