"Trismegistus"?

Dry · Post by **Dry** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:01 am

I wasn't sure which forum to put this in, so I decided to err on the side of caution and put it here.

After watching Liminality 4, I found myself wondering what the title - Trismegistus - meant. So I went to my dictionary and looked it up.

It wasn't there.

Nor was it in the enormous dictionary in the library. Nor was it on dictionary.com.

Finally, I keyed it into Google...and got some results.

"Trismegistus" means "thrice greatest" in Greek. The main instance I can find of its usage is in the name "Hermes Trismegistus" ("thrice greatest Hermes"), the Greek name for the Egyptian god Thoth, whom they thought to be the same as Hermes (as you may gather from the fact that they called him Hermes Trismegistus

.)

Hermes Trismegistus is said to have provided 'the wisdom of light in the ancient mysteries of Egypt. "He carried an emerald, upon which was recorded all of philosophy, and the caduceus, the symbol of mystical illumination.'

He is also credited with writing the Hermetica, a series of 42 books that have heavily influenced the development of Western occultism.

So, my question is this. Why on earth did they choose this as the title for Liminality 4? Is there ANY relevance at all?

CRtwenty · Post by **CRtwenty** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 9:21 am

Thrice greatest?

Hmmm... perhaps it's probably a reference to the three main female characters in Liminality, Mai, Yuki, and Kyoko

Duskino · Post by **Duskino** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 7:21 pm

Thrice... isn't that a fancy word for "three"?

Mai, Yuki and Kyo were kinda the main characters, after all.

Dry · Post by **Dry** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 7:12 am

Thrice means "three times", not just "three".

So the 'three' part of it could have something to do with the three 'cases' of Liminality: Mai, Yuki, and Kyo.

But what about the rest of it? Why is Liminality 4 'three times greatest'?

Tsunami the Silver Dragon · Sun Mar 07, 2004 7:15 am

I wouldn't know as I haven't seen it yet but I'm guessing it has something to do with rateings...

But then again this is just a random thought...

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 11:25 pm

You might be looking a little too deep into this, or at least going down the wrong path. Maybe the connection is between Hermes and Liminality?

On some level, the meaning of the word might be relevant, 'thrice greatest,' but the most obvious relevancy of it seems to be a connection to what the word is associated with... the Greek god Hermes.

http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpalme ... ality.html

I mean, if they ONLY wanted people to think of something like 'thrice greatest' when they heard the title of the fourth Liminality, they could have just as easily used a different, more common word, like 'triad' or 'trinity' or something. They must have had some reason to choose that particular word. Even if that meaning does seem a bit arbitrary to us

I guess on some levels, they DID just choose it to try and be cool and mysterious. Still, doesn't mean there isn't any connection at all...

CRtwenty · Post by **CRtwenty** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:43 am

Thrice greatest...

Him, perhaps it means that there was three before it, and that this one (the fourth) is the greatest of them all?

Would make sense, no?

Brad_Evans · Post by **Brad_Evans** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:03 pm

0.o Liminality of Hermes

that's more like a wordplay ^^;;

Hermes Trimesgistus
\/
Trimesgistus = subtitle for Liminality
\/
Liminality of Hermes the Greek God ^^;;

Yeah, mayb theyre just trying to confuse us with the "thrice greatest" thing ^^;

Is thrice greatest gramatically correct after all? ^^;;

Dry · Post by **Dry** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:18 pm

I'm leaning towards it having something to do with Hermes more all the time. After all, there are OTHER tenuous references to Greek stuff throughout .hack...

In SIGN, there was Subaru. Subaru is Japanese for "unite"...but it has another meaning, as well. It's also a term for the Pleiades star cluster...which is a reference to Greek mythology (according to Greek mythology, Atlas' daughters became the Pleiades).

In the games...look at the server names. Delta, Theta, Lambda, Sigma, Omega. Greek alphabet. It was revealed that this was carried over from Fragment on the Liminality 4 Easter Egg.

thedudewhosadude · Post by **thedudewhosadude** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:27 pm

Indeed, they also mentioned that some servers were left behind in Fragment, http://www.geocities.com/magicyellowsno ... _towns.jpg

CRtwenty · Post by **CRtwenty** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:40 pm

Yes, the Holy Ground was originally a root town in Fragments. It was mentioned in AI BUSTER that a strange upside down man used to be seen inside the Cathedral...

Spooky!