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24
GRECO-EGYPTIAN ALCHEMY
Cristina Viano1

ORIGINS, IDENTITY, ETYMOLOGY, AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

Alchemy came into being out of the meeting of Greek and Egyptian culture
that occurred at Alexandria in the first centuries of the Common Era.2
It developed between the first and seventh centuries as the theory and
practice of transmuting noble metals in Greco-Roman Egypt. Thence it
was transmitted to the Byzantine world, where it was preserved by
a generation of commentators, and then to the Arabic world, which gave
it a more systematic and experimental orientation. In the western medieval
world, Alexandrian alchemy was known only indirectly, through the filter of
translations and compilations produced by Arabic alchemists. The corpus of
Greek alchemists was rediscovered and reintroduced in Renaissance Italy,
but outside of a small circle of scholars it was not disseminated widely among
humanists and adepts.3
Greco-Alexandrian alchemists saw the origins of their art in Pharaonic
Egypt, a thesis which most historians have accepted. Links with
Mesopotamian, Indian, and Chinese alchemy have also been assumed.4
However, besides some similarities in themes or processes, there is at this
1
I wish to thank Marc Aucouturier, Michèle Mertens, and Matteo Martelli for their extremely helpful
comments and bibliographical suggestions. The editors warmly thank Laurence Totelin for her
translation of this chapter.
2
See A. J. Festugière, La révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vol. 1: L’Astrologie et les sciences occultes (Paris:
Lecoffre, 1944), p. 218: “L’alchimie gréco-égyptienne, d’où ont dérivé toutes les autres, est née de la
rencontre d’un fait et d’une doctrine. Le fait est la pratique, traditionnelle en Egypte, des arts de
l’orfèvrerie. La doctrine est un mélange de philosophie grecque, empruntée surtout à Platon et à
Aristote, et de rêveries mystiques.”
3
For an overview of alchemy from its origins to the modern period, see M. Pereira, Arcana sapienza:
L’Alchimia dalle origini a Jung (Rome: Carocci, 2001) and M. Pereira, Alchimia: I testi della tradizione
occidentale (Milan: A. Mondadori, 2006). On the dissemination of Greek alchemy during the
Renaissance, see S. Matton, “L’Influence de l’humanisme sur la tradition alchimique,” Micrologus
3 (1995), 279–345.
4
On the question of origins, see H. J. Sheppard, “Alchemy: Origin or Origins?,” Ambix 17 (1970),
69–84; P. T. Keyser, “Alchemy in the Ancient World: From Science to Magic,” Illinois Classical

468
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 469

point no concrete or decisive proof of such connections. Indeed, Greco-
Alexandrian alchemy is a distinctive, complex, and unique phenomenon – it
is very different, for instance, in its aims and methods from magic.
Alchemists define themselves as “philosophers.” Plato and Aristotle appear
atop lists of old masters of the art; some alchemists are referred to as
“exegetes of Plato and Aristotle.”
The origin of the word “alchemy” is obscure. The use of the word chêmeia
and its cognates is rare in the writings of Greek alchemists; instead they refer
to their discipline with the phrase “divine and sacred art.”5 The Latin noun
alchimia, which only appears in the twelfth century, is in fact composed of
the Arabic article al and a root whose meaning is disputed. Greek alchemists
mention Chymes, sometimes considered as the author of a book entitled
Chemeu. Chêmeia has also been thought to derive from cheô (to melt); from
chumos (sap extracted from plants); from the old name of Egypt, which is
chêmia in Plutarch and KHME or XHMI in Coptic (that is, “black earth”);
and from the Egyptian root km, which means “to achieve.” Some even
believe that “black” was an allusion to the first step of transmutation (“the
black art”).6
The works of the chemist Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) gave rise to an
interest in Greek alchemy amongst modern scholars. Les origines de l’alchimie
(1885) and the Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (1888–9) (= CAAG),
published in collaboration with the Hellenist Charles-Emile Ruelle, are
characterized by their rationalist historical approach. Berthelot found in
ancient alchemy the origins of the experimental method and saw it as the
precursor to modern chemistry. The Collection has been criticized for its
rather poor philological rigor, but it should be given due credit for dissemi-
nating these texts and stimulating scholarly interest. Between 1924 and 1932,
the eight volumes of the Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs (=
CMAG) were published, in preparation for a new, more complete and
rigorous textual edition. Such an enterprise was at last launched in 1981 at
Paris, with the Belles Lettres series, Les alchimistes grecs.7

Studies 15 (1990), 353–72. On Chinese alchemy, see J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China,
vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), part. 2.
5
The variants chêmeia, chêmia, chumeia, chumia are found in late Greek, especially in the works of
Byzantine chroniclers. See, for instance, the Byzantine lexicon Souda (tenth century), which defines
chêmeia as the “art of preparing silver and gold.”
6
For the meanings of the word “alchemy,” see J. Lindsay, The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman
Egypt (London: Muller, 1970), pp. 68–89; R. Halleux, Les textes alchimiques (Turnhout: Brepols,
1979), pp. 45–6; D. Bain, “Melanitis gê. An Unnoticed Greek Name for Egypt: New Evidence for the
Origins and Etymology of Alchemy,” in D. R. Jordan, H. Montgomery, and E. Thomassen (eds.),
The World of Ancient Magic (Bergen: Norwegian Institute at Athens, 1999), pp. 221–2.
7
The collection currently comprises four volumes: R. Halleux (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 1:
Papyrus de Leyde, papyrus de Stockholm, recettes (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1981); M. Mertens (ed.), Les
alchimistes grecs, vol. 4: Zosime de Panopolis, mémoires authentiques (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1995);
A. Destrait-Colinet (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 10: Anonyme de Zuretti (Paris: Belles Lettres,
2000); A. Destrait-Colinet (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 11: Recettes alchimiques (Par. Gr. 2419;
Holkhamicus 109) Cosmas le Hiéromoine – Chrysopée (Paris: Belles Lettres, 2010).
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470 Cristina Viano

Beside the historical and scholarly approach, which aims at a general
overview based on textual criticism and the contextualization of alchemical
authors, there are other approaches that focus on particular aspects, such as,
for instance, psychology and cultural anthropology. Carl Gustav Jung
interprets Zosimus’ (the most significant figure in the history of Greco-
Egyptian alchemy) Visions as subconscious archetypes.8 Mircea Eliade com-
pares the myths and rituals of alchemists with the symbols that characterize
archaic societies.9 Paradoxically, these erudite interpretations have tended to
emphasize the irrational and mystical aspects of alchemy. They have also
promoted the easiest, and also the least rigorous, approach to alchemy, that
is, modern hermeticism, which studies alchemy in a completely non-critical
manner as a revelation inherited from ancient civilizations and transmitted
through initiation.
In this chapter, we will start with an introduction to the sources of our
knowledge of Greek alchemy (the papyri, the manuscripts, the testimonies
within and without the alchemical corpus), and to the alchemical authors
and their texts. We shall then deal with practical aspects of alchemy, such as
ingredients, processes, and apparatus, and with alchemical theory, its links
with Greek philosophy, as well as its esoteric features. We shall conclude by
presenting some methodological directions for future research, which are
based on interdisciplinary collaboration.

SOURCES: PAPYRI, MANUSCRIPTS, TESTIMONIES

Our sources for Greek alchemy essentially consist of the manuscript tradi-
tion and the testimonies given by alchemists themselves; ancient testimonies
external to the alchemical corpus are extremely rare.
The writings of Greco-Egyptian alchemists have been transmitted to us
by means of two compilations on papyrus dating to the third and fourth
centuries ce, now respectively at Leiden and Stockholm, and by a large
corpus produced in the Byzantine period, which is preserved in multiple
manuscripts. Considered the most important and most beautiful of these
manuscripts by most scholars, the Marcianus Graecus (“Marc. Graec.”) 299
(tenth or eleventh century) belonged to the library of Cardinal Bessarion
(fifteenth century).10
Alchemical literature is in essence fragmentary, constituted of extracts, of
collections of quotations, of commentaries and of précis composed by

8
See, for instance, C. G. Jung, “Einige Bemerkungen zu den Visionen des Zosimos,” Eranos-
Jahrbuch 5 (1937), 15–54.
9
M. Eliade, Forgerons et alchimistes (Paris: Flammarion, 1956). On the different approaches to
alchemy, see Halleux, Textes alchimiques, pp. 50–8.
10
See H.-D. Saffrey, “Historique et description du Marcianus 299,” in D. Kahn and S. Matton (eds.),
Alchimie: art, histoire et mythes (Paris: SEHA, 1995), pp. 1–10.
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 471

compilators. Interpolations and additions by copyists, for the most part
specialists who did not hesitate to intervene in the texts to make comments
or to correct them, are numerous. The Greek of these texts is often incorrect,
and the vocabulary relating to substances and transformations is still, in great
part, in need of deciphering.
As for external testimonies, it is only in the fifth century that Proclus and
Aeneas of Gaza started to refer to alchemy as a contemporary practice,
aiming at producing gold from other metals.11 Byzantine chroniclers men-
tion the destruction of the books “concerning the chemistry [chemeia] of
gold and silver,” ordered by Diocletian in order to deprive the Egyptians of
a source of wealth and thus prevent them from competing with the
Romans.12 This testimony is particularly interesting because it shows that
in the third century ce, alchemical practice must have been important and
sufficiently recognized for the Romans to seek the destruction of its books.

TEXTS AND AUTHORS OF THE ALCHEMICAL CORPUS

Greek alchemical literature is divided into three periods, according to

a chronological development.13 The first period includes the chemical
recipes from the Phusika kai mustika, attributed to pseudo-Democritus
(first to third century ce), who is not the philosopher from Abdera and
who has been associated with a certain Bolos of Mendes,14 as well as the
anonymous papyri of Leiden and Stockholm (ca. third to fourth centuries
ce). The recipes deal with imitating gold, silver, precious gemstones, and
purple. Within these recipes the principles of a fundamental unity of matter
and of sympathetic relationships between substances are expressed, through
the famous formula frequently repeated in the alchemical corpus, “nature is
delighted by nature, nature conquers nature, nature masters nature” (hê
phusis tê phusei terpetai, kai hê phusis tên phusin nika kai hê phusis tên phusin
kratei). In these recipes the model for producing gold appears to be that of
imitation (mimêsis) through coloring, which acts upon the external proper-
ties of bodies. This notion of imitation is the cornerstone of the ancient
conception of the alchemical technique and is a precursor to the idea of
transmutation. To this period also belongs a series of quotations or short

11
Proclus, In Platonis rem publicam, 2.234.14–22; Aeneas of Gaza, Theophrastus, 71, edited by
Caspar Barth (Leipzig: Johannes Bauerus, 1655).
12
John of Antioch, frag. 165; Carl Müller, Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, 5 vols. (Paris: A. Firmin
Didot, 1868), vol. 4; Suda, Delta 1156 s.v. Diokletianos; Khi, 280, s.v. chêmeia.
13
See H.-D. Saffrey, “Introduction,” in Halleux (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 1, xii.
14
See M. Wellmann, Die Physika des Bolos Demokritos und der Magier Anaxilaos aus Larissa, Teil 1
(Abhandlungen der Prussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 7;
Berlin: De Gruyter, 1928); Halleux (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 1; P. Gaillard-Seux, “Un pseudo-
Démocrite énigmatique: Bolos de Mendès,” in F. Le Blay (ed.), Transmettre les savoirs dans les
mondes hellénistique et romain (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009), pp. 223–43.
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472 Cristina Viano

treatises of the mythical “old authors” such as Hermes, Agathodemon,
Isis, Cleopatra, Maria the Jewess (according to the tradition, Maria
invented a cooking technique still employed today in our kitchens called
“bain-Marie”), Ostanes, Pammene, and Pibechius (all between the first and
third centuries ce).
The second period is that of the authors stricto sensu: Zosimus of
Panopolis; Pelagius; and Iamblichus (third to fourth centuries ce).
Zosimus, a native of Panopolis in Egypt, may have lived at Alexandria
around 300 ce. We possess various fragments of his works, collected into
four groups in the manuscripts: the Authentic Memoirs; the Books to Eusebia;
the Books to Theodorus; and The Final Quittance with two extracts from the
Book of Sophe. One of the main problems consists in identifying the twenty-
eight books kata stoicheion (that is, in alphabetical order) that are mentioned
in the Byzantine lexicon Souda and which appear to comprise the entire
work of Zosimus, and associating them with the titles that have been
transmitted directly or indirectly by the tradition. Among the most famous
pieces one must mention On the Letter Omega and the three Visions, which
are part of the Authentic Memoirs. The Visions describe the dreams in which
the properties of metals were revealed to Zosimus.15 The processes for metal
transformations are accompanied by speculations concerning the nature of
matter and by a ritual symbolism centered on the notions of death and
resurrection, thus allowing two levels of interpretation – one technical and
the other mystical.16 As mentioned earlier with reference to the various
approaches to alchemy, Jung took particular interest in the Visions, which
he interpreted as archetypal images reflecting identification processes
between the operator and his materials. Beside the Greek tradition, works
attributed to Zosimus survive in Syriac, Arabic, and Latin versions.17
The Syriac fragments (Cambridge University Library, Syriac MS 6.29)
contain the only ancient recipes for the manufacture of the famous “black
Corinthian bronze” much appreciated by the Romans and mentioned by
Pliny the Elder.18
The third period, that of the commentators, begins in the fourth century
with Synesius, who wrote a commentary on pseudo-Democritus’ Physica kai
Mystica in the shape of a dialogue entitled Syneius to Dioscorus, Commentary
on the Books of Democritus, in which he explicitly declares his exegetic

15
See M. Plessner, “Zosimus,” in C. G. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 14
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), pp. 631–2; Mertens (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 4;
H. M. Jackson, Zosimos of Panopolis on the Letter Omega (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978);
F. Tonelli, Zosimo di Panopoli: Visioni e risvegli (Milan: Coliseum, 1988).
16
Halleux, Textes alchimiques, p. 64.
17
On this topic, see B. Hallum, “Zosimus Arabus: The Reception of Zosimos of Panopolis in the
Arabic/Islamic World” (PhD thesis, Warburg Institute, London, 2008).
18
Pliny, Natural History 34.8. See E. C. D. Hunter, “Beautiful Black Bronzes: Zosimos’ Treatises in
Cam. Mm. 6.29,” in A. Giumlia-Mair (ed.), I bronzi antichi: produzione e tecnologia. Atti del XV
Congresso internazionale sui bronzi antichi (Montagnac: Monique Mergoil, 2002), pp. 655–60.
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 473

intentions, namely, to disclose Democritus’ thought, the sequence of his
teachings, and his processes and materials.19 In the sixth century,
Olympiodorus produced a commentary on a lost treatise of Zosimus, the
Kat’energeian (On Action or According to Action) and on some sentences by
other ancient alchemists. Olympiodorus’ commentary is characterized by
a doxography in which the doctrines of nine monist Presocratic philosophers
are compared to the alchemical doctrine of the unity of matter.20 In the
seventh century, Stephanus of Alexandria, in his nine Lectures (Praxeis)
dedicated to Heraclius (610–641), comments on the ancient alchemists in
a highly rhetorical style and links alchemy with medicine, astrology, mathe-
matics, and music.21 According to the Arabic-Latin tradition, it was one of
Stephanus’ students, the monk Morienus (Marianus), who transmitted
alchemy to the Arabic world by initiating, between 675 and 700, the
Umayyad prince Khalid ibn Yazid.22 These authors aim principally at
clarifying the thought of their predecessors and they represent the most
sophisticated stage in the theorization of Greek alchemy. We find in their
work an attempt at defining and systematizing alchemical doctrine by means
of Greek philosophy. Considering the high number of pseudepigraphic
works in the alchemical tradition, scholars have wondered whether or not
to identify Olympiodorus and Stephanus with their homonyms, the neo-
Platonic commentators. This identification – which is now commonly
accepted – is fundamental as it undermines the alleged marginality of
alchemy.23 Close to Stephanus are also four poems On the Divine Art,
attributed to Heliodorus,24 Theophrastus, Hierotheus, and Archelaus
(seventh to eighth centuries). Two anonymous commentators, usually
referred to as the Christian Philosopher and the Anepigraph (sixth to eighth

19
M. Martelli, Pseudo-Democrito. Scritti alchemici con il commentario di Sinesio (Paris: SEHA, 2011).
20
See C. Viano, “‘Olympiodore l’alchimistes et les Présocratiques: une doxographie de l’unité’ (De
arte sacra, §18–27),” in Kahn and Matton (eds.), Alchimie, pp. 95–150; C. Viano, “Gli alchimisti
greci e l’‘acqua divina’,” Atti del VII Convegno Nazionale di storia e fondamenti della chimica 115
(1997): Memorie di Scienze Fisiche e Naturali, pp. 61–70; C. Viano, “Olympiodoros of Alexandria”
and “Stephanos of Alexandria,” in P. T. Keyser and G. Irby-Massé (eds.), The Encyclopedia of
Ancient Natural Scientists (London: Routledge, 2008), pp. 589–90 and 760–1.
21
Stephanus’ Praxeis have been edited by J. L. Ideler, Physici et medici graeci minores, 2 vols. (Berlin:
Reimeri, 1841–2) and in parts by F. Sherwood Taylor, “The Alchemical Works of Stephanus of
Alexandria,” Ambix 1 (1937), 116–39, and 2 (1938), 39–49. See also M. Papathanassiou, “Stephanos
von Alexandreia und sein alchemistisches Werk. Die kritische Edition des griechischen Textes
eingeschlossen” (PhD thesis, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 1992); M. Papathanassiou,
“L’Oeuvre alchimique de Stéphanos d’Alexandrie: structures et transformations de la matière,
unité et pluralité,” in C. Viano (ed.), L’Alchimie et ses racines philosophiques: la tradition grecque et
la tradition arabe (Paris: Vrin, 2005), pp. 113–33; M. Papathanassiou, “Stephanos of Alexandria:
A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer,” in P. Magdalino and M. Mavroudi (eds.),
The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva: La Pomme d’Or, 2006), pp. 163–204.
22
E. Bacchi and M. Martelli, “Il principe Halid bin Yazid e le origini dell’alchimia araba,” in
D. Cevenini and S. D’Onofrio (eds.), Conflitti e dissensi nell’Islam (’Uyûn al-Akhbâr: studi sul
mondo islamico 3; Bologna: Il Ponte, 2009), pp. 85–120.
23
Viano, “Olympiodoros of Alexandria” and “Stephanos of Alexandria.”
24
G. Goldschmidt (ed.), Heliodori carmina quattuor ad fidem codicis Cassellani (Giessen:
A. Tö pelmann, 1923).
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474 Cristina Viano

centuries?), lead us directly to the period when large compilations were
produced, and in particular the most important alchemical manuscript,
the Marc. Graec. 299 (tenth to eleventh centuries). The Byzantine alchemical
tradition ends with Michael Psellus (eleventh century),25 Nicephorus
Blemmydes (thirteenth century), and Cosmas (fifteenth century).26
Among the alchemical works in Greek, one must also mention the
Anonymous of Zuretti, a Byzantine treatise produced in Calabria in 1378
and compiled from Latin sources.27

PRACTICAL ASPECTS: INGREDIENTS, PROCESSES,

AND APPARATUS

The products listed in Greek alchemical texts are numerous and often
expressed in a codified language that is difficult to interpret. In addition,
one can assume that they were never chemically pure. Among the materials
that can be identified, the most important are certainly metals: gold; silver;
copper; mercury; iron; tin; and lead. In general, they are called “bodies”
(sômata), in contrast to the “incorporeals” (asômata), a word which refers to
other minerals. Also classified among the bodies are metallic alloys, such as,
for instance, the debated claudianos and the molybdochalcos (copper-lead) or
electrum (gold-silver). The alchemists also made use of numerous native ores,
such as natron (a typically Egyptian ingredient from Wadi Natrun used
notably in the process of mummification), marble, salt, and, above all,
sulfur. Often, as in the case of sulfur, names are used in the broadest sense
and also refer to similar products. Finally, one must mention some vegetable
and organic ingredients, such as honey, urine, and milk. With regards to the
production of noble metals, the processes that are described can be essen-
tially interpreted as productions of alloys, which sometimes included gold
and silver in varying proportions, and as surface-coloring processes. A typical
process for falsifying gold and silver was the diplôsis (literally, duplication),
which aimed at duplicating the mass of these noble metals by associating
them with another metal. Falsification methods are closely linked to assay
methods (méthodes d’essai).28 This is the case for the process of cementation,
which can be defined as “the process of heating a metal in the presence of
a preparation that modifies its physical properties, either by attacking it or by

25
J. Bidez (ed.), CMAG, vol. 6: Michel Psellus: épî tre sur la Chrysopé e (Brussels: Maurice Lamertin,
1928), pp. 26–47; F. Albini and Michele Psello, La Crisopea ovvero come fabbricare l’oro (Genoa:
Edizioni Culturali Internazionali, 1988).
26
Destrait-Colinet (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 11.
27
C. O. Zuretti (ed.), CMAG, vol. 2: Les manuscrits italiens (Brussels: Maurice Lamertin, 1930);
Destrait-Colinet (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 10.
28
R. Halleux, “Méthode d’essai et d’affinage des alliages aurifères dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen-âge,”
in C. Morrisson and Cahiers Ernest Babelon (eds.), L’Or monnayé 1 (Paris: CNRS, 1985), pp. 39–77.
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 475

Figure 24.1. Alembic, Marc. graec. 299, fol. 193 v (Berthelot 1889, p. 138)

combining it with another metal that is not present in a metallic state.”29 For
instance, a cement composed of salt and sulfurous products is intended to
reduce the proportion of silver associated with native gold. As for surface
treatments of metals, recipes also describe coloring processes by means of
chemical reactions, as in the case of the recipes for “black bronze” preserved
in the Syriac version of Zosimus’ writings. These various processes share
a common aim, namely a change in color. If one takes into account the fact
that, in antiquity, color was thought to reflect the composition itself of
a body, one understands better the close link between the idea of coloring
and that of “making” a metal.30 In the works of Zosimus are descriptions of
most apparatus, among which the most famous are the alembic and the
kerotakis. The alembic (in Greek, ambix, which will give us, via the inter-
mediary of the Arabic’al-’anbiq, our word “alembic”) is the most basic of
distillation apparatuses (Figure 24.1). The process of distillation aims at
converting into vapor a liquid mixed with a nonvolatile body, or liquids
mixed with each other, in order to separate them. Kerotakis (from kêros = wax
and têkô = to melt) appears to be a more complex apparatus, the original

29
Halleux (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 1, 40.
30
Ibid., vol. 1, 77; A. J. Hopkins, “Transmutation by Color: A Study of Earliest Alchemy,” in J. Ruska
(ed.), Studien zur Geschichte der Chemie: Festgabe E. O. von Lippman (Berlin: Springer, 1927),
pp. 9–14.
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476 Cristina Viano

Figure 24.2. Kerotakis, Marc. graec. 299, fol. 195 v (Berthelot 1889, p. 146)

meaning of whose name and function are more difficult to determine

(Figure 24.2). In general, its aim seems to have been to dye gold leaves
through cyclic vaporization of some alloys that are difficult to produce.31

THE THEORY OF TRANSMUTATION AND ITS MODELS

The entire development of Greek alchemy, from the first recipe compila-
tions to the theoretical reflections of authors and commentators, is char-
acterized by a dialectical tension between theory and practice. This tension
is closely linked to the ambiguous relationship that exists between imita-
tion and actual production of gold, between aurifiction and aurifaction, to
use the famous distinction drawn by Joseph Needham.32 The intention
emerging from the earliest technical treatises is to produce a dye that would
be an “imitation” of gold. Increasing theoretical complexity progressively
transformed the notion of imitation into the ideal aim of total transforma-
tion. The idea of transmutation is based on the conception whereby all
metals are constituted of a single matter. One needs first to remove the
qualities that distinguish a metal by bringing it back to the primordial,
indeterminate metallic matter, and then to give it the properties of gold.

31
For a precise and complete description of Zosimus’ apparatuses, see M. Mertens, “Introduction,” in
Mertens (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, vol. 4, cxiii–clxix.
32
Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5.
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 477

The production of gold therefore results from a synthesis, which has as its
starting point a primordial metallic matter, common and receptive, to
which are added “qualities,” that is, matters, according to sympathetic
principles. It is difficult to identify the products allegedly responsible for
the processes of coloration or transformation into gold. Among these
products, “divine water” or “sulfuric water” (theion hudôr) plays
a fundamental role. In the phrase theion hudôr lies a fundamental ambi-
guity, often exploited by alchemists, since the Greek word theion is at the
same time the noun “sulfur” and the adjective “divine.”33 This water is
often referred to in texts as the principal agent in the process of transmuta-
tion and as the true aim of alchemical research. The functions of this
product are numerous and often antithetical, as for instance the fixing of
color and the dissolution of metal. It is produced through distillation by
means of alembics (see Figure 24.2). Divine water is sometimes assimilated
with the primordial matter of metals. If that assimilation makes it even
harder to identify this water, it nevertheless brings to light a fundamental
characteristic of the alchemical doctrine: the qualitative affinity and the
substantial unity between the principle of transmutation and the matter to
be transmutated. In the manuscripts, the unity of matter is often repre-
sented by the image of a serpent biting its own tail, the Ouroboros (Figure
24.3).34
The theoretical reflection on alchemical processes clearly and openly
borrows its conceptual apparatus and vocabulary from Greek philosophy.
It was principally developed by the commentators, who explicitly claim the
Presocratic philosophers, Plato, and Aristotle as their predecessors.35 We are
not dealing here with an unconscious and passive legacy, but rather with an
active and constructive borrowing, with the view of building a new idea of
transmutation.
If alchemy, as the study of metals and its transformations, can, from an
epistemological point of view, find its place in an Aristotelian classification
of natural sciences, the idea of transmutation is incompatible with some
fundamental Aristotelian principles, the first of which is the fixity of species.
Hence the famous passage in Avicenna’s De congelatione et conglutinatione
lapidum, long attributed to Aristotle himself: “Thus alchemists must know

33
On divine water, see C. A. Wilson, “Philosophers, Iôsis and Water of Life,” Proceedings of the Leeds
Philosophical and Literary Society 19 (1984), 101–219; Viano, “Gli alchimisti greci”; M. Martelli,
“‘Divine Water’ in the Alchemical Writings of Pseudo-Democritus,” Ambix 56 (2009), 5–22.
34
See H. J. Sheppard, “The Ouroboros and the Unity of Matter in Alchemy: A Study in Origins,”
Ambix 10 (1962), 83–96.
35
The atomists and the Stoics have often been included among the philosophical models for Greek
alchemy. It is true that tradition regards “Democritus” as one of its main authorities, but in reality,
the atomic theory has very little bearing on Greek alchemy. As for the Stoics, if it is possible to find
some similarities with some tenets of their physics (for instance, the doctrine of pneuma or the
sympathy between substances), they are nevertheless conspicuously absent in the Greco-
Alexandrian corpus. For the debate on this question, see S. Matton, “Alchimie et stoïcisme: à
propos de récentes recherches,” Chrysopœia 5 (1992–6), 6–144.
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478 Cristina Viano

Figure 24.3. Ouroboros, Marc. graec. 299, fol. 188 v (Berthelot 1889, p. 132)

that they cannot change the species of metals” (quare sciant artifices alkimie
species metallorum mutare non posse).36
It is interesting to note that, in spite of theoretical obstacles, alchemy has
always been dominated by Aristotelian physical and metaphysical models.
Indeed, all medieval alchemy has attempted to negotiate with Aristotle the
arguments that mainstream philosophy levels against transmutation: species
fixity; unknowability of specific differences; and the “weakness” of the art
compared to nature. This ambiguity is one of the principal characteristics of
alchemy.
In view of these aspects of alchemical practice and theory, one can
understand the enthusiasm of the chemist Marcellin Berthelot, who saw in
Greek alchemy the foundations of modern chemistry. Indeed, although it
later limited itself essentially to metals and minerals, Greco-Egyptian
alchemy studied the composition of bodies and the rules of transformations;
it carried out analyses and combinations by using and progressively perfect-
ing its technical apparatus. In fact, the words chymia and alchymia remained
synonymous until the seventeenth century. It is only during the
Enlightenment that the two notions became separate and that alchemy
was definitely discredited as a nonscientific practice.37

36
E. J. Holmyard and D. C. Mandeville (ed.), Avicennae de congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum
(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1927), pp. 53–4.
37
See D. Diderot (ed.), Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 35 vols.
(Paris: Briasson, 1753), vol. 3, 417–24, s. v. “chymie.”
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 479

ALCHEMICAL ESOTERISM: TECHNICAL SPECIALIZATION
AND SPIRITUAL INTERIORIZATION

In Greek alchemy, the two fundamental aspects of “esoterism” can be found

that are discernible in the etymology of the word (esoterikos = internal):
technical specialization and mystical interiorization.
First, as is the case for all specialist knowledge, technical or philosophical,
alchemy requires an apprenticeship, an initiation to “internal doctrines” in
the Aristotelian meaning of the word, that is, “internal to a school.”
The alchemists are “initiates” (mustai) and have access to mustêria stemming
from a revelation originally made by a god, a prophet, or some other mystical
and ancient character. In the Letter from Isis to Horus, the secret of gold and
silver production is the product of a revelation made by an angel to Isis, who
in turn transmits it to Horus, her only legitimate son.38 We have already
mentioned that Zosimus received in dreams revelations concerning the
properties of metals.
The practice of deliberately occulting truth is a constant feature in
alchemical literature, acknowledged by alchemists themselves – hence the
praise of silence, the lack of clarity in expression, the allegories, the meta-
phors, and the symbolic language.39 In the Final Quittance, Zosimus
accounts for the political and economic origin of this practice of secrecy.40
It tells how the artisans of the Egyptian kings, appointed to increase royal
wealth, were supposed to keep the secret in order not to share with others
“the dominating power of wealth.” This reminds us of the reason for the
destruction of alchemical books given by Diocletian and reported by the
Byzantine chroniclers. Similarly, says Zosimus, Democritus and the
“ancients,” who were the friends of the kings of Egypt, have hidden this
art in the interest of the kings, but also as a result of a, so to speak, scientific
jealousy.
The binomial jealousy/secrecy is common in the corpus of Greek alchem-
ical texts. One often finds the contrast between the “jealous,” who have
hidden the truth under a multiplicity of words, and the philosophers “with-
out jealousy,” who express themselves clearly.
In the writings of the commentators, whose principal aim is to clarify the
work of the ancients, the lack of clarity of those ancients is often considered
to be in fact apparent. Olympiodorus, for instance, in the case of divine
water, shows that the allegorical and philosophical language of the ancients

38
M. Mertens, “Une scène d’initiation alchimique: la lette d’Isis à Horus,” Revue d’Histoire des
Religions, 205 (1988), 3–24.
39
The list and description of alchemical signs used in the corpus has been published by C. O. Zuretti,
CMAG, vol. 8: Alchemistica signa (1932). On secret language, see B. Vickers, “The Discrepancy
between Res and Verba in Greek Alchemy,” in Alchemy Revisited, ed. Z. R. W. M. von Martels
(Leiden: Brill, 1990), pp. 21–33.
40
CAAG, vol. 2, 239, 12 s.
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480 Cristina Viano

is in reality clear and without jealousy. He finds the origin of enigmatic
phrases in the writings of Plato and Aristotle and he explains that their aim is
to encourage scholars to pursue their inquiry beyond physical phenomena.41
Stephanus distinguishes between a “mythical” alchemy and a “mystical”
(symbolic, initiatic) alchemy. While the first is to be found in a multitude of
discourses, the second, inspired by God, proceeds methodically.42 In this
perspective, the allegorical language of alchemy is linked to a rational
methodology. It is one of the characteristic features that Greek thought
lends to alchemy thus allowing, through the centuries, the constitution of
a common ground for dialogue with philosophy.
The other aspect of alchemical esoterism is that of a road “within,” not
only within the discipline, but also within oneself. In Zosimus, one finds the
hermetic, or more generally Gnostic, dogma of the knowledge of God and of
the welcoming of God into one’s self.43 The separation of the soul from the
body (see the frequent allusions to the “internal” or “pneumatic” man)
becomes the ideal aim of an internal transformation of man, which appears
to occur in parallel with transformations of metals.
Alchemy therefore assumes the characteristics of a revealed religion that
aims at the salvation of the soul and the mystical union with divinity.
However, one can observe in the Greek alchemical texts, and most particu-
larly in Zosimus, that this aspect is accompanied by, and does not exclude,
the elaboration of theoretical and technical principles according to a rational
method.

DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: TOWARDS

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

The nature of Greco-Alexandrian knowledge is undeniably dual: theoretical

and practical. It consists of texts and recipes which concern mystical,
cosmological, and physical reflections, and the production of concrete
objects that are historically identifiable, such as the working and dyeing of
metals, fabrics, and precious stones. Alchemy is not merely the ideal aim,
dreamt of but never attained, of the chrysopoeia, that is, the fabrication of
gold from other precious metals. The earliest texts are probably artisans’

41
CAAG, vol. 2, 70, 4 s.
42
Ideler, Physici et medici, vol. 2, 208.
43
On Zosimus’ Gnosticism, see A. J. Festugière, “Alchymica,” Antiquité classique, 8 (1939), 71–95,
reprinted in his Hermétisme et mystique païenne (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1967), pp. 205–29, p. 210;
M. Mertens, “Alchemy, Hermetism and Gnosticism at Panopolis c. 300 ad: The Evidence of
Zosimus,” in A. Egberts, B. P. Muhs, and J. van der Vliet (eds.), Perspectives on Panopolis:
An Egyptian Town from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 165–75;
M. Mertens, “Zosimos of Panopolis,” in N. Koertge (ed.), New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 7
(Detroit, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2008), pp. 405–8; K. Fraser, “Zosimos of Panopolis and the
Book of Enoch: Alchemy as Forbidden Knowledge,” Aries 4 (2004), 125–47.
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Greco-Egyptian Alchemy 481

Figure 24.4. Inkwell from Vaison la Romaine, first century bce, Louvre. Cliché
C2RMF Dominique Bagault. Cf. S. Descamps and M. Aucouturier, “L’encrier de
Vaison la Romaine et la patine volontaire des bronzes antiques,” Monuments Piot, 24
(2005), 5–30.

workbooks, produced in the circle of the Egyptian kings’ goldsmiths. It is for

that reason that the study of Greek alchemy is a topic at the boundaries
between the history of philosophy, philology, and the history of science and
technology. It is a composite field which requires the gathering of various
skills, not only theoretical and historical, but also practical and technical –
skills that deal with material culture, such as archaeology, metallurgy, and
chemistry, which study materials and their transformation through artistic
processes.44 An excellent example of interdisciplinary collaboration, invol-
ving philologists, historians, archaeologists, and chemists in the study of
a single common topic, is the study, already mentioned, of the Corinthian
black bronze.45 Indeed, the discovery of Syriac recipes attributed to Zosimus
44
See, for instance, M. Beretta, Counterfeit, Imitation and Transmutation in Ancient Glassmaking
(Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2009) for the history of glass technique,
where he shows that the Egyptian art of glass production strongly influenced the establishment of
alchemical theory.
45
See R. Giumlia-Mair and P. T. Craddock, Das schwarze Gold der Alchimisten: Corinthium aes
(Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1993); Hunter, “Beautiful Black Bronzes”; A. Giumlia-Mair, “Zosimos
the Alchemist: Manuscript 6.29, Cambridge, Metallurgical Interpretation,” in Giumlia-Mair (ed.),
I bronzi antichi, pp. 317–23.
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482 Cristina Viano

for the fabrication of this mythical alloy has attracted the attention of
archaeologists and chemists, who have long wondered whether there is
a link between the references to the alloy in classical authors and some
objects preserved in museums that present a surprising black patina
(Figure 24.4). Laboratory analyses have allowed researchers to make a start
in retracing the history of the technique, which involved enriching a copper
alloy with a small amount of gold and/or silver, thus leading to the forma-
tion, through a surface treatment by chemical reaction, of an artificial black
patina that is particularly shiny and fit to make beautiful decorations stand
out.46 The Syriac recipes attributed to Zosimus are the only ancient recipes
relating to this technique that have been preserved and their reproduction
could provide the key to this process, as long as there is a close collaboration
with philologists in the decipherment of the texts.
In the present state of studies in this field, it thus appears fundamental to
pursue a multidisciplinary approach and to recognize the systematic and
positive side of alchemy. This is legitimate, since ancient authors themselves
often distinguish natural and rational research from deceptive practices
subject to chance and the wishes of demons. Only such a methodological
perspective will create a rigorous model of what alchemy was, in contrast to
the currently prevalent abusive and partial interpretations of it as a crazed
and quackish practice stemming from an esoteric hermeticism.47

46
See F. Mathis, Croissance et propriétés des couches d’oxydations et des patines à la surface d’alliages
cuivreux d’intérêt archéologiques et artistiques (Sarrebruck: Editions Universitaires Européennes,
2011).
47
On this topic, see W. R. Newman and L. Principe, “Some Problems with the Historiography of
Alchemy,” in W. R. Newman and A. Grafton (eds.), Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early
Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press, 2006), pp.
385–432.