The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt

462 Pages·2016·15.7 MB·English

by  Jack Lindsay

Jack Lindsay
THE ORIGINS
OF ALCHEMY IN
GRAECO-ROMAN
EGYPT
mu
B*N
BARNES & NOBLE, Inc.
NEW YORK
PUBLISHERS & BOOKSELLERS SINCE 1873
First published in the United States in 1970 by
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
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New York, N.Y. 10009
Copyright © Jack Lindsay
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Printed and bound in Great Britain
\
To
Marie Delcourt-Curvers
This solid flesh a circling smoke
in winds of bellying Time
haunts crevices of Space and seems
anchored here or there:
Men have thought the prospect strange
demonic scaring as they woke
from a ravishing crystalline dream
of abstract Eternities
to touch the edges of Change
where all Numbers twist and break:
yet Pattern lurks in the vanishing lair
of ragged particles. Alchemists
first kept the double vision and reckoned
as aspects of a single Stream
the Vortices of spinning mist
and the Structure of the unsellable second
when Eife leaps upwards through the range
of fiery unstable Symmetries,
intricate dangerous Time.
Time
is the moving
image of Eternity
Plato remarked among the Stars.
Eternity
is the sudden
wholeness of Time
Apollo answers amid the Flowers.
J.L.
1
•*
Contents
Page
Author’s Note xii
I Greek Scientific Thought before Alchemy- i
2 Historical References 24
More Historical References
3 5i
The Name Alchemy
4 68
Demokritos and Bolos of Mendes
5 9°
6 More on Bolos hi
7 Ostanes 131
Hermes Trismegistos
8 *59
9 Isis 194
10 Ancient and Contemporary Crafts 212
Maria the Jewess
ii 240
Kleopatra
12 253
Womb Furnace and Vase
13 278
Agathodaimon
14 301
15 Zosimos 323
16 More on Zosimos 343
The Later Greek Alchemists
17 358
Conclusions
18 382
Notes
393
Bibliography
433
Index 441

Illustrations
Page
i Mithraic mosaic of the Seven Gates at Ostia 26
z Mithras bom from the rock. Mages on a relief at Daskylion,
5 th century b.c. 28
3 The still of Demokritos; reconstruction of the mercury still
of Dioskorides 35
4 Relief of priest of Mithras 37
5 Ancient Egyptian goldsmith at crucible 46
6 Workshop of a moneyer at Rome 5 5
7 Smiths from the region of Laodikeia 62
8 Lakonian relief from Chrysapha, about 550-30 b.c. 75
9 Travelling merchants in China: three T’ang figurines show­
ing Semitic, Persian, and Western types 86
10 Chinese symbol of Yang-Yin: hermaphroditic, as the cock is
male, the snake female 89
11 Urt-hekau, the Cobra-goddess of magical spells 101
12 Cobra-goddesses of Lower and Upper Egypt 104
13 Relief of Campaspe riding Aristotle; Psyche ridden by
Aphrodite 115
14 Gem of Mithras slaying the Bull, with Eros and Psyche on
the reverse (broken) 119
15 Pompeian painting of the torture of Psyche 123
16 Thoth in Ibis-form with Shu and Tefnut as lions 161
17 The weighting of the heart of Osiris Ani 164-5
18 Sekhait, Thoth, and Atum register a king’s name on the
Heavenly Tree placing the king within it 171
19 Herm in Dionysiac form with implements of worship 173
20 Ptah—as Guardian of one of the Arits of Osiris (Pap. of
Ani); and as the Magician’s Lord 176
21 Mithraic cameo 180
22 Mummiform figure on staff with snakes; two crossed snakes
from the Book of the Underworld 188
13 Combinations of signs to express modifications of gold 193
>4 The Sungod, with ram-head, sailing on the river of the
Underworld 203
15 Bartering a necklet for perfume 216
16 Egyptian unguent-maker’s workshop 218
27 Egyptians using a torsion-press 222
18 Incense-trees imported from Punt 224
X ILLUSTRATIONS
29 Heaps and cones of incense 226
30 Cones of incense; Lady and Servant with Cones 229
31 Relief of Roman goldworker, aurifer 230
32 Egyptian lady using powder-puff 236
33 Pompeian painting of loves as chemists 239
34 The three-armed still of Maria the Jewess 244
3 5 Reconstruction of the three-armed still 247
36 Stages in the evolution of the still 250
3 7 Kerotakis or Reflux Apparatus, as shown in a Greek MS 252
38 Reconstruction of Kerotakis (M=Metals; P=Palette) 255
39 Ouroboros: St Mark’s MS 299 fi88v 260
40 Ouroboros: Paris MS 2327 fi96 263
41 Ouroboros: St Mark’s MS 299 fi88v 266
42 Ouroboros: Paris MS 2225 f82, stylised version 266
43 Two figures of Aion 271
44 The Consort of the Sky-goddess in his circular form 273
45 Relief of Aion 276
46 The still 280
47 Sky-goddess with consort; Shu supporting her, aided by
two ram-headed figures 286
48 Sky-goddess bent over to encircle, in double form, her back-
bending circular husband 287
49 The Cat killing the Serpent at the Foot of the Heavenly Tree 293
50 Serpent enfolds ithyphallic Osiris 298
51 Osiris breaks out 300
5 2 Chnoumis gems 305
53 The Sungod of Night surrounded by the Five-headed
Serpent of Many faces; on his head the Beetle of Khepri, the
rising sun of the next day 308
54 Gem with Chnoumis above an altar and inscription, on
reverse “I ever I am the Good Spirit.” 311
55 Osiris enthroned on the Mound with snakes 314
56 Silver from Samara with encircling griffin 316
57 Serpent-enclosed ithyphallic Osiris 321
58 Serpent containing the Four Cardinal Points 324
59 The cold still of Zosimos 329
60 Cosmic serpent enclosing Hermopolis 334
61 Cosmic Serpent, two-headed 339
62 Ouroboros on a magical gem (with inscription
IAO ABRASAX) 341
63 Seven Forms of Osiris, serpent-enclosed 346
64 Egyptian Barber and Customer 348
63 Egyptian Lady using Lipstick 351
ILLUSTRATIONS XI
66 Scorpion-goddess Serquet in her serpent-boat propelled by
a crocodile 357
67 Later alchemic imagery: the Green Lion devouring the Sun
(from The Rosary of Philosophers) 363
68 The Alchemical Assumption (fromT he Rosary) 368
69 The alchemical death of the Hermaphrodite (from The
Rosary) 376
70 The Winged Hermaphrodite symbolising the Red Stone
(from The Rosary) 3 79
71 Alchemical Resurrection (from The Rosary) 388