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Articles

Transmutation Theory in the Greek Alchemical Corpus

Pages 215-244 | Published online: 26 Aug 2015
 

Abstract

This paper studies transmutation theory as found in the texts attributed to Zosimus of Panopolis, “the philosopher Synesius,” and “the philosopher Olympiodorus of Alexandria.” It shows that transmutation theory (i.e. a theory explaining the complete transformation of substances) is mostly absent from the work attributed to these three authors. The text attributed to Synesius describes a gilding process, which is similar to those described by Pliny and Vitruvius. The commentary attributed to Olympiodorus is the only text studied here that describes something similar to a transmutation theory. It is unclear, however, if this was a theory of transmutation or if the writer meant something more like the literal meaning of the word “ekstrophē,” a term used to describe the transformation of metals, as the “turning inside-out” of what is hidden in a substance. A similar conception of ekstrophē can be found in the works of Zosimus, who discussed transmutation to make an analogy with self-purification processes, which, from the perspective of his own anthropogony, consisted in the “turning inside-out” of the “inner human” (esō anthrōpos).

Notes

1 While Synesius “the alchemist” was probably not the well-known Synesius of Cyrene (see Matteo Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry 1 (2013), 48–56), it is harder to say if the attribution of the alchemical text attributed to Synesius was an attempt to ascribe the work to Synesius of Cyrene. On a possible identification of Olympiodorus the alchemist with Olympiodorus “the younger,” the Alexandrian philosopher and commentator on Aristotle and Plato, see Cristina Viano, La matière des choses. Le livre IV des Météorologiques d'Aristote et son interpretation par Olympiodore (Paris: Vrin, 2006), 199–206. Both alchemical authors are difficult to date, but we know that the author of the alchemical Commentary attributed to Olympiodorus knew of the alchemical text attributed to Synesius, and is consequently posterior. Moreover, Zosimus does not cite either of these authors, while they both cite him. A tentative and relative chronology would thus put Zosimus first, then “Synesius” and finally “Olympiodorus.” Zosimus's activity has been dated to the early fourth century by Michèle Mertens, Zosime de Panopolis, Mémoires authentiques. Les alchimistes grecs (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1995), Vol. IV/1, xii–xix, hereafter MA (works edited in this volume as Mémoire authentique I, Mémoire authentique II, etc. will be referenced here as MA 1, MA 2, etc.).

2 Cristina Viano, “Les alchimistes Gréco-alexandrins et le Timée de Platon,” in Cristina Viano, ed., L'alchimie et ses racines philosophiques (Paris: Vrin, 2005), 91–92.

3 Arthur J. Hopkins, Alchemy, Child of Greek Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1934), 92–123.

4 See MA 1.

5 Matteo Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, 122–49, hereafter Syn. Alch.

6 Marcellin Berthelot, and Charles-Émile Ruelle, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, 3 vols. (Paris: Georges Steinheil, 1887–1888), hereafter CAAG; vol. 2, on 69 and 104 respectively.

7 Three exceptions are: Frank Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry (New York: Schuman, 1949), 2, whose synthesis of transmutation theories was judiciously vague; Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 16, 24, who surveyed Zosimus' and Olympiodorus' ideas and who did not point out any shared ancient Greek transmutation theory between these two authors; and Cristina Viano, whose work on Greek transmutation theory will be examined below.

8 André-Jean Festugière, La révélation d'Hermès trismégiste (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1944), 235; Jack Lindsay, The Origins of Alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt (London: Muller, 1970), 116–17.

9 The theory was first proposed by Max Wellmann, “Die φυσικά des Bolos Demokritos und der Magier Anaxilaos aus Larissa, Teil 1,Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Phil.-hist Klasse 7 (1928): 3–80. It has been rebutted by several scholars since then. See Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, 36–44.

10 Festugière, La révélation, 234–35. Festugière's only follower was Jack Lindsay, who also combined the theory of sympathetic transmutation with that of the ontological scale of metals and provided an original reading of the tripartite axiom of the Physica et Mystica explaining this theory. As far as I know, no sources can be mustered to back Lindsay's claims.

11 See, e.g. Pliny, Natural History, 28.23.6, trans. H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938–1963); and Nepualius, On Antipathy and Sympathy, transcribed by W. Gemoll, in Nepualii fragmentum Περì τῶν κατὰ ἀντιπάθειαν καì συμπάθειαν et Democriti Περì συμπαθειῶν καì ἀντιπαθειῶν (Striegau: Städtisches Realprogymnasium, 1884).

12 Translation from On the Making of Silver §4 in Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, 108–09. The ambiguity of the referent(s) of the participle ἔχοντα makes the meaning of the last sentence of this passage unclear (see On the Making of Silver §4.38–39: τὸ γὰρ θεῖον θείῳ μιγὲν θείας ποιεῖ τὰς οὐσίας, πολλὴν ἔχοντα τὴν πρὸς ἄλληλα συγγένειαν). The context suggests that the explanation relates to the affinity of sulphurs with each other, and thus that transformation is described here as a “divinization” of substances. Following Festugière's translation (where ἔχοντα refers both to τὸ θεῖον and to τὰς οὐσίας, which is grammatically possible), the pseudo-Democritus would have considered transmutation as the sympathetic reaction of sulphurs with metals. See also Pseudo-Democrito, Scritti alchemici. Con il commentario di Sinesio. Edizione critica del testo greco, traduzione e commento di Matteo Martelli (Paris: S.É.H.A./Milan: Archè, 2011), 210, n. 20.

13 Festugière, La révélation, 236–37.

14 Mircea Eliade, Forgerons et alchimistes (Paris: Flammarion, 1977), 35–44. For similar theories, see John Hudson, The History of Chemistry (New York: Chapman & Hall, 1992), 17. See also Hugh W. Salzberg, From Caveman to Chemist: Circumstances and Achievements (Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1991), 44; Trevor H. Levere, Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2001), 5. On mineral sexuality see Robert Halleux, “Fécondité des mines et sexualité des pierres dans l'antiquité gréco-romaine,” Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 48 (1970): 16–25.

15 Strabo, Geography, 5.2.6, trans. Horace Leonard Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1917–1932); Pliny, Natural History, 34.165; Origen, De Principiis, trans. Henri Crouzel and Manlio Simonetti (Paris: Cerf, 1978), 3.1.2; Plotinus, Enneads, 4.4.27, trans. A. H. Armstrong (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969-1988).

16 CAAG 216.4–9.

17 MA 1.18, MA 10, MA 11, CAAG 170.

18 See MA, cxxi.

19 The phanos is here the equivalent of the phialē, a libation vessel, which in alchemical treatises meant the top part of the apparatus. In the works attributed to Zosimus, the phanos can also mean an entire apparatus which served the purpose of “fixing mercury and making it yellow through exhalations of sulphur” (MA 2.6–10). See MA, cliii–clxi.

20 Stephanus of Alexandria, Lessons and Letter to Theodorus, in Physici et medici graeci minores, ed. Julius L. Ideler (Berlin: Reimer, 1841), Vol. 2, 9.245.3–7, hereafter Ideler.

21 Aristotle, Meteorologica, 3.6.378a15–378b6, trans. H. D. P. Lee (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952).

22 Aristotle, Meteorologica, 4.8–12.

23 Edmund O. von Lippmann, Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie (Berlin: Springer, 1919), 324. For similar theories, see Hopkins, Alchemy, 123; Eric J. Holmyard, Alchemy (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957), 26; Robert J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology (Leiden: Brill, 1955), Vol. 1, 133.

24 See, among other passages, Aristotle, Metaphysics, 5.4, trans. Hugh Tredennick (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933); and On Generation and Corruption, 2.1, trans. Harold H. Joachim, in Aristotle, On Coming-to-Be and Passing-Away (De generatione et corruptione). A Revised Text (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922).

25 Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption, 2.1.

26 See Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption, 2.1–3 and Meteorologica 4.1.

27 See Marwan Rashed in Aristotle, De la génération et de la corruption (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2005), xcii–ciii. The debate over whether Aristotle subscribed to the traditional concept of prime matter is still ongoing but is not relevant to my current purpose. For a recent example, and defence of the “traditional” theory of prime matter, see Frank A. Lewis, “What's the Matter with Prime Matter,” in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 34 (2008): 123–46.

28 Lippmann, Entstehung, 324.

29 Holmyard, Alchemy, 26.

30 Hopkins, Alchemy, 70–71, citing CAAG 127.2–4: Ὁ δὲ ἡμέτερος χρυσὸς, ἐπεὶ κατὰ ποιότητά ἐστιν, ποιεῖν καὶ βάπτειν δύναται, ὃ καὶ μυστήριον τοῦτο μέγα ἐστὶν, ὅτι ποιότης γίνεται χρυσὸς, καὶ τότε ποιεῖ τὸν χρυσόν.

31 Hopkins, Alchemy, 74, citing CAAG 150.12sq.

32 The title Summaries to Eusebeia is only found in the list of contents of M. In M, however, one treatise, part of the Summaries to Eusebeia (CAAG 204.9), has hōs theosebeian, which Ruelle corrected for ō Theosebeia (i.e. an address to Theosebeia). This, incidentally, would show that the text is not a re-written summary but an extract.

33 Hopkins, Alchemy, 123.

34 See Viano, “Les alchimistes Gréco-alexandrins,” and Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque.”

35 MA 2.16, Stephanus, 3.209.20 Ideler, CAAG 71.18, 93.18. Other uses of dunamis and energeia in their Aristotelian sense can be found in the Summaries to Eusebeia (CAAG 114.11, 172.22, 173.25, 192.10–18, 193.15, 205.1–15).

36 Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque,” 199–200.

37 Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque,” 201–02, based on Stephanus, 7.233.36 Ideler.

38 Wilhelm Kroll, Procli Diadochi in Platonis Rem publicam commentarii (Leipzig: Teubner, 1899–1901), 2.234.14–15.

39 Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque,” 206–10.

40 See Empedocles, fragments B17.38, B26.3, Anaxagoras frag. A42.30, A48, A100, B12, Diogenes of Apollonia frag. B5 and Archelaos frag. A1.10–13, in H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (Hildesheim: Weidmann, 1951), hereafter DK. See also Plato, Timaeus 39a–40b, 56e, 57a–b. The generation of the embryo, which is compared to a dye in the Summaries to Theodorus (CAAG 216.4–9), was also described as a process of domination. See, e.g., Hipponax frag. A14 DK; Aristotle, Generation of Animals, 4.3.767b6–768a-10, Hippocratic Corpus: On Fleshes, 3, 4.7, 8.2, trans. Paul Potter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995); On the Nature of the Child, 6, trans. Paul Potter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).

41 See Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption 1.10, with Dorothea Frede, “On Generation and Corruption 1.10. On Mixture and Mixables,” in Aristotle's On Generation and Corruption I, ed. Frans de Haas and Jaap Mansfeld (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 289–314.

42 MA 1.11–19, 171–89; MA 7.1–14; MA 8.1–30.

43 MA 10.93–95.

44 MA 3.2.

45 The name of Chymes is alternatively spelled Chimēs, Chēmēs, and Chumēs (CAAG 84.12, 169.9, 172.17, 182.18, 183.22). Similarly, the name for alchemy is spelled chimeia, chēmeia, and chumeia (CAAG 94.17, 209.5, 213.15).

46 See his On Generation and Corruption, 1.5 (increase), 1.10, 2.7 (mixing), and Meteorologica 4.1 (generation and corruption).

47 CAAG 30.9–19 and 24–26, 89.8–11, 160.14–15, 258.10.

48 Metaphysics, 1032a25, 1033b32.

49 See Philo, On the Immutability of God, 117.3-118.1, trans. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930), 117.3–118.1 and Athenagoras, Sur la résurrection des morts, 23.3, trans. Bernard Pouderon (Paris: Cerf, 1992).

50 CAAG 128.20 and 206.2. See MA, cvi–cix and 263–67.

51 CAAG 141.1: … Κατ᾽ἐπιτομὴν κεφαλαιωδῆ (“summarized in an abridgement”).

52 CAAG 162.19–20 and 173.1.

53 Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, Pr. 1.2, trans. Lily Y. Beck (Hildesheim and New York: Olms-Weidmann, 2005); see P. Leid, l.147 in Robert Halleux, Les alchimistes grecs, Tome 1: Papyrus de Leyde, Papyrus de Stockholm, Fragments de recettes (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1981), 90.

54 E.g. Stephanus, 3.209.20 Ideler; CAAG 93.18; A. Henrichs and K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae magicae. Die griechischen Zauberpapyri (Leipzig: Teubner, 1973–1974), 2 vols, 4.274 (hereafter PGM). The codicological and lexical relationships between the Leiden and Stockholm alchemical papyri and some codices edited in the Greek Magical Papyri was already recognized by Karl Preisendanz in 1928 (see the introduction to the PGM and PGM, Vol. 2, 86 where he notes the similar handwriting of PGM/PDM XII, PGM XIII and P. Leid. i 397 X, the last of which was said to share the same handwriting as P. Holm. by Halleux; see his Les alchimistes grecs, Tome 1, 9–13). The link between the two sets of documents has only recently become the focus of several interesting studies. For a more detailed discussion, see William Brashear, “The Greek Magical Papyri: An Introduction and Survey,” in ANRW 2.18.5 (1995), 3380–684, and Michela Zago, Tebe magica e alchemica. L'idea di biblioteca nell'Egitto romano: la Collezione Anastasi (Padua: Libreria Universitaria, 2010), 31–93.

55 CAAG 159.5, 171.1, 171.4, 177.10, MA 4.65, 4.91, MA 5.10, MA 14.

56 CAAG 190.9.

57 CAAG 193.16 and 218.12.

58 The references are found in CAAG 172.22, 173.22 (from a treatise of the Summaries to Eusebeia including a quotation of Stephanus) and CAAG 192.10–12, 18, 193.15 (from the last treatise of the Summaries to Eusebeia). The only citation directly attributable to Zosimus is at MA 2.16. Even there, this treatise suffered heavy editorial intervention in the course of its transmission (see the introductory note to MA 2 at 120–21) and it is possible that extraneous material was added to the text.

59 MA 2.11–20.

60 CAAG 71.18–19.

61 9.245.3 Ideler. See Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque,” 197.

62 CAAG 84.12–18.

63 See A16 DK.

64 The same attribution can be found in the fragments of Arius Didymus (in Hermann Diels, Doxographi Graeci [Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1965], 449). Galen (late second century CE) also associated this idea with the Peripatetics. See Galen, In Hippocratis de natura hominis in Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, ed. Karl G. Kühn and Friedrich W. Assmann (Leipzig: C. Cnobloch, 1821–1833), 15.32, and Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, ed. J. Von Arnim, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1903–1905), 2.463. It is probable that this alleged quote from Aristotle was created in the context of the controversy over the Stoic notion of complete fusion, as seen in the De mixtione of Alexander of Aphrodisias (c. 200 CE). Whether this was genuinely Aristotelian or not, by the third century CE, Plotinus (Enneads, 2.7.1.27–29) still considered the controversy relevant and agreed with the Peripatetic position, arguing that the reason qualities could mix without cutting out bodies was that qualities were incorporeal.

65 Exodus, 4.17.

66 The meaning of this expression need not be discussed here. See Matteo Martelli, “‘Divine Water’ in the Alchemical Writings of Pseudo-Democritus,” Ambix 56 (2009): 5–22.

67 CAAG 98.18–19: μετὰ γὰρ τὸ τέλος τῆς ἰώσεως, ἐπιβολῆς γινομένης, γίνεται τοῦτο καὶ βεβαία ξάνθωσις·καὶ τοῦτο ποίων ἐκφέρεις ἔξω τὴν ἔνδον κεκρυμμένην. “ἔκστρεψον γὰρ, φησὶν, τὴν φύσιν, καὶ εὑρήσεις τὸ ζητούμενον.” It is problematic that Berthelot and Ruelle did not edit the Greek text of this passage and referred the readers to CAAG 223.17–26 instead, an anonymous treatise entitled “On the Diversity of Burnt Copper” (Περὶ διαφορᾶς χαλκοῦ κεκαυμένου: CAAG 222–23) which they assumed to have been the source text since it contained almost the same passage but without the reference to other alchemical authors found in the text of the Commentary. In their translation of the unedited Greek text, the passage is introduced by “Tout l'art repose sur les éléments.”

68 Syn. Alch. §7.

69 The attribution of this sub-treatise to Zosimus is complicated by the citation of an unnamed author addressing himself to a woman, a characteristic feature of Zosimus' writings, which sometimes simply address Theosebia with the same “ō gunai” (“dear woman”) found in “On the Body of Magnesia and its Treatment” (CAAG 194.11–13).

70 CAAG 195.18–21. See also CAAG 196.10–13.

71 Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque,” 199–200.

72 CAAG 167.20–168.5.

73 CAAG 148.8–9.

74 Ekphsuan in this context probably means burning with an intense heat fanned with bellows. The equipment used must have been called a φυσητήριον, as discussed in the quotation from Olympiodorus below (CAAG 91).

75 It is unclear what exactly “corruption” (sēpsis) referred to, but it seems that it should be differentiated from “maceration” (taricheia). See P. Holm §29, 103, and 140 Halleux, where taricheuō and cognates are related to the preparation of substances before dyeing. On the other hand, sēpsis was more or less identified with iōsis and occurred specifically when the maceration of metals and their “corruption” was meant and the production of a green colour was involved (e.g. CAAG 23.1, 282.7, MA 9.52–62). The sēpsis and taricheia are clearly distinguished in the anonymous Aerial Water (CAAG 210.8–12). See however Syn. Alch. §19.310–321, where both terms are difficult to distinguish.

76 I have followed the text and translation (with slight modifications) of Syn. Alch. §9.136–10.147.

77 See the comments of Martelli in Syn. Alch. §9.144, n. 17.

78 Syn. Alch. §10, l.147, and 161–62. The expressions “fourfold body” (tetrasōmia) and the “body made of four elements” (tetrastoichon sōma) mean the four primary metals, copper, iron, tin, and lead—also called the “four bodies” (tessara sōmata; CAAG 167.20–186.1)—and can also mean the stuff from which these metals are constituted (CAAG 235.5–6).

79 Syn. Alch. §10.

80 Syn. Alch. §10.160–163.

81 On the Aristotelian concept of mixing, see n. 42. A similar saying is ascribed to Democritus in the treatise on substances and non-substances (CAAG 168.16–19: “Nature, working on what is proper to itself as if it were contrary to itself, becomes strong and steadfast, dominating and being dominated”).

82 On Generation and Corruption, 328a23–31.

83 See the explanation in n. 15 to Syn. Alch. §9.127, where Martelli argued on the basis of the Syriac alchemical manuscript from Cambridge (and in which Pebichius is credited with the saying “all the bodies are mercury”) that the “materials” (hulai) could be considered as “souls” because it was thought that a kind of “soul” (or volatile substance, i.e. “mercury”) could be extracted from all bodies.

84 See the Blacksmith Institute's Mercury: The Burning Issue on their efforts to contain mercury emission from artisanal gold-refining in Kalimantan: http://youtu.be/FIbhwaw5PQg (part 1) and http://youtu.be/pPGPbbHY03M (part 2).

85 Pliny, Natural History, 33.32 (99); Vitruvius, On Architecture, 7.8.4.

86 Natural History, 33.32 (100). See P. Leid. l.321–31 Halleux with the useful technical notes from Halleux in Papyrus de Leyde, Papyrus de Stockholm, 98, n. 1. Vitruvius also mentions this technique in passing (On Architecture, 7.8.4.).

87 See Ottavio Vittori, “Pliny the Elder on Gilding: A New Interpretation of His Comments,” Gold Bulletin 12 (1979): 35–39. I would like to thank an anonymous Ambix reader for this reference.

88 Pliny, Natural History, 33.20

89 The meaning of kataspaō in this context is not entirely clear. The literal meaning is “to draw down” and it is in this sense that Mertens translated it (MA 7.37 = CAAG 238.20). It appears to have been used to describe the separation of the slag (skōria) from the ore. The slag would liquefy and flow down the furnace. See Robert J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology (Leiden: Brill, 1971), Vol. 8, 35–39, and Aristotle, Meteorologica 4.383a32-b2 with H. D. P. Lee's comments in the Loeb edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: Heinnemann, 1952) and Pierre Thillet (Paris: Gallimard, 2008). The verb is used generally to describe the production of a black material (CAAG 88.21,130.3, 155.11, 195.19, 197.19, 203.3, 223.6–7), sometimes referred to as skōria, skōridia (slag, residues) or melas molubdos (black lead). It might also have referred to operations in the alembic rather than the smelting furnace, in which case it might also have meant the deposition of a vaporised substance into a solid. It is unlikely that it meant a precipitation (the formation of a solid inside a liquid) as stated in Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).

90 Nitrelaion. Such a mixture would produce a detergent. If kataspaō is used here as part of smelting, this might have served as a flux, a product facilitating the separation of the gangue (undesired material in the ore) from the bloom (the unrefined, desired metal). See Forbes, Studies, 36.

91 Instead of automatareiōi, A and L have autōi tōi botaiōi. Elsewhere, the bōtarion appears to be the bottom part of a still (see CAAG 60 with MA cxxi).

92 Most probably an apparatus with bellows (phusētēr, phusai). The opposition here would be between the slow cooking of the automatareion (a hapax, which Berthelot and Ruelle translated as “digesteur”) and the fast cooking of an instrument with bellows.

93 Skōridia, “dross.”

94 Katakomizō+hupo is a hapax in the alchemical corpus. Its meaning might be the same as kataspaō. Ruelle and Berthelot translate it as “to extract” or “to pull out from.” The notion that lead is extracted from the liquid substance is supported by the fact that the liquid substance is said to contain lead later in the treatise (CAAG 93.4–5).

95 Perhaps referring to CAAG 197.19–198.7.

96 CAAG 91.5–92.15.

97 CAAG 92.11–13: καὶ τὸν ἀόρατον κόσμον μηκέτι ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἐπιδεικνύουσα, τουτέστιν ἡ ψυχὴ ἄλλως ἐν ἄλλῳ σώματι τοῦ ἀργύρου ἐπιδεικνύει.

98 CAAG 93.7–9.

99 See the notes to CAAG 93.1.

100 See the “Glossary of the Egg,” CAAG 20.18–19.

101 MA 9. On sound philological grounds, Michèle Mertens no longer believes that this text should be attributed to Zosimus (e-mail to author, 7 June 2013). My forthcoming “Transmutation Theory and the Dating of on the Same Divine Water” in Epekeina substantiates this claim.

102 CAAG 148–53: “On the Resisting Substances (ta hupostata) and the Four Bodies According to the Sayings of Democritus.”

103 CAAG 151.15–20.

104 Viano, “Aristote et l'alchimie grecque,” 199–200.

105 MA 10.6.124–28.

106 MA 10.7.133–35.

107 MA 10.4.85–86.

108 MA 10.8.148.

109 MA 10.1–6.

110 MA 10.7a–16a. Note that Mertens has published two different versions of this passage. I have here retained only one.

111 Phialobōmos and bōmos phialoeidēs. The bowl-altar is likened to an apparatus by the use of the term philē, a libation vessel, but is also a common term for the top part of the alembic.

112 I follow the reading of M, xērourgon anthrōparion. A and L instead have “razor-wielding” “little men/puppet” (xurourgon anthrōparion) here and in the Second Lesson (MA 11, not found in M). Building on the same (or similar) physical notions that made Heraclitus compare a beam of light to a “dry soul, excellent, and very wise” (DK 118), and who described the witless soul of the drunkard as “humid,” Galen also considered intelligence to be blunted by humidity and sharpened by dryness (Quod animi mores corporis temperamenta sequantur, 4.780–782 and 4.786.8–14 Kühn). Since the “homunculus” teaches how to transform the body into pneuma, it would make better sense to follow M here, and call him “dry-making.”

113 MA 10.95–97: Καὶ τὰ πάντα, ὡς ἐν συντόμῳ, σύμφωνα τῇ διαιρέσει καὶ τῇ ἑνώσει τῆς μεθόδου μηδὲν ὑπολειφθείσης ἐκστρέφει τὴν φύσιν (ekstrephei tēn phusin).

114 See CAAG 21.20–23.7.

115 Festugière, La révélation, 234, citing CAAG 168.4–5.

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