The origins of alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt

466 Pages·1970·25.46 MB·English

by  Jack Lindsay

JM K
unosnv
THE ORIGINS OF
nuHGmv
IN GRAECO-ROMAN EGYPT
THE ORIGINS OF ALCHEMY
IN ROMAN EGYPT
In this, the first thorough enquiry into the
origins of alchemy in Roman Egypt,
Jack Lindsay covers the craft techniques
and mystery lore of metallurgical in­
dustries of the ancient world, allied
industries such as dyeing and mining etc.,
myth and speculation surrounding creation
and the nature of the universe, the growth of
interest in magnetism, the development in
systems of physics among the Stoics, which
have reappeared in modern times, and the
growth of gnostic and hermetic cults of
contact with the spirit-world.
Lindsay describes how all these ele­
ments came together as a part of the
general culture development of Graeco-
Roman society and how the impasse it
reached was linked with technological
failure and the inability of Greek thought
to develop beyond its geometrical basis
with allied maths and atomic mechanism.
The result is a welcome addition to
Lindsay’s Roman Egypt series which
breaks new ground and presents a valu­
able survey of a fascinating subject.
65/- net
SBN 584 10005 t £3-25

Jack Lindsay
THE ORIGINS
OF ALCHEMY IN
GRAECO-ROMAN
EGYPT
FR E D E R IC K M U LLER
First published in Great Britain 1970 by
Frederick Muller Ltd., Fleet Street, London, E.C.4
Copyright (c) 1970 by Jack Lindsay
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of Frederick Muller Limited.
Printed in Great Britain by
Ebene^er Baylis and Son, Ltd.
The Trinity Press, Worcester, and London
Bound by Wm. Brendon & Son Ltd.
ISBN o 584 10005 1
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 unseeable 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.

Contents
Page
Author’s Note xii
1 Greek Scientific Thought before Alchemy i
2 Historical References 24
3 More Historical References 51
4 The Name Alchemy 68
5 Demokritos and Bolos of Mendes 90
6 More on Bolos 111
7 Ostanes 131
8 Hermes Trismegistos 159
9 Isis 194
10 Ancient and Contemporary Crafts 212
11 Maria the Jewess 240
12 Kleopatra 253
13 Womb Furnace and Vase 278
14 Agathodaimon 301
15 Zosimos 323
16 More on Zosimos 343
17 The Later Greek Alchemists 358
18 Conclusions 382
Notes 393
Bibliography 433
Index 441
2