Zosimos of Panopolis

editions are available.

1 Alchemy
In about 300 AD, Zosimos provided one of the rst definitions of alchemy as the study of the composition of
waters, movement, growth, embodying and disembodying, drawing the spirits from bodies and bonding the spirits within bodies.[5]
In general, Zosimos understanding of alchemy reects
the inuence of Hermetic and Gnostic spiritualities. He
asserted that the fallen angels taught the arts of metallurgy
to the women they married, an idea also recorded in
the Book of Enoch and later repeated in the Gnostic Apocryphon of John.[6] In a fragment preserved by
Syncellus, Zosimos wrote:

Distillation equipment of Zosimos, from the 15th century

Byzantine Greek manuscript Codex Parisinus 2327.[1]

Zosimos of Panopolis (Greek: ; also known

by the Latin name Zosimus Alchemista, i.e. Zosimus
the Alchemist) was a Greek[2][3] alchemist and Gnostic
mystic who lived at the end of the 3rd and beginning of
the 4th century AD. He was born in Panopolis, present
day Akhmim in the south of Egypt, and ourished ca.
300. He wrote the oldest known books on alchemy,
which he called Cheirokmeta, using the Greek word for
things made by hand. Pieces of this work survive in the
original Greek language and in translations into Syriac
or Arabic. He is one of about 40 authors represented in
a compendium of alchemical writings that was probably
put together in Constantinople in the 7th or 8th century
AD and that exists in manuscripts in Venice and Paris.
Stephen of Alexandria is another.

The ancient and divine writings say that

the angels became enamoured of women; and,
descending, taught them all the works of nature. From them, therefore, is the rst tradition, chema, concerning these arts; for they
called this book chema and hence the science
of chemistry takes its name.[7]

The external processes of metallic transmutationthe

transformations of lead and copper into silver and gold
(see the Stockholm papyrus)had always to mirror an inner process of purication and redemption. Wrote Zosimos in Concerning the true Book of Sophe, the Egyptian,
and of the Divine Master of the Hebrews and the Sabaoth
Arabic translations of texts by Zosimos were discovered
Powers:
in 1995 in a copy of the book Keys of Mercy and Secrets of Wisdom by Ibn Al-Hassan Ibn Ali Al-Tughra'i',
There are two sciences and two wisdoms,
a Persian alchemist. Unfortunately, the translations were
that of the Egyptians and that of the Hebrews,
incomplete and seemingly non-verbatim.[4] The famous
which latter is conrmed by divine justice. The
index of Arabic books, Kitab al-Fihrist by Ibn Al-Nadim,
science and wisdom of the most excellent dommentions earlier translations of four books by Zosimos,
inate the one and the other. Both originate in
however due to inconsistency in transliteration, these
olden times. Their origin is without a king, autexts were attributed to names Thosimos, Dosimos
tonomous and immaterial; it is not concerned
and Rimos"; also it is possible that two of them are
with material and corruptible bodies, it opertranslations of the same book. F. Sezgin has found 15
ates, without submitting to strange inuences,
manuscripts of Zozimos in six libraries, at Tehran, Caire,
supported by prayer and divine grace.
Istanbul, Gotha, Dublin and Rampur. Michle Mertens
analyzes what is known about those manuscripts in her
The symbol of chemistry is drawn from the
translation of Zozimos, concluding that the Arabic tradicreation by its adepts, who cleanse and save the
tion seems extremely rich and promising, and regretting
divine soul bound in the elements, and who free
the diculty of access to these materials, until translated
the divine spirit from its mixture with the esh.
1

3 SURVIVING WORKS
As the sun is, so to speak, a ower of
the re and (simultaneously) the heavenly sun,
the right eye of the world, so copper when
it bloomsthat is when it takes the color of
gold, through puricationbecomes a terrestrial sun, which is king of the earth, as the sun
is king of heaven.[8]

Greek alchemists used what they called ,

meaning both divine water, and sulphurous water.[9] For
Zosimos, the alchemical vessel was imagined as a baptismal font, and the tincturing vapours of mercury and
sulphur were likened to the purifying waters of baptism,
which perfected and redeemed the Gnostic initiate. Zosimos drew upon the Hermetic image of the krater or mixing bowl, a symbol of the divine mind in which the Hermetic initiate was baptized and puried in the course of
a visionary ascent through the heavens and into the transcendent realms. Similar ideas of a spiritual baptism in
the waters of the transcendent Pleroma are characteristic of the Sethian Gnostic texts unearthed at Nag Hammadi.[10] This image of the alchemical vessel as baptismal
font is central to his Visions, discussed below.

Carl Jung and the Visions of

Zosimos

(an "agathodaemon" and also a homunculus, but see also

Agathodaemon the alchemist). Zosimos also dreams of
a place of punishments where all who enter immediately burst into ames and submit themselves to an unendurable torment.
Jung believed these visions to be a sort of Alchemical allegory, with the tormented homunculi personifying transmutationsburning or boiling themselves to become something else. The central image of the visions are
the Sacricial Act, which each Homunculus endures. In
alchemy the dyophysite nature is constantly emphasized,
two principles balancing one another, active and passive,
masculine and feminine, which constitute the eternal cycle of birth and death. This is also illustrated in the gure of the uroboros, the dragon that bites its own tail
(and which appears earliest in the Chrysopoeia). Selfdevouring is the same as self-destruction, but the unison of the dragons tail and mouth was also thought of
as self-fertilization. Hence the text of Tractatus Avicennae mentions the dragon slays itself, weds itself, impregnates itself. In the visions, circular thinking appears
in the sacricial priests identity with his victim and in the
idea that the homunculus into whom Ion is changed devours himselfhe spews fourth his own esh and rends
himself with his own teeth. The homunculus therefore
stands for the uroboros, which devours itself and gives
birth to self. Since the homonculus represents the transformation of Ion, it follows that Ion, the uroboros, and the
sacricer are essentially the same.[11]

One of Zosimos texts is about a sequence of dreams related to Alchemy, and presents the proto-science as a
much more religious experience. In his dream he rst
3 Surviving works
comes to an altar and meets Ion, who calls himself the
priest of inner sanctuaries, and I submit myself to an unendurable torment. Ion then ghts and impales Zosimos This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
with a sword, dismembering him in accordance with the
rule of harmony (referring to the division into four bod Authentic Memoirs
ies, natures, or elements). He takes the pieces of Zosimos to the altar, and burned (them) upon the re of the
The Book of Pictures (Muaf a-uwar)
art, till I perceived by the transformation of the body that
I had become spirit. From there, Ion cries blood, and
Concerning the true Book of Sophe, the Egyptian, and
horribly melts into the opposite of himself, into a muof the Divine Master of the Hebrews and the Sabaoth
tilated anthroparionwhich Carl Jung perceived as the
Powers (French translation)
rst concept of the homunculus in alchemical literature.
The Final Quittance (French translation)
Zosimos wakes up, asks himself, Is not this the composition of the waters?" and returns to sleep, beginning the
On the Evaporation of the Divine Water that xes
visions againhe constantly wakes up, ponders to himMercury (French translation )
self and returns to sleep during these visions. Return On the Letter Omega (English excerpt translated by
ing to the same altar, Zosimos nds a man being boiled
G.R.S. Mead; French translation)
alive, yet still alive, who says to him, The sight that you
see is the entrance, and the exit, and the transformation
Treatise on Instruments and Furnaces (French trans... Those who seek to obtain the art (or moral perfeclation)
tion) enter here, and become spirits by escaping from the
The Visions of Zosimos (English translation)
bodywhich can be regarded as human distillation; just
as how distilled water puries it, distilling the body puries it as well. He then sees a Brazen Man (another ho- The complete (as of 1888) "uvres de Zosime were
munculus, as Jung believed any man described as being published in French by M. Berthelot in Les alchimistes
metal is perceived as being a homunculus), a Leaden Man grecs. English translations remain elusive.

6.2

Arabic works

See also
Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam
Mary the Jewess

References

[1] Marcelin Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes

grecs (3 vol., Paris, 18871888, p.161); F. Sherwood Taylor, The Origins of Greek Alchemy, Ambix 1 (1937),
40.
[2] E. Gildemeister and Fr. Homan, translated by Edward
Kremers (1913). The Volatile Oils. 1. New York: Wiley.
p. 203.
[3] Bryan H. Bunch & Alexander Hellemans (2004). The History of Science and Technology. Houghton Miin Harcourt. p. 88. ISBN 0-618-22123-9.
[4] Prof. Hassan S. El Khadem (September 1996). A Translation of a Zosimos Text in an Arabic Alchemy Book
(PDF). Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.
84 (3): 168178.
[5] Strathern, P. (2000). Mendeleyevs Dreamthe Quest for
the Elements. New York: Berkley Books.
[6] Stroumsa, Gedaliahu A. G. (1984). Another Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology. Volume 24 of Nag Hammadi
Studies. Brill Archive. pp. 139. ISBN 9004074198.
[7] Imuth, quoted in Syncellus, Chron. Drummond, William.
On the Science of the Egyptians and Chaldeans. The
Classical Journal. London: A. J. Valpy. 18: 299. September and December, 1818
[8] Carl Gustav Jung; Elizabeth Welsh; Barbara Hannah
(1960). Modern Psychology: November 1940-July 1941:
Alchemy, vol. 1-2. University of California: K. Schippert
& Co. pp. 4445.
[9] Schorlemmer, Carl (1894). The Rise and Development of
Organic Chemistry. London: Macmillan and Company. p.
6.
[10] Fraser, Kyle (2004). Zosimos of Panopolis and the Book
of Enoch: Alchemy as Forbidden Knowledge. Aries:
Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism. 4.2.
[11] Jung, Carl (1983). The Visions of Zosimos. Alchemical
Studies. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-018499.

6
6.1

Bibliography
Fragments
Berthelot,
Marcelin
(1888).
Collection des Anciens Alchimistes
Grecs (in French). Paris: Steinheil.

3
Vol. I (introduction) p. 119, 127
174, 209, 250; vol. II (Greek text)
p. 28, 117120; Vol. III (trans.)
p. 117242.
H. D. Sarey & Zosime de Panopolis (trans. M. Mertens). Les
alchimistes grecs, vol. IV.1: Mmoires authentiques (in French).
Les Belles-Lettres. pp. CLXXIII
348. ISBN 2-251-00448-3. p. 1
49: I = Sur la lettre omga; V =
Sur l'eau divine; VI = Diagramme
(ouroboros); VII = Sur les appareils
et fourneaux

6.2 Arabic works

Zosimos, of Panapolis (2007). Abt,
Theodor; Warburton, David, eds.
The Book of Pictures. Mushaf
as-suwar by Zosimos of Panapolis.
Facsimile edition.
Edited
with an introduction by Theodor
Abt. Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum (CALA) II.1. Zurich: Living Human Heritage Publications.
Zosimos, of Panapolis (2011). Abt,
Theodor, ed. The Book of Pictures. Mushaf as-suwar by Zosimos
of Panapolis. Edited with an introduction by Theodor Abt. Translated by Salwa Fuad and Theodor
Abt. Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum (CALA) II.2. Zurich: Living Human Heritage Publications.
ISBN 3-9522608-7-8.

6.3 Studies
Abt, Theodor (2011). Introduction to the Facsilmie Edition, Introduction to the Translation, in Zosimos of Panapolis; Theodor Abt
(ed.), The Book of pictures. Mushaf
as-suwar by Zosimos of Panapolis. Edited with an introduction by
Theodor Abt. Translated by Salwa
Fuad and Theodor Abt. Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum (CALA) II.2.
Zurich: Living Human Heritage
Publications. ISBN 3-9522608-78. p. 17-139.
Berthelot, Marcelin (1885). Les
Origines de l'alchimie (in French).
Paris: Steinheil. pp. 177187.
Berthelot, Marcelin (1888). Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY
(in French). Paris: Steinheil. Vol.
I (introduction) p. 119, 127174,
209, 250.
Berthelot, Marcelin (1893). La
Chimie au Moyen ge (in French).
Paris: Steinheil. Vol. II, p. 203
266; Vol. III, p. 28, 30, 41.
Mead, G.R.S (1906). Zosimus on
the Anthropos-Doctrine. Thrice
Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis. III.
London and Benares: The Theosophical Publishing Society. pp.
273284.
Jung, C. G. (1943). Psychology and
Alchemy.
Lindsay, Jack (1970). The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman
Egypt. ISBN 0-389-01006-5.
Jackson, A. H. (1978). Zosimos
of Panopolis. On the letter Omega.
Missoula (Montana).
Knipe, Sergio, Sacrice and selftransformation in the alchemical
writings of Zosimus of Panopolis,
in Christopher Kelly, Richard
Flower, Michael Stuart Williams
(ds), Unclassical Traditions. Vol.
II: Perspectives from East and West
in Late Antiquity (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 2011)
(Cambridge Classical Journal,
Supplemental Volume 35), 59-69.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Zosimos of Panopolis Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimos_of_Panopolis?oldid=747137117 Contributors: Tzaquiel, Justin Bacon, Goethean, Lcgarcia, Klemen Kocjancic, Rich Farmbrough, Bender235, Dralwik, Woohookitty, Etacar11, Merlinme, The wub, FlaBot,
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Show!, Crystallina, Jagged 85, Sadads, Sadi Carnot, Mukadderat, Robosh, ShakingSpirit, Connection, Davhorn, PamD, ARBlackwood,
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7.2

Images

File:Zosimos_distillation_equipment.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Zosimos_distillation_
equipment.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Illustration from the 15th century Byzantine Greek manuscript, Parisinus graces,
as reproduced in, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (3 vol., Paris, 18871888, p.161) Original artist: Unknown Byzantine Greek
illustrator, reproduced by Marcelin Berthelot in his 1887 text, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs

7.3

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