The Shelves · Natural science
Authentic Memoirs: On the Letter Omega, and On Apparatus and Furnaces
◇ Doubted: where it was written is uncertain.
I · The entry, in his form
In the table of Natural science
Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementfl. c. 300 CE. An Egyptian Greek from Panopolis (Akhmim), the first alchemist whose writings survive under his own name. He addressed his books to a woman, Theosebeia, quoted Maria, Pseudo-Democritus and Hermes, described apparatus with care, and recorded dream visions of torment and transformation that read alchemy as the purification of the soul.
Authentic Memoirs: On the Letter Omega, and On Apparatus and Furnaces
Opening words
Τὸ Ω στοιχεῖον στρογγύλον τὸ διμερές
The round letter Omega, the bipartite...
Length: not counted
◇ Doubted: where it was written is uncertain.
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
II · Does it survive? Where to read it
Survives in fragments
Was it in Alexandria?
ConjecturedOf the Egyptian milieu.
On the ledge: written in Egypt or in a tradition the city shaped; not known in the Library.
Read it today
- Berthelot and Ruelle, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (1887-1888) · original and translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
III · In the show
- Egyptian mysteries, Mithraism, and Zosimos, episode 4, at 37 minutes 34 secondsTranscriptEgyptian mysteries, Mithraism and Zosimos; Shannon Grimes's Becoming Gold recommended.Known: probable
- Zosimos and statue animation, episode 34, at 48 minutes 9 secondsZosimos and statue animation (chapters only; no transcript).Known: probable
- Egyptian mysteries, Mithraism, and Zosimos, episode 4, at 37 minutes 34 secondsTranscript“he was alive during the the I think the third and fourth century CE”Right: fl. c. 300.Known: probable
+ 14 more
- What the Egyptian mysteries may have taught, episode 4, at 50 minutes 29 secondsTranscript“that's Zasimus' purview, the alchemical hermetic path of uh dying metals” (intended: Zosimos)The colouring of metals and its roots in temple statuary.Known: probable
- Hermes, Music & Mythic Symbolism, episode 21, at 1 hour 7 minutes 19 secondsTranscript“it was true of Zosimus of Panopoulos. He was a priest scribe, but specifically for the workers of metal who were dying metal for Egyptian religious statuary.”A modern reconstruction (Grimes 2018), not something Zosimos says of himself: label it as conjecture.Known: probable
Correction
- What was said
- Zosimos was a priest-scribe for temple metalworkers.
- What the sources say
- A modern reconstruction, not something Zosimos says of himself: a conjecture.
Reference
- S. Grimes, Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt (2018)
- Fixing the Volatile & The Great Work, episode 33, at 45 minutes 38 secondsTranscript“the works of zasimus of penopoulos the the you know metallurgist” (intended: Zosimos)Daniel Wiseman's conversation: the pattern found in metals, then plants, then the soul.Known: probable
- Daniel WisemanMetallic alchemy; the Zosimos passage at 45:38.Known: probable
- Drew MackinnonZosimos named three times in the Teleology of the Temple conversation.Known: probable
- Alchemy · Figures: Zosimos of Panopolis; Maria the JewessKnown: probable
- Alchemy · Chronology: Greco-Egyptian foundations'Zosimos of Panopolis, fl. c. 300; the Leiden and Stockholm papyri, c. 300'.Known: probable
- What the Egyptian mysteries may have taught, episode 4, at 44 minutes 31 secondsTranscriptWhat the Egyptian mysteries may have taught: metallurgy, statuary, the opening of the mouth.Known: probable
Correction
- What was said
- Porphyry says Pythagoras spent 22 years in Egyptian temples.
- What the sources say
- The twenty-two years come from Iamblichus, not from Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras.
Reference
- Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life 4.19
- Alchemy · Three principles, seven metalsKnown: probable
- Planetary CorrespondencesDays, metals and the Chaldean order as 'the common inheritance'; the metal–planet pairings took centuries to settle, as the alchemy page shows.Known: probable
IV · Sources and the living entry
Ancient references
- Marcianus graecus 299 and the other Byzantine alchemical collections
Modern scholarship (4)
- H. M. Jackson, Zosimos of Panopolis On the Letter Omega (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1978).
- M. Mertens (ed. and trans.), Zosime de Panopolis: Mémoires authentiques, Les alchimistes grecs IV.1 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1995)
- O. Dufault, Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity (Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2019).
- G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986)
Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›
AUTHENTIC MEMOIRS: ON THE LETTER OMEGA, AND ON APPARATUS AND FURNACES