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Plutarch’s theological dialogue De sera numinis vindicta ends with an eschatological myth narrating the afterlife vision of Thespesius (22-33, 563b-568a), centred on the souls’ “purification” from their earthly vices – obtained by means of punishments – and on the process of their reincarnation. This myth includes symbolic images of metallurgic interest. The most elaborate of these corresponds to the description of the chastisement of the “insatiable” and “greedy” souls, which are cyclically immersed into lakes of gold, lead, and iron, enduring painful transformations in each lake (30, 567c-d). This article focuses on the analysis of the implications and literary genesis of this scene, in the frame of the rest of the myth and of the dialogic part of De sera num., of Plutarch’s ethical and scientific ideas, of his culture, and of the tendencies of his metaphorical and analogical prose (as evidenced by his other works). It begins with an introduction to Plutarch’s religious thought and use of Platonic myths, defending the assumption that these should be treated as non-literal “enigmatic” tales and thus interpreted symbolically. A section is then dedicated to the narrative frame of Thespesius’s vision – the story of the moral conversion of an unscrupulously hedonist and greedy man – and to Plutarch’s symbolic presentation of the stains of vice (26, 565b-d), each associated with a colour, focusing on the stain of “miserliness and greed”. After an overview of the other punishments witnessed by Thespesius, mainly to be interpreted as forms of contrapasso and exhibitions of the souls’ hidden, wicked selves, the analysis of Plutarch’s treatment of greed is completed with an extensive discussion of the scene of the metallic lakes. Previous scholarly treatments of the scene are also discussed, with a focus on those which connected it with alchemy. Considering a recently proposed comparison between Plutarch’s scene and some of the images used by the alchemist Zosimus in his allegorical dreams (MA X, XI, XII Mertens), the hypothesis of their affinity is explored with mainly negative results. However, a further hypothesis is suggested without full endorsement: namely, that the symbols used by Plutarch, like those used by Zosimus, were influenced by the aesthetics of Egyptian and/or Jewish religion in the syncretising environment of 1st-cent. CE Alexandria.

One of the most noticeable features distinguishing Byzantine works on alchemy from the earlier Greco-Egyptian alchemical tradition is the widespread presence of Christian prayers and direct references to specifically Christian ideas and beliefs. By focusing on Stephanus’s Lessons (7th cent.), the first alchemical work including extensive references to Christianity, the paper will explore how alchemy was Christianised in the early Byzantine period. The first part of this study will analyse the strategies adopted by the author of the Lessons to frame alchemy as a Christianised discipline aiming at discovering the divine principle hidden in the natural world. In the second part, the limitations of this process of Christianisation of alchemy will be pointed out by examining if and to what extent specifically Christian ideas were included in Stephanus’ treatment of alchemy and its operations, and if the introduction of a Christianised framework into an alchemical work entailed the exclusion of previous non-Christian alchemical ideas. The results of this twofold analysis will show the complexity and inextricable tensions of the process of Christianisation undergone by the alchemical discipline when it started to be practiced in the socio-cultural context of the Byzantine world.

The first alchemist for whom we have biographical data, Zosimos, lived in the Panopolis (current Akhmim) of the late 3rd – early 4th cent. CE, a region in which evidence of the practice of traditional Egyptian religion is attested well into Late Antiquity. The images that Zosimos employed in his presentation of alchemical procedures and apparatus offer us an insight into his cultural context. This paper will examine a series of passages from the works of Zosimos of Panopolis from an Egyptological perspective, contrasting them with textual and iconographic sources from the Egyptian temple milieu of Graeco-Roman Egypt. The results of this inquiry will be used to elaborate a more nuanced presentation of Zosimos’ identity.

The alchemical philosopher “Christianos” (late 6th [?] – 8th cent. CE) demonstrates that alchemical knowledge is a gift of God and describes the virtues that a philosopher-alchemist must possess to receive it. These and other Christian elements should not be considered as a Christian gloss on alchemical ideas. As a result of his exposure to the Neoplatonic mathematization of philosophical ideas, Christianos develops a precise method for defining and classifying alchemical productions on a mathematical basis. This mathematization intends to legitimize alchemy as a licit philosophical field, by presenting it as sharing similar traits with the sciences of the quadrivium. Christianos appears to have regarded this mathematical approach as a path illuminated by God through which a worthy philosopher-alchemist could partake in divine knowledge. The virtuous conduct and the mathematical method serve as two intertwined prerequisites in the pursuit of alchemical knowledge, facilitating at the same time the demarcation between true and false pursuers of knowledge.

The Letter of Isis to Horus is a brief (and precious) piece of Greco-Egyptian alchemy. Beyond the technical interest of the processes it describes, its prologue is noteworthy for its intricate and surprising mixture of Greek, Hebrew, and Egyptian elements. In it, alchemy is presented as a secret knowledge of divine origin, which the goddess Isis received from an angel who fell in love with her. This preface is, therefore, a key element in the study of the discursive mechanisms and arguments through which early alchemical tradition attempted to bestow authority on its writings and to justify the Holy Art label that is often conferred on this discipline. This article analyses these mechanisms and arguments according to the patterns around which this narrative was articulated.

Zosimus of Panopolis, the first identifiable author of Greek alchemy, wrote in late-3rd or 4th-century CE Egypt. For over a century, scholars have pictured him in turn as Christian or as pagan. A reconsideration of Zosimus’ On the Letter Omega and the treatise known as the Final Count or Final Abstinence (teleutaia apochē) and the First Lesson on Excellence demonstrates that he saw Jesus as a savior, that his citations of the Hermetica are not in contradiction with basic Christian notions and that believed that the gods of Egypt were evil divine beings. His Christology and anthropology shares characteristics with “Classic Gnostic” theology and other early Christian notions. Also characteristic of the soteriologies presented in some heresiological reports, Zosimus described Jesus as teaching humans to “cut off” their body. This last observation, which is dependent on recognizing Zosimus as a Christian, shed light on the symbolism of the First Lesson on Excellence.