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Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt
FOREMOST among the alchemists of the Hellenized world, the “divine” Zosimos practiced a sacred art in which metaphysical and metallurgical realities were fundamentally intertwined. Rather than being an exclusive product of Alexandrian syncretism, however, the dual spiritual and material emphasis of this alchemy reveals much deeper roots than roots which extend deep into the religious cultures of the Ancient Near East. Through the methods of “cultural biography” and “thick description”, Becoming Gold guides the reader deep into the temple culture of Roman Egypt, where the role of scribal priest intersects explicitly with the metallurgical craft traditions. Going beyond generalizations, Grimes explores the metal-coloring techniques developed in Egyptian polychromic statuary, as well as the rituals of statue animation performed by the priests of the House of Life. In this light, Zosimos is increasingly revealed as a scribal priest responsible for preserving and translating ancient Egyptian metallurgical recipes; a high-ranking goldsmith who oversaw temple statue makers.
Against the wider backdrop of late antique religion and philosophy, Grimes also details the fascinating connections between alchemy, theurgy, and gnosticism. Here, Zosimos’s spiritual attitudes are explored through the daimonic versus astrological influences upon alchemical operations; meditative practices using mirrors of electrum to attain divine gnosis; and the overarching imperative to transform the bonds of embodiment into vehicles for divinity. Zosimos reveals an alchemy in which spiritual and material realities are ultimately nondual; in which metals becomes living bodies for divine spirits; and in which the immortal soul—luminous and golden—radiates through its
material forms.
Against the wider backdrop of late antique religion and philosophy, Grimes also details the fascinating connections between alchemy, theurgy, and gnosticism. Here, Zosimos’s spiritual attitudes are explored through the daimonic versus astrological influences upon alchemical operations; meditative practices using mirrors of electrum to attain divine gnosis; and the overarching imperative to transform the bonds of embodiment into vehicles for divinity. Zosimos reveals an alchemy in which spiritual and material realities are ultimately nondual; in which metals becomes living bodies for divine spirits; and in which the immortal soul—luminous and golden—radiates through its
material forms.
290 pages, Paperback
Published December 22, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 14, 2020
Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt from the perspective of a working Hermeticist.
Dr. Grimes defines her work as a cultural biography of Zosimos of Panopolis. This work’s chief purpose is to provide layers of context to understand the world in which Zosimos was writing and the transitions that were occurring in Egypt; the rise of the trade guilds and dissemination of previously guarded secrets among a new class of artisans. She first argues Egyptian alchemy predates the incorporation of Greek ideas into Egyptian religious practice by examining the role of metallurgy in the temple culture among the priest-class. Once the roles are established as a foundation, the rising trade guilds and their relationship with the Temple discussed, by an exploration of the interactions between Zosimos and his Jewish or Christian student Theosebia. Relationships established, Zosimos a brief survey of Zosimos’s Religious beliefs and practices are explored through Zosimos’s allegory On Excellence, here Grimes frequently pulls from known Egyptian beliefs using contemporary scholarship to further illuminate the subject and examine the underlying beliefs. This allows us to understand Zosimos’s contextualization and harmonization of these beliefs using the language of Jewish, Christian-Gnostic, and Greek thought. The role of alchemy and underpinning philosophy explored Dr. Grimes goes a bit deeper comparing the works of Zosimos and Iamblichus, arguing they were approaching the world with a similar philosophy and that their methods are both reflections of that worldview.
This is an excellent companion to the primary text of Zosimos for any who want to pursue a path close to the temple-alchemist of Roman Egypt, as it puts the practices into the context. The study of how Zosimos frames Hermetic truths in terms that can be appreciated by Jewish and Egyptian audiences is helpful as it allows us to trace a thread of thought and see the seed planted that would grow into the philosophies of the medieval alchemists.
The discussions surrounding natural and unnatural alchemy granted me a bit more insight into the role of astrological timing and the place of Angels and daimon. Zosimos argues that they should largely be banished as they lack awareness of anything beyond their domain and so the alchemist risks loosing sight of the larger context, the domain of the One, if they work too closely with them. He also explains the differences in hierarchies and correspondences as the working of spirits eager to be fed and uses these as further arguments against depending upon them.
Another place this book shines is in the explanations of how metallurgical processes became spiritual allegories. In this way it could help provide further context to lab alchemist as to how to improve their meditations on the spiritual side. It’s not particularly new information, but it’s a good example none the less.
TLDR: This book is best for those who want to study Zosimos and practice his work. It also serves as good context for those who want to understand how Alchemy developed and learn where some of the assumptions and practices come from. It presents strong arguments for consideration to the Ceremonial Magicians and an example of learning spiritual truths from physical practices for the practicing laboratory alchemist.
Dr. Grimes defines her work as a cultural biography of Zosimos of Panopolis. This work’s chief purpose is to provide layers of context to understand the world in which Zosimos was writing and the transitions that were occurring in Egypt; the rise of the trade guilds and dissemination of previously guarded secrets among a new class of artisans. She first argues Egyptian alchemy predates the incorporation of Greek ideas into Egyptian religious practice by examining the role of metallurgy in the temple culture among the priest-class. Once the roles are established as a foundation, the rising trade guilds and their relationship with the Temple discussed, by an exploration of the interactions between Zosimos and his Jewish or Christian student Theosebia. Relationships established, Zosimos a brief survey of Zosimos’s Religious beliefs and practices are explored through Zosimos’s allegory On Excellence, here Grimes frequently pulls from known Egyptian beliefs using contemporary scholarship to further illuminate the subject and examine the underlying beliefs. This allows us to understand Zosimos’s contextualization and harmonization of these beliefs using the language of Jewish, Christian-Gnostic, and Greek thought. The role of alchemy and underpinning philosophy explored Dr. Grimes goes a bit deeper comparing the works of Zosimos and Iamblichus, arguing they were approaching the world with a similar philosophy and that their methods are both reflections of that worldview.
This is an excellent companion to the primary text of Zosimos for any who want to pursue a path close to the temple-alchemist of Roman Egypt, as it puts the practices into the context. The study of how Zosimos frames Hermetic truths in terms that can be appreciated by Jewish and Egyptian audiences is helpful as it allows us to trace a thread of thought and see the seed planted that would grow into the philosophies of the medieval alchemists.
The discussions surrounding natural and unnatural alchemy granted me a bit more insight into the role of astrological timing and the place of Angels and daimon. Zosimos argues that they should largely be banished as they lack awareness of anything beyond their domain and so the alchemist risks loosing sight of the larger context, the domain of the One, if they work too closely with them. He also explains the differences in hierarchies and correspondences as the working of spirits eager to be fed and uses these as further arguments against depending upon them.
Another place this book shines is in the explanations of how metallurgical processes became spiritual allegories. In this way it could help provide further context to lab alchemist as to how to improve their meditations on the spiritual side. It’s not particularly new information, but it’s a good example none the less.
TLDR: This book is best for those who want to study Zosimos and practice his work. It also serves as good context for those who want to understand how Alchemy developed and learn where some of the assumptions and practices come from. It presents strong arguments for consideration to the Ceremonial Magicians and an example of learning spiritual truths from physical practices for the practicing laboratory alchemist.
April 21, 2025
Egyptological books sometimes assert that alchemy can be traced back to Egyptian religious practices (e.g., The Secret Lore of Egypt and My Heart, My Mother), but they tend to be sketchy about how one became the other. There is a growing body of scholarship on the history of alchemy, but my impression is that until recently they have neglected its religious and Egyptian aspects. Grimes addresses this deficiency by focusing on Zosimos, an Egyptian priest and alchemist in the third century AD, who was not the earliest alchemical writer in the ancient world but was the most explicitly spiritual one.
The first chapter after the introduction discusses Egyptian metalworking: its close connection with temples and, most importantly, the creation of cult statues (literally forming the divine out of metal). Grimes argues that ancient alchemists like Zosimos were not actually trying to turn base metals into gold—which was a medieval European misinterpretation of the ancient sources—but discussing more subtle transformations, such as tinting and alloying metals to form polychromatic metal sculptures, which she dubs "color transmutation". Zosimos waxes rhapsodic about the beauty of these sculptures, and the surviving examples can indeed be spectacular (I was pleased to see Grimes cite my favorite, the statue of the God's Wife of Amun Karomama). Temple cult statues, of which few if any survive, may have been still more impressive, and it's fascinating to think that their creation was the starting point for alchemy.
The second chapter discusses the society around Zosimos: the city he came from and the people he interacted with, especially Theosebeia, the woman to whom many of his works are addressed. Panopolis was both a center of Greek culture within the traditionalist region of Upper Egypt, and a hub for craftsmanship related to the mineral resources of the Eastern Desert and to the city's great temple dedicated to Min. Where better for a Greco-Egyptian mystical alchemist to come from?
The latter three chapters focus on ideas in Zosimos's own writings: the idea of alchemy as a spiritual exercise; the Jewish and Christian influences in his works; and the resemblance between his understanding of alchemy and the theories of theurgy devised by Zosimos's contemporary, Iamblichus of Chalcis. Zosimos combined a truly astounding variety of ideas, whether drawing upon Egyptian underworld imagery for the nightmarish allegorical visions about alchemy in his work On Excellence, or fusing Greek mythology with Gnostic and Hermetic ideas (and the inescapable Book of Enoch!) in his description of the primal human. Grimes suggests Zosimos gave different texts a different spin depending on the audience—using Egyptian ideas when addressing his fellow priests but playing up Jewish and Christian elements when addressing Theosebeia, who may have been Jewish or Christian herself. In any case, Zosimos's works form a vast worldview, a cosmology encompassing the creation of humanity, the behavior of daimones, alchemy, and the divinization of the soul, that could appeal to multiple religious traditions at once. This flexibility, Grimes argues, is what allowed Zosimos' works to survive the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
Grimes draws on a huge range of scholarship, from the standard works on Egyptian religion to editions of Old Testament pseudepigrapha, in order to make sense of Zosimos's sprawling intellectual world. Just as important, she synthesizes all that material into a book that is both cohesive and readable. Because we know so little about Zosimos' life, the picture she draws still feels a bit blurry. But it's still a fascinating glimpse of a key moment, when the religious traditions of the Hellenistic and Egyptian worlds were beginning to evolve into the esoteric undercurrents of the Christian world.
The first chapter after the introduction discusses Egyptian metalworking: its close connection with temples and, most importantly, the creation of cult statues (literally forming the divine out of metal). Grimes argues that ancient alchemists like Zosimos were not actually trying to turn base metals into gold—which was a medieval European misinterpretation of the ancient sources—but discussing more subtle transformations, such as tinting and alloying metals to form polychromatic metal sculptures, which she dubs "color transmutation". Zosimos waxes rhapsodic about the beauty of these sculptures, and the surviving examples can indeed be spectacular (I was pleased to see Grimes cite my favorite, the statue of the God's Wife of Amun Karomama). Temple cult statues, of which few if any survive, may have been still more impressive, and it's fascinating to think that their creation was the starting point for alchemy.
The second chapter discusses the society around Zosimos: the city he came from and the people he interacted with, especially Theosebeia, the woman to whom many of his works are addressed. Panopolis was both a center of Greek culture within the traditionalist region of Upper Egypt, and a hub for craftsmanship related to the mineral resources of the Eastern Desert and to the city's great temple dedicated to Min. Where better for a Greco-Egyptian mystical alchemist to come from?
The latter three chapters focus on ideas in Zosimos's own writings: the idea of alchemy as a spiritual exercise; the Jewish and Christian influences in his works; and the resemblance between his understanding of alchemy and the theories of theurgy devised by Zosimos's contemporary, Iamblichus of Chalcis. Zosimos combined a truly astounding variety of ideas, whether drawing upon Egyptian underworld imagery for the nightmarish allegorical visions about alchemy in his work On Excellence, or fusing Greek mythology with Gnostic and Hermetic ideas (and the inescapable Book of Enoch!) in his description of the primal human. Grimes suggests Zosimos gave different texts a different spin depending on the audience—using Egyptian ideas when addressing his fellow priests but playing up Jewish and Christian elements when addressing Theosebeia, who may have been Jewish or Christian herself. In any case, Zosimos's works form a vast worldview, a cosmology encompassing the creation of humanity, the behavior of daimones, alchemy, and the divinization of the soul, that could appeal to multiple religious traditions at once. This flexibility, Grimes argues, is what allowed Zosimos' works to survive the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
Grimes draws on a huge range of scholarship, from the standard works on Egyptian religion to editions of Old Testament pseudepigrapha, in order to make sense of Zosimos's sprawling intellectual world. Just as important, she synthesizes all that material into a book that is both cohesive and readable. Because we know so little about Zosimos' life, the picture she draws still feels a bit blurry. But it's still a fascinating glimpse of a key moment, when the religious traditions of the Hellenistic and Egyptian worlds were beginning to evolve into the esoteric undercurrents of the Christian world.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews