La Rosa di Paracelso 2/2019 Divine Images: Divine Images: Zosimos of Panopolis’s Spiritual Approach to Alchemy Zosimos of Panopolis’s Spiritual Approach to Alchemy * * Shannon Grimes, Meredith College The works of Zosimos of Panopolis, a renowned Egyptian alchemist writing in the latter part of the third century CE, are unique among the Greco-Egyptian al- chemical corpus because he is the earliest writer to describe a spiritual approach to alchemy in any depth. 1 A.-J. Festugière, who translated some of Zosimos’s writings, dubbed him the “father of religious alchemy.” 2 However, the fact that his writings provide the earliest evidence does not necessarily mean that he was the first to take this approach. Zosimos indicates that he was a scribal priest in- volved with the production and consecration of divine statues and other ritual objects; therefore, his profession is embedded in temple traditions that have a long religious and technical history. 3 If alchemy originated amongst Egyptian temple metallurgists (and I am convinced that it did), then as a priest, Zosimos is both a steward of these traditions and an innovator in the way he synthesizes different metallurgical techniques and religious ideas into a more universal way of thinking about alchemy. In Roman Egypt, trade guilds were on the rise as temple economies declined; metallurgists from these groups were collaborating and contracting with each other. 4 Zosimos’s writings suggest that he was an advisor to metallurgists from * The author would like to thank editor Dr. Michele Olzi for sending her the call for papers for this edition on alchemy, and for extending the deadline once COVID-19 hit. 1 On dates for Zosimos, see Michèle Mertens, Zosime de Panopolis: Mémoires authentiques, 2 nd ed. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2002), xv–xvi. I will hereafter use Auth.Mem. as an abbreviation for this text, which is a translation of some of Zosimos’s Greek works. 2 André-Jean Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vol. 1, 2 nd ed. (Paris: Gabalda, 1950), 260-62. 3 On Zosimos as scribal priest see Shannon Grimes, Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt (Aukland: Rubedo Press, 2018), 69-76; on alchemy’s roots in Egyptian religious traditions of statue-making, see, for example, Phillipe Derchain, “L’atelier des orfevres a Dendara et les origins de l’alchimie,” Chronique d’Egypte LXV (1990); and Aaron Cheak, “The Perfect Black: Egypt and Alchemy,” in Alchemical Traditions: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde (Melbourne: Numen Books, 2013), 83-91. 4 Detailed discussions of the economic relationships between temple and trade guild metallurgists in Roman Egypt can be found in Grimes, Becoming Gold, ch. 2; and Shannon Grimes, “Secrets of the God-Makers: Re-thinking the Origins of Greco-Egyptian Alchemy,” Syllecta Classica 29 (2018).