THE FLEECE AS ALCHEMICAL BOOK
The theory that the Golden Fleece was alchemical in nature had an exceptionally long life and continues to be repeated down to the present day. The ancestor of the theory was Charax of Pergamon's idea that the fleece was a method of writing in gold, which transformed in time to the idea of writing that made gold--alchemy. In the Byzantine Suda (s.v. deras) and the Excerpta Vaticana (3), apparently quoting the seventh-century chronicle of John of Antioch, the Golden Fleece is referred to as a book written on animal hides (vellum), containing the secret of how to transmute base metals into gold. Below are the relevant ancient texts and a, 1886 discussion of them from H. C. Bolton, a historian of chemistry. More information about the later role of the Argonauts in the development of alchemy can be found here. Following this is discussion of other forms of books, including the Bible, some have tried to imagine the Fleece to be. |
Ancient Sources
Aulus Claudius Charax of Pergamon
before 147 CE
Preserved in Eustathius of Thessalonica (c. 1150 CE)
Charax says that the golden fleece is a method for writing in gold on parchment, because of which, according to him, the Argo expedition was launched.
Source: qtd. in Antoine Favre, The Golden Fleece and Alchemy (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 15.
before 147 CE
Preserved in Eustathius of Thessalonica (c. 1150 CE)
Charax says that the golden fleece is a method for writing in gold on parchment, because of which, according to him, the Argo expedition was launched.
Source: qtd. in Antoine Favre, The Golden Fleece and Alchemy (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 15.
John of Antioch
7th c. CE
The Golden Fleece of which tradition speaks, was a declaration written upon sheepskin, how by means of chemie to make gold.
Source: qtd. in Review of Beiträge zur Geshichte der Chemie by Hermann Kopp, Journal of the Franklin Institute 63 (1869): 70
7th c. CE
The Golden Fleece of which tradition speaks, was a declaration written upon sheepskin, how by means of chemie to make gold.
Source: qtd. in Review of Beiträge zur Geshichte der Chemie by Hermann Kopp, Journal of the Franklin Institute 63 (1869): 70
The Suda
10th c. CE
Under the entry for "Deras" (Skin)
The golden-fleeced skin, which Jason took after coming through the Black Sea with the Argonauts into Colchis, and [sc. taking also] Medea the daughter of the king Aietes. This was not as is reported in poetry, but it was a book written on skins, concerning how it is necessary that gold comes about through alchemy. Therefore, the men of that time naturally called the skin "golden", because of the function which arose from it.
Source: Suda Online, trans. Jennifer Benedict
The Collection or Bed of Violets
Eudocia Augusta, wife of Constantine XI and Romanus IV
c. 1050 CE
Dionysius, the Mytilenean, says, that a man, whose name was Krius, (which signifies a ram), was the pedagogue of Phryxus, and that the sheep-skin has a golden fleece, not conformable to poetic assertion, but that it was a book written in skins, containing the manner in which gold ought to be made, according to the chymic art.
Source: qtd. in Francis Sellon White, A History of Inventions and Discoveries (London: C. and J. Rivington, 1827), 25.
Note: Eudocia conflates Dionysius (Scytobrachion) of Mitylene, the source for Diodorus Siculus, with Dionysus Perigetes (see below).
Eudocia Augusta, wife of Constantine XI and Romanus IV
c. 1050 CE
Dionysius, the Mytilenean, says, that a man, whose name was Krius, (which signifies a ram), was the pedagogue of Phryxus, and that the sheep-skin has a golden fleece, not conformable to poetic assertion, but that it was a book written in skins, containing the manner in which gold ought to be made, according to the chymic art.
Source: qtd. in Francis Sellon White, A History of Inventions and Discoveries (London: C. and J. Rivington, 1827), 25.
Note: Eudocia conflates Dionysius (Scytobrachion) of Mitylene, the source for Diodorus Siculus, with Dionysus Perigetes (see below).
Discussion
The Golden Fleece and Alchemy
H. C. Bolton
1886
The statement is often made by writers of authority that Dionysius of Mitylene was the first author to regard the Golden Fleece as a parchment or skin on which was written the secret art of manufacturing gold […]. The very early date however at which Dionysius of Mitylene lived (viz., about 50 B. C.) aroused our suspicion as to the accuracy of this statement and led to a research, the results of which seem worth recording.
The great number of men of letters who bore the name of Dionysius has been a constant source of error. Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Latin Biography " records the lives of more than fifty men of more or less fame bearing this name, somtimes with distinguishing appellations; and there it appears that Dionysius of Mitylene and Dionysius Perigetes are often confounded. The former wrote a work entitled "Argonautica," and this fact may perhaps account for referring the statement in question to this Dionysius. On examining the "Orbis Descriptio" of Dionysius Perigetes we find no allusion to the alchemical theory of the Golden Fleece, but in the commentary of Eustathius on the text of this work, the commentator alludes to a certain Charax as stating the views under consideration. Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, lived during the latter half of the 12th century, and his commentary on the work of Dionysius Perigetes is said to be especially valuable for the numerous extracts from earlier writers to illustrate the geography of Dionysius. Of this Charax whom Eustathius names, unfortunately but little is known; Charax of Pergamos, historian and priest, lived later than Nero and before Evagrius. The latter, Evagrius scolasticus, born about 536 A. D., alludes to Charax in his writings; hence Charax must have lived between 100 A. D. and 500 A. D., and probably nearer the former date.
Whence it appears that the alchemical theory of the Golden Fleece, often attributed to Dionysius of Mitylene, should more accurately be ascribed to Charax, and that the statement of a commentator on Dionysius Perigetes seems to have been referred to Dionysius of Mitylene, because the latter wrote about Jason's Argonautic Expedition.
Source: H. C. Bolton, "The Golden Fleece and Alchemy," Notes and Queries 3 (1886), 114-115.
H. C. Bolton
1886
The statement is often made by writers of authority that Dionysius of Mitylene was the first author to regard the Golden Fleece as a parchment or skin on which was written the secret art of manufacturing gold […]. The very early date however at which Dionysius of Mitylene lived (viz., about 50 B. C.) aroused our suspicion as to the accuracy of this statement and led to a research, the results of which seem worth recording.
The great number of men of letters who bore the name of Dionysius has been a constant source of error. Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Latin Biography " records the lives of more than fifty men of more or less fame bearing this name, somtimes with distinguishing appellations; and there it appears that Dionysius of Mitylene and Dionysius Perigetes are often confounded. The former wrote a work entitled "Argonautica," and this fact may perhaps account for referring the statement in question to this Dionysius. On examining the "Orbis Descriptio" of Dionysius Perigetes we find no allusion to the alchemical theory of the Golden Fleece, but in the commentary of Eustathius on the text of this work, the commentator alludes to a certain Charax as stating the views under consideration. Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, lived during the latter half of the 12th century, and his commentary on the work of Dionysius Perigetes is said to be especially valuable for the numerous extracts from earlier writers to illustrate the geography of Dionysius. Of this Charax whom Eustathius names, unfortunately but little is known; Charax of Pergamos, historian and priest, lived later than Nero and before Evagrius. The latter, Evagrius scolasticus, born about 536 A. D., alludes to Charax in his writings; hence Charax must have lived between 100 A. D. and 500 A. D., and probably nearer the former date.
Whence it appears that the alchemical theory of the Golden Fleece, often attributed to Dionysius of Mitylene, should more accurately be ascribed to Charax, and that the statement of a commentator on Dionysius Perigetes seems to have been referred to Dionysius of Mitylene, because the latter wrote about Jason's Argonautic Expedition.
Source: H. C. Bolton, "The Golden Fleece and Alchemy," Notes and Queries 3 (1886), 114-115.
Golden Script
According to Eustathius, however, Charax of Pergamon referred not to alchemy but to "writing with gold" (chrysographia) upon vellum, whence the name "Golden Fleece." Modern Georgian researchers have uncovered evidence that ancient Colchis illuminated some manuscripts with gold and concluded that the Argonauts' trip was thus a literal voyage to Colchis to learn the secrets of manuscript illumination.
Gerogian scholars P. Ingorokva (1939, 169-170) and Sh. Nutsubidze (1983, 99) write that Harax of Pergamon’s term crusografίa means writing with gold; this was the special and unusual art of writing that was used by Colchis. Both scholars think that the methods of this script were described on the skin of a ram, and that the Argonauts traveled all the way from Greece to Colchis to study this very important Colchian art.
Source: Gia Kvashilava, "On the Phaistos Disk as a Sample of Colchian Goldscript and Its Related Scripts," conference paper, 2008. Link.
Note: In this quotation, Charax is referred to as "Harax" and chrysographia as "crusografia."
Gerogian scholars P. Ingorokva (1939, 169-170) and Sh. Nutsubidze (1983, 99) write that Harax of Pergamon’s term crusografίa means writing with gold; this was the special and unusual art of writing that was used by Colchis. Both scholars think that the methods of this script were described on the skin of a ram, and that the Argonauts traveled all the way from Greece to Colchis to study this very important Colchian art.
Source: Gia Kvashilava, "On the Phaistos Disk as a Sample of Colchian Goldscript and Its Related Scripts," conference paper, 2008. Link.
Note: In this quotation, Charax is referred to as "Harax" and chrysographia as "crusografia."
Fleece as Bible
In certain circles, the idea of the Golden Fleece as a book took on a religious meaning, seeing in the Fleece the Bible itself, a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, whose name, these mystics believed, was encoded in that of the hero Jason. Thus, in this reading the Golden Fleece is the Bible and Jason is himself Jesus (for both Jesus and Jason had similar Greek transliterations). The following 1885 passage from Charles Latimer, then president of the International Institute for Preserving and Perfecting Weights and Measures, makes the case for this mixture of ignorance, mysticism, and Christian fundamentalism about as well as it is possible to imagine it (that is to say, not well at all). The article was published in The International Standard, a magazine "devoted to the discussion and dissemination of the wisdom contained in the Great Pyramid of Jeezeh [Giza] in Egypt." Not surprisingly, that "wisdom" tended to be Biblical.
The Unveiling of Isis
Charles Latimer
1885
Mons. Dupuis thought the Argonautic story merely astronomical. Sir W. Jones calls it a mixed story. He says: "This is a mixed fable which is astronomical in one sense and chemical in another. But it is of Egyptian, not of Grecian invention. The position of the ship Argo in the heavens would render this assertion evident, were we even without the authority of Plutarch for saying that this constellation is of Egyptian origin. Now the chemical sense of the fable, say the alchemists, is so clear that some ancient Greek author, of whom Suidas, according to his custom, probably borrowed the language, thus expresses himself: 'Golden Fleece—This is not what it is poetically said to be, but it was a book written on skins, containing the mode of making gold by the aid of chemistry.' (I quote General Hitchcock when I say this was the philosopher's stone of the alchemists i. e. Divine Wisdom, and had nothing to do, with transmutation of metals.)
Upon this passage [Godfrey] Higgins thus comments [in Anacalypsis]: "I believe that whatever was meant by the golden fleece of the Argonauts was also meant by the apples of the Hesperides. The same mythos is concealed—that the Ionian heresy of the Magna Mater (Isis), and the tree of knowledge of good and evil of paradise, and the allegories of the tree bearing twelve fruits, are all implicated. In one case the book or written skin conveyed-the knowledge; in the other the tree, of which the leaves were letters; the fruits, the books conveying knowledge."
"Every one has heard of the celebrated boat of Isis among the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, but the northern nations .also worshiped her in the form of a ship. This ship was .placed in the constellations and called Argo. In Egypt this was called Sothis or the star of Isis. This very well connects the Arga and Isis the Saviour—the ship in which the seed of nature (Noachidse) was preserved. The Argo is clearly the Arga of India, or Omphalos, in which voyages of salvation -were made. Jason,' the captain, is IHS-on or the Saviour. Minerva, or divine wisdom, invented the ship." Is not Jason la-son, the Son of God?
"The emblematic fruit of the tree of knowledge has been generally considered to be the apple; but it was very often described by the grape growing on or hanging to the elm. On ancient cameos the tree of knowledge is constantly described by a vine, producing its fruit among the branches of the marital elm. There is nothing in the apple or its mythical history to favor its pretensions; but the grape, the fruit of Bacchus, is described by the Greek word meaning wisdom, and again the wisdom in the Latin rac-emus. The Greeks made out the apples of the Hesperides and the golden fleece from this mythos. In the Oriental language the fruit was souph or wisdom; and as souph meant also wool, of course they took the gross idea, and instead of sacred wisdom, made golden fleece. And their word for fleece meaning also apple, thus they got their golden apples. In a similar manner arose almost all the vulgar mythologies of the Greeks—a very elegant but generally very unscientific nation. The elm is commonly planted in Gaul and Italy for the vine to ascend, and is selected as the tree of knowledge because it was the name of the first letter of the alphabet, or the Aleph of the Hebrews, which meant the trunk of a tree, the tree which Virgil met with at the side of the road to hell, loaded with science—as the mem, the 600, was united to the vin in the name of the word Muin, the name of the letter which denoted the most sacred of the cycles."
Here we have the golden fleece, the yellow parchment, the roll upon which the Divine Word was written. The Scriptures were written upon the fleece, and hence I believe that the Greeks understood what they meant when they used the word fleece—a great truth was concealed. Diplomas are always written upon parchment, and the expression, getting our sheepskin at college, meant also, the obtaining of divine wisdom, the knowledge of which is written on the skin or fleece of a sheep. It will be remembered that Luther said, ''The Bible is a great tree and sometimes I pluck off a few pears or a few apples." It was the fruit for which the Argonauts sailed to the garden of the Hesperides. This was the golden fleece, the divine wisdom, the Book which our forefathers established in the new world, the parchment or scroll, the written word which they planted in our schools, and no man may, with impunity, attempt to move this candlestick out of its place.
Source: Charles Latimer, “The Unveiling of Isis,” The International Standard 3 (March 1885): 36-39.
Charles Latimer
1885
Mons. Dupuis thought the Argonautic story merely astronomical. Sir W. Jones calls it a mixed story. He says: "This is a mixed fable which is astronomical in one sense and chemical in another. But it is of Egyptian, not of Grecian invention. The position of the ship Argo in the heavens would render this assertion evident, were we even without the authority of Plutarch for saying that this constellation is of Egyptian origin. Now the chemical sense of the fable, say the alchemists, is so clear that some ancient Greek author, of whom Suidas, according to his custom, probably borrowed the language, thus expresses himself: 'Golden Fleece—This is not what it is poetically said to be, but it was a book written on skins, containing the mode of making gold by the aid of chemistry.' (I quote General Hitchcock when I say this was the philosopher's stone of the alchemists i. e. Divine Wisdom, and had nothing to do, with transmutation of metals.)
Upon this passage [Godfrey] Higgins thus comments [in Anacalypsis]: "I believe that whatever was meant by the golden fleece of the Argonauts was also meant by the apples of the Hesperides. The same mythos is concealed—that the Ionian heresy of the Magna Mater (Isis), and the tree of knowledge of good and evil of paradise, and the allegories of the tree bearing twelve fruits, are all implicated. In one case the book or written skin conveyed-the knowledge; in the other the tree, of which the leaves were letters; the fruits, the books conveying knowledge."
"Every one has heard of the celebrated boat of Isis among the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, but the northern nations .also worshiped her in the form of a ship. This ship was .placed in the constellations and called Argo. In Egypt this was called Sothis or the star of Isis. This very well connects the Arga and Isis the Saviour—the ship in which the seed of nature (Noachidse) was preserved. The Argo is clearly the Arga of India, or Omphalos, in which voyages of salvation -were made. Jason,' the captain, is IHS-on or the Saviour. Minerva, or divine wisdom, invented the ship." Is not Jason la-son, the Son of God?
"The emblematic fruit of the tree of knowledge has been generally considered to be the apple; but it was very often described by the grape growing on or hanging to the elm. On ancient cameos the tree of knowledge is constantly described by a vine, producing its fruit among the branches of the marital elm. There is nothing in the apple or its mythical history to favor its pretensions; but the grape, the fruit of Bacchus, is described by the Greek word meaning wisdom, and again the wisdom in the Latin rac-emus. The Greeks made out the apples of the Hesperides and the golden fleece from this mythos. In the Oriental language the fruit was souph or wisdom; and as souph meant also wool, of course they took the gross idea, and instead of sacred wisdom, made golden fleece. And their word for fleece meaning also apple, thus they got their golden apples. In a similar manner arose almost all the vulgar mythologies of the Greeks—a very elegant but generally very unscientific nation. The elm is commonly planted in Gaul and Italy for the vine to ascend, and is selected as the tree of knowledge because it was the name of the first letter of the alphabet, or the Aleph of the Hebrews, which meant the trunk of a tree, the tree which Virgil met with at the side of the road to hell, loaded with science—as the mem, the 600, was united to the vin in the name of the word Muin, the name of the letter which denoted the most sacred of the cycles."
Here we have the golden fleece, the yellow parchment, the roll upon which the Divine Word was written. The Scriptures were written upon the fleece, and hence I believe that the Greeks understood what they meant when they used the word fleece—a great truth was concealed. Diplomas are always written upon parchment, and the expression, getting our sheepskin at college, meant also, the obtaining of divine wisdom, the knowledge of which is written on the skin or fleece of a sheep. It will be remembered that Luther said, ''The Bible is a great tree and sometimes I pluck off a few pears or a few apples." It was the fruit for which the Argonauts sailed to the garden of the Hesperides. This was the golden fleece, the divine wisdom, the Book which our forefathers established in the new world, the parchment or scroll, the written word which they planted in our schools, and no man may, with impunity, attempt to move this candlestick out of its place.
Source: Charles Latimer, “The Unveiling of Isis,” The International Standard 3 (March 1885): 36-39.