L'interprétation alchimique de la mythologie

Abstract

Sylvain Matton : Alchemical interpretation of mythology. In the 18th Century, scientists' acceptance of a "reasonable chemistry" which no longer drew its legitimacy from its antiquity but from its rationality alone made the debate on its origins obsolete ; Suidas' s affirmation that the Golden Fleece was not what fables said but a parchment book teaching how to make gold by alchemy had played an important role in this debate, as it justified a "chemical" reading of Greco-Egyptian myths which filled the gap left by the Ancients' silence concerning this art. However, although mocked by specialists in mythology such as Banier, the alchemical interpretation of ancient mythology, mentioned by G.-F. Venel in the Encyclopédie article CHYMIE, did not disappear in the 18th Century. It subsisted even with university professors such as G. W. We-del and J. Frick and was developed by amateurs such as J. Vauquelin des Yveteaux, Philothaume or E. Libois, but especially Dom Pernety who revived its popularity with Les Fables égyptiennes et grecques dévoilées (1758).