Zosimos Aigyptiakos. Identifying the Imagery of the “Visions” and Locating Zosimos of Panopolis in His Egyptian Context

Abstract

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.