Memphite tablet

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Text in Greek script in the Prodromus Coptus by Athanisius Kircher

The Memphitische Tafel ( Latin Tabula memphitica ) is an inscription written in Greek and carved into a rock in Coptic letters. It is said to have been found near Memphis (Egypt) ; whether it really existed is unknown, more likely an imaginary historiographical origin. The text, however, gained importance in the history of alchemy , since its content can be interpreted as a condensed version of the beginning of the Tabula Smaragdina .

Mentions of the text in the history of alchemy

The tablet or the text was translated by Athanasius Kircher in 1636 as follows:

“Heaven above, heaven below
Stars above, stars below
Everything above is below
Take this and be happy. "
( Prodromus Coptus. Chap. 7, p. 173)

There are several versions of the text, including one by the English alchemist Thomas Vaughan (1621–1665 / 1666), who provided the following translation in London in 1650 under the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes:

“Cælum sursum, Cælum deorsum. Astra sursum, Astra deorsum. Omne quod sursum, omne id deorsum. Hæc cape & felicitare. "

Karl Christoph Schmieder mentions the tablet in his History of Alchemy, first published in Halle in 1832 . According to him, the Neoplatonic philosopher and bishop Synesios of Cyrene, who was born in Cyrene (North Africa) in 370 AD and died in Ptolemais (Egypt) in 413 AD, describes the Memphite tablet in his 402 work On Dreams (original: “ Peri Enhypnión "):

“That is the end of the Memphite tablet , which he” (Synesios) “communicated in another work, in which some of the teachings of the Egyptians appear under the inscription 'Of dreams'. It is a temple script found in Memphis, which reads:
ΟΥΡΑΝΟ.ΑΝΩ.ΟΥΡΑΝΟ.ΚΑΤΩ.
ΑΣΤΕΡΑ.ΑΝΩ.ΑΣΤΕΡΑ.ΚΑΤΩ.
ΠΑΝΩ.ΑΝΩ.ΠΑΝ.ΤΟΥΤΟ.ΚΑΤΩ.
ΤΑΥΤΑ.ΔΑΒΕ.ΚΑΙ.ΕΥΤΥΧΕ. "

It follows the same translation as above and the reference to "A. Kircher Prodrom.Coptic.Cap.VII, p. 173 ”, as well as bibliographical information on the writings of Synesius in the Paris and Vienna libraries.

Synesios formulates this thought in his work Dion Chrysostomos (403 AD): "In such a life the below is also an above". It recalls the 58th fragment of Heraclitus : όδός άνω χάτω μία χαί ώντη "The way up and down is one and the same."

Assigning the location of the text to the Memphite tablet Egypt (Memphis) follows the tradition of most alchemists to see the origins of their thoughts in ancient Egypt, often personified in Hermes Trismegistus , the "Egyptian sage". The scientific attempts to “identify forerunners in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts and Egyptian rituals have largely disappeared from the research discussion. Nevertheless, now and then in more recent publications the idea of ​​the banks of the Euphrates or the Nile as the place of origin of alchemy creeps in. "

Philosophical content

In the Tabula Smaragdina and in the Memphitische Tafel the basic alchemical idea of ​​the polarity of the world and the reflection of the macrocosm in the microcosm and vice versa is put into a brief formulation: Life is understood as the process of the “descent” of the spirit into matter and the return to the origin achievable through gradual perfection. “In death the circle of descent and return of the spirit closes.” The formation of symmetries play a major role in alchemy, both in imagery and in alchemical processes. Sun and moon stand opposite each other in pictorial representations of the Tabula Smaragdina: “So all things spring and come from this one and only through one path and appropriate fate. The sun is his father, the moon is his mother. ”The collapse of opposites, the“ striving for the right mixture ”is the search for the law of an unbreakable unity of the cosmos.

literature

  • Manuel Bachmann, Thomas Hofmeier: Secrets of Alchemy. Schwabe, Basel 1999, ISBN 3-7965-1368-9 .
  • Jaap Mansfeld: (Ed.): Milesier, Pythagoreer, Xenophanes, Heraklit, Parmenides. Reclam, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-15-007965-9 ( The pre-Socratics. Volume 1).
  • Marco Frenschkowski (ed.), Karl Christoph Schmieder: History of Alchemy. Marix, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-86539-003-X (new and revised edition after the 1st edition in Halle 1832).
  • Walter Jens (ed.): Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Kindler, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-463-43200-5 .
  • Carl Kiesewetter: The secret sciences. A cultural history of esotericism. Marix, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-86539-005-6 , p. 20.
  • Wolfram Lang (ed.), Synesios von Kyrene: The dream book of Synesius von Kyrene. Translation and analysis of the philosophical foundations. Mohr, Tübingen 1926.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Manuel Bachmann, Thomas Hofmeier: Secrets of Alchemy. Schwabe, Basel 1999, p. 41.
  2. ↑ Manuel Bachmann, Thomas Hofmeier: Secrets of Alchemy. Schwabe, Basel 1999, pp. 40 and 26
  3. ↑ “Truly, without a lie, it is certain and most truthful that this is so here below, is the same as that which is above. And that above is the same as that below, so that one can accomplish miracles in a few things. ”(Tabula Smaragdina in the transmission of Garland, 1728–1732, 504 f.)
  4. ↑ Marco Frenschkowski (ed.), Karl Christoph Schmieder: History of Alchemy. Marix, Wiesbaden 2005, p. 85.
  5. ↑ Walter Jens (Ed.): Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Kindler, Munich 1988, p. 242.
  6. ↑ Wolfram Lang (ed.), Synesios von Kyrene: The dream book of Synesius von Kyrene. Translation and analysis of the philosophical foundations. Mohr, Tübingen 1926.
  7. ↑ a b Marco Frenschkowski (ed.), Karl Christoph Schmieder: History of Alchemy. Marix, Wiesbaden 2005, p. 86.
  8. ↑ Synesios of Cyrene: Dion Chrysostom or From the life after his example. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1959 (translation: Kurt Treu ), p. 23
  9. ↑ Jaap Mansfeld: (Ed.): Milesier, Pythagoreer, Xenophanes, Heraklit, Parmenides. Reclam, Stuttgart 1983, p. 261.
  10. ↑ a b Manuel Bachmann, Thomas Hofmeier: Secrets of Alchemy. Schwabe, Basel 1999, p. 14.
  11. ↑ a b Manuel Bachmann, Thomas Hofmeier: Secrets of Alchemy. Schwabe, Basel 1999, p. 63.
  12. ↑ Manuel Bachmann, Thomas Hofmeier: Secrets of Alchemy. Schwabe, Basel 1999, p. 26.
  13. ↑ Tabula Smaragdina in the transmission of Garland