A Flower of the Fire (Philosopher’s Stone Trilogy Part 1)
With the Roman Empire on the brink of collapse, Zosimos of Panopolis has a solution: the philosopher’s stone. To discover it, he’ll need to synthesize a wealth of competing philosophical and religious traditions. Can a Greco-Egyptian alchemist cure what ails his aging civilization before it’s too late?
Researched, written, and produced by Thomas Ignatius and Corinne Wieben, featuring the voice talent of Thomas Ignatius and original music by Purple Planet. Special thanks to Librivox for the recording of Julius Caesar.
Music
Purple Planet - Jezebel
Purple Planet - The Fellowship
Purple Planet - Chimera
Purple Planet - Cobwebbed
Purple Planet - Possessed Doll
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Linden, Stanton J., ed. The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Zosimos of Panopolis. On the Letter Omega. Edited and translated by Howard M. Jackson. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978.
Secondary
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Charron, Régine. “The ‘Apocryphon of John’ (NHC II, 1) and the Graeco-Egyptian Alchemical Literature.” Vigiliae Christianae 59, no. 4 (November 2005): 438–456.
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Eliade, Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy. Translated by Stephen Corbin. 2nd ed. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978.
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Graf, Fritz. Magic in the Ancient World. Translated by Franklin Philip. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
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Grimes, Shannon. Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt. Auckland, New Zealand: Rubedo Press, 2018.
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Lindsay, Jack. The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt. London: Frederick Muller, 1970.
Luck, Georg. Linden, Stanton J., ed. The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Mertens, Michèle. “Alchemy, Hermetism, and Gnosticism at Panopolis c. 300 A.D.: The Evidence of Zosimus.” In Perspectives on Panopolis: An Egyptian Town from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest, Acts From an International Symposium Held in Leiden on 16, 17, and 18 December 1998, edited by A. Egberts, Brian P. Muhs, and Jacques van der Vliet, 165–175. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 31. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002.
Poochigian, Aaron. “Zosimos.” The Classical Outlook 91, no. 2 (2016), p. 64.
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Stolzenberg, Daniel. “Unpropitious Tinctures: Alchemy, Astrology and Gnosis According to Zosimos of Panopolis,” Archives internationales d’histoire des sciences 49, no.142 (June 1999): 3–31.