Zosimos

Zosimos of Panopolis was a Greco-Egyptian alchemist who flourished in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries CE in Panopolis (modern Akhmim) in Roman Egypt. He is the earliest named author known to have written extensively about alchemy in Greek and is commonly regarded as a foundational figure in the history of alchemical literature.

His surviving writings are known from Greek fragments and later translations into Syriac and Latin. They consist of letters and short treatises that outline both practical laboratory procedures and theoretical reflections on alchemy. The texts depict the preparation, purification, and transformation of substances and present alchemy as a discipline that blends technical skill with symbolic meaning. In Zosimos’s account, the transformation of metals is connected to broader themes of inner purification and spiritual ascent, reflecting late antique philosophical and religious milieu.

Little is known about Zosimos’s life beyond his association with Panopolis, and the evidence for him rests mainly in the fragmentary manuscript tradition and subsequent scholarship that quoted or referenced his works. Nevertheless, he is regarded as a pivotal early source for alchemy, influencing later Byzantine, Islamic, and medieval Western alchemical writers who drew on his combination of practical instruction and allegorical interpretation.