Maria the Prophetess or Mary the Egyptian the first chemist has for long been regarded as the key founding mother figure of Hellenistic or ancient Egyptian alchemy and is one the first of a long line of Priestesses, Magi and Magdalenes of the ancient world. Legend has it that she could make The Philosophers Stone within one day. Women alchemists played an essential role in scientific development even though their contributions have only begun to be recognized in recent years. Most of their works have been repressed or absorbed and credited to men who followed behind them. She was believed to be the sister of Tutmoses (Moses) and the first known female alchemist although there were certainly more that came before her and all that is left are remnants of her greatness. Her kinship to the Old Testament prophet is improbable, but legends linking Biblical figures and Greek deities to alchemy were common - such pedigrees only added mystique and authenticity to alchemical work. According to Raphael Patai she was the FIRST nonfictitious alchemists of the Western world lived, as far as can be ascertained, in Hellenistic Egypt. And the earliest among them was Maria Hebraea, Maria the Hebrew, or Maria the Jewess, for whom our chief source is Zosimus the Panopolitan. Zosimus is the first Greek alchemical author whose actual writings have survived. Maria also known as Miriam was the inventor of alchemical apparatuses that are still popular and in use today. In his treatise, Zosimos of Panopolis , in the 3rd century attributes to Maria three crucial pieces of equipment. The first became known as the balneum mariae or Mary bath, a double-walled container, equipped with feet that could be stood on a fire. With the outer container filled with water, material to be transmuted could be placed in the inner chamber where its temperature would be kept at no higher than the boiling point of water. Besides its common use in the kitchen, it is used in the distillation of volatile and aromatic substances. The second device was the kerotakis, a simple two chambered reflux device, which is perhaps her greatest invention: a spherical or cylindrical device with a copper cover that is set over the fire to heat substances and collect vapors. The prolonged heating time would eventually create a fusion that resulted in a goldlike material, depending on the elements used. Then there was the remarkable tribikos, or triple-headed still, which allowed a distillate to be collected from three outlets at once, a kind of alembic with three arms that was used for distillation. She lived in Alexandria in the first century and is credited with elaborating the theoretical and practical bases of Western alchemy and chemistry. Zosimos refereed to Maria as first called her “the Sister or Daughter of Moses,” a name that would lead her to be known later as Mary the Jewess even though she was not Jewish. She was also known as Mary Prophetissa and the Arabs preferred to call her The Daughter of Plato. There’s some confusion around the work she left behind. It is known that she wrote several treatises that were later included in books from various authors, as was customary in those days, since copyright laws didn’t exist so her wisdom was reabsorbed into later great works. In very old editions of alchemical texts, one can find the work of “Practical Mary,” which is classified as hers but much has been lost and discredited.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 13:02:38 +0000
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