The parabalani (parabolini) range throughout Alexandria from the plague times of the 3rd century AD to the 6th century of Justinian....

Alchemy goes through cycles of prevalence for hundreds of years. In the Renaissance, a time of exploration and discovery, alchemy enjoys...

Zosimos of Panopolis or Zosimus Alchemista (Zosimus the Alchemist) is a Greek alchemist and Gnostic mystic. Born near today's Akhmim in...

Amentet (Imentet) is a goddess of the dead in ancient Egypt. She wears a red sheath dress and lives in a tree near the entrance of Duat....

The prima materia, materia prima or first matter of alchemy and philosophy is the omnipresent substance needed to create the...

Shennong is one of the Three Sovereigns of ancient Chinese lore. Also called the Divine Farmer, he's strongly associated with...

Fuxi, Fu Xi or Fu Hsi (伏羲) is the first legendary Chinese emperor. A primordial deity, he and the feminine deity Nüwa create humans,...

Asclepius (Aesculapius) is a Greek hero and Divine Physician, god of medicine in ancient Greek myth. Son of Apollo, he learns healing...

Wolfsbane, monk's hood (Aconitum) delivers a lethal dose of poison. In the ancient world, poison plays a vital part, from death by elixir...

Women scientists work wonders in the ancient world. Science in history includes astrology, astronomy, medicine, alchemy, chemistry,...

Chun Yuyan (Chunyu Yan) is a Chinese court official in the 1st century BCE, during the Han Dynasty. As obstetrician and gynecologist to...

Cinnabar or mercury sulfide (HgS) is a rock composed of mercury (Hg) and sulfur (S). Historically it's used to make vermillion or scarlet...

Cleopatra the Physician is an early Greek medical writer and author of a manual entitled Cosmetics. Six fragments of her Cosmetics...

The Emerald Tablet, also known as the Smaragdine Table or the Tabula Smaragdina, is a compact and cryptic Hermetic text. The Tablet is of...

Alchemy in Egypt goes beyond transmutation of base metals into noble gold or silver. In the civilizations of Egypt, Arabia, India, China...

Qin Shihuang (Qin Shi Huang) is China's first Emperor. He ascends to the throne as King at age 13 in 246 BCE. Twenty five years later he...

Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning in ancient China is generally a death of the rich. Poisoning occurs over time or swiftly, caused by...

Anqi Sheng (An Qisheng) is a wizard of Chinese lore. He lives on mystic Penglai Mountain Island and has the power to turn invisible. The...

Honey bees create honey, beeswax and folklore. First domestication of the honeybee is c. 8000 BCE, in the Neolithic Age. At this time...

Honey mead is likened to ambrosia , nectar of the Greek Gods, with qualities of immortality and divine transcendence, beloved by bears...