Cleopatra the Alchemist is an intriguing figure in the hazy history of science and magic. She works and writes in the 3rd or 4th century. Some suggest she's a group of writers using a pseudonym. Few of her works remain but she has an influence for many centuries.
She follows the work of alchemy peers such as Mary the Jewess, active in Alexandria. At one point historians suggest she's the same person as Cleopatra the Physician, despite evidence showing the Alchemist active over a century after the Physician.
Whether one person or many, Cleopatra the Alchemist is held in high esteem, especially for her Chrysopoeia, a single sheet of drawings and symbols. It's said to contain formulae or list the ingredients for making base metals into precious gold or silver.
Cleopatra the Alchemist is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the alembic, a popular distillation apparatus. Her presence in Alexandria during the 3rd or 4th century marks a prolific era in alchemy.
She's linked to alchemist Comarius, known along with Mary for innovative use of elaborate distillation and sublimation equipment. The Book of Comarius is dedicated to "Cleopatra the Divine," also called "the wise woman".
Three alchemical texts related to Cleopatra survive:
Ἐκ τῶν Κλεοπάτρας περὶ μέτρων καὶ σταθμῶν. ("On Weights and Measures")
Χρυσοποιία Κλεοπάτρας ("Gold Making of Cleopatra")
Διάλογος φιλοσόφων καὶ Κλεοπάτρας ("A Dialogue of the Philosophers and Cleopatra")
Cleopatra's masterful use of imagery captures the essence of conception, birth, and the perpetual cycles of renewal and transformation in life. A philosopher alchemist who ponders her creations is likened to a caring mother, tending her child with deep love and nourishment.
She explains the image of the serpent eating its own tail as a symbol of the eternal return, called the Ouroboros: “a snake curving around with its tail in its mouth is an emblem of unity of the cosmos, eternity, where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning".
The Ouroboros is a fundamental symbol of alchemy. In spirituality the snake represents rebirth, magic, mystery, wealth and cleverness. The snake has female qualities, of the Earth, and male, of the Sun. It's associated with fertility, poison and medicine.
This symbol can communicate secrets to others in the know. Spaniard Arnaldus de Villanova is identified as an alchemist due to the Ouroborous carved in his doorway.
Also in the Chrysopeoia is an inscription in a double ring further describing the Ouroboros:
One is the Serpent which has its poison according to two compositions, and One is All and through it is All, and by it is All, and if you have not All, All is Nothing.
Within the inscription ring are also symbols for gold, silver, and mercury. Along with those are drawings of an eight-banded star. It's believed that the drawing of these star symbols and the crescent shapes above them are a pictorial depiction of turning lead into silver.
Author of Atalanta Fugiens (1618) Michael Maier names Cleopatra the Alchemist as one of four women who knows how to make the Philosopher's Stone. The others are Mary the Jewess, Medera and Taphnutia. Taphnutia is a form of Paphnutia, an alchemist working in Alexandria c. 300 AD, but it's not known if she's the same person.
Cleopatra the Alchemist is mentioned in the Kitab al-Fihrist, an index of writers and literature, in 10th century Arabia. She's known mainly through records or references of others.
She bears no relation to the famous Queen Cleopatra of Caesar's Egypt (r. 51-30 BCE) but is often confused with her. Cleopatra is one of the most common girls' names in the early centuries AD.
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