We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Variations on the Indo-European "Fire and Water" Mytheme in Three Alchemical Accounts.
- Authors
WHITE, DAVID GORDON
- Abstract
Five medieval Sanskrit-language descriptions of a fabulous technique for extracting mercury from the "wells" in which it naturally resides are shown to be remarkably similar to accounts preserved in Chinese and Syriac. Whereas the Sanskrit and Chinese versions date from no earlier than the thirteenth century C.E., the Syriac version dates from no later than the tenth century. The present article first compares and contrasts these three alchemical narratives, and then suggests that all three are perhaps related to a broader and far more ancient Indo-European mythic tradition of a deity associated with the phenomenon of "Fire in Water," as attested in Vedic, Avestan, Roman, Irish, and Greek sources. All eight of these witnesses appear to attest to ancient religious and scientific traditions relative to geothermal phenomena.
- Subjects
SANSKRIT language; INDO-Aryan languages; VEDIC language; SYRIAC language; NORTHWEST Semitic languages
- Publication
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2017, Vol 137, Issue 4, p679
- ISSN
0003-0279
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.7817/jameroriesoci.137.4.0679