1 “Zωσίρον τοῦ θείον περἱ άρετῆς.” ‘Aρετή here should not be translated as “virtue” or “power” (“vertu” in Berthelot) but as “the Art,” corresponding to the Latin ars nostra. The treatise has nothing whatever to do with virtue.

2 Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, with translations into French by C. E. Ruelle. [The present translation is by A. S. B. Glover from the Greek text in Berthelot, with reference also to Ruelle’s French and Jung’s German. The section numeration is Berthelot’s.—EDITORS.]

3 The ἰερονργός is the sacrificial priest who performs the ceremonies. The ἰερεύς is rather the ἱεροϕάντης the prophet and revealer of the mysteries. No difference is made between them in the text.

4 Ion occurs in the Sabaean tradition as Jûnân ben Merqûlius (son of Mercury), the ancestor of the Ionians (el-Jûnâniûn). [Cf. Eutychius, Annales, in Migne, P.G., vol. 111, col. 922.] The Sabaeans consider him the founder of their religion. Cf. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, I, pp. 205, 796, and II, p. 509. Hermes, too, was considered a founder (I, p. 521).

5 Kόλασις, literally ‘punishment.’ Here it means the torment which the prima materia has to undergo in order to be transformed. This procedure is called mortificatio. [For an example, see the mortificatio of the “Ethiopian” in Psychology and Alchemy, par. 484. Also infra, “The Philosophical Tree,” ch. 17.—EDITORS.]

6 Διασπάσας κατἁ αύστασιν ἁρρονίας. Berthelot has “démembrant, suivant les règles de la combinaison.” It refers to the division into four bodies, natures, or elements. Cf. Berthelot, Alch. grecs, II, iii, 11 and Chimie au moyen âge, III, p. 92. Also “Visio Arislei,” Artis auriferae, I, p. 151, and “Exercitationes in Turbam IX,” ibid., p. 170.

7 εζδον αὐτόν ώς τοὐναντίον ἀνθρωπἀριον κολοβόν. If I am not mistaken, the concept of the homunculus appears here for the first time in alchemical literature.

8 I read ξνρουργός instead of the meaningless ξηρουργός in the text. Cf. III, v, 1, where the barber does in fact appear as an anthroparion. (Or should it be taken adjectivally: ξνρονργὸν ἀνθρωπάριον?) The anthroparion is grey because, as we shall see, he represents the lead.

9 Or “moral perfection.”

10 Evidently a particularly convulsive opening of the mouth is meant, coupled with a violent contraction of the pharynx. This contraction was a kind of retching movement for bringing up the inner contents. These had to be written down on the tablets. They were inspirations coming from above that were caught, as it were, by the upraised eyes. The procedure might be compared with the technique of active imagination.

11 [In the Swiss edition (Von den Wurzeln des Bewusstseins, pp. 141–45) this section, though numbered III, i, 3 only, continues into III, i, 4, 5, and 6 without a break, the whole being run together as a single section. III, i, 5, then reappears at the end of the sequence of visions (par. 87), but in variant form, as a “résumé,” and the reasons for its placement there are explained in the commentary (pars. 93, 111, 121). As no explanation is given for its duplication under III, i, 3, and the variations are in the main merely stylistic, we have omitted it at this point and reconstituted III, i. 4-6 at the end of the sequence. The wording of Jung’s interpolation at par. 87 has been altered to account for this change. The sections are presented in the order III, i, 5, III, i, 4, III, i, 6 on the assumption that III, i, 4 is not meant to form a part of the “résumé” proper, but, as stated in the Eranos version of “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass,” is rather “Zosimos” own commentary on his visions” and “a general philosophical conclusion” (The Mysteries, pp. 311f.).—EDITORS.]

12 Kαὶ ἄλλος όπζσω αὐτοῦ ϕέρων περιηκονισμένον τινά λευκοϕόρον καὶ ὡραῖον τὴν όψιν, οὑ τὸ ὂνομα ἐκαλεῑο μεσουράνράνισμα ἡλίου. Berthelot: “Un autre, derrière lui, portait un objet circulaire, d’une blancheur éclatante, et très beau à voir appelé Méridien du Cinnabre.” It is not clear why μεσουράνισμα ήλίου is translated as “meridian of the cinnabar,” thus making it a chemical analogy, περιηκονιμμένον τινά must refer to a person and not to a thing. Dr. M.-L. von Franz has drawn my attention to the following parallels in Apuleius. He calls the stola olympiaca with which the initiate was clad a “precious scarf with sacred animals worked in colour on every part of it; for instance, Indian serpents and Hyperborean griffins.” “I . . . wore a white palm-tree chaplet with its leaves sticking out all round like rays of light.” The initiate was shown to the people “as when a statue is unveiled, dressed like the sun.” The sun, which he now was, he had seen the previous night, after his figurative death. “At midnight I saw the sun shining as if it were noon.” (The Golden Ass, trans. Graves, p. 286.)

13 Literally, δργανικῶς.

14 The island of Prokonnesos was the site of the famous Greek marble quarry, now called Marmara (Turkey).

15 That is, circular.

16 The Greek has only μέλος. I follow the reading of codex Gr. 2252 (Paris).

17 The res quaesita or quaerenda is a standing expression in Latin alchemy.

18 Oὐγγιασμῷ.