Golden Fleece and Alchemy

Antoine Faivre is Directeur d'Etudes a l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Section des Sciences Religieuse), Sorbonne, Paris.

"Fascinating. A magisterial presentation of the historical data." — Dan Merkur, University of Toronto"By showing the continuous presence of the idea of the Argonauts and the voyage of the Golden Fleece in our history, the author demonstrates this myth to be a basic archetype of Western culture. The book is continually interesting to read." — Christopher Bamford, Lindisfarne Press

• Table of Illustrations Foreword by Joscelyn Godwin Introduction Chapter 1 • From the Byzantines to the Rosicrucians Complementarity of History and Myth: From the "Holy Spirit Fire" to Philip the Good Artists, Scholars, and Early Hermeneutists: From the Renaissance to Guilielmus Mennens The Golden Fleece as a Sign of the Laboratory: Michael Maier, J.V. Andreae, and Seventeenth Century Alchemy Chapter 2 • From the Age of Enlightenment to Contemporary Hermeneutics The Rococo Compass and Concordance: Ehrd of Naxagoras Theosophical Fleece and Astral Gold: Hermann Fictuld; the "Sun from the Orient" French Exegeses: Dom Pernety, or the bunch with a single key; Fulcanelli at the Hôtel Lallemant: Canseliet and Cabbalistic Phonetics Perspectives Appendices 1) Original texts of the extensive quotations with their proposed translations 2) A note on the Golden Fleece in Freemasonry Notes Bibliography Illustrations Index