Chrysopoeia


In alchemy, the term chrysopoeia means transmutation into gold (from the Greek words for "gold", chrysón and "to make", poiéin), although it is also symbolically used to indicate the philosopher's stone as the completion of the Great Work.

The word was used in the title of an alchemical textbook, the Chrysopoeia of Kleopatra, which was probably written in the late hellenistic period, although it gained wider fame only in the middle ages. The book is mainly centred around the idea of "one to all" (en to pan), a concept that is related to ouroboros and to hermetic wisdom. Stephen of Alexandria wrote a De Chrysopoeia. Chrysopoiea is also a 1515 poem by Giovanni Augurello.