"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
This book traces the Golden Fleece myth from late paganism through medieval and Renaissance alchemical and masonic interpretations. We follow the changing fashions in the history of initiation as well as in mythology. Faivre connects politics, chivalry, the age of exploration, Renaissance architecture and iconography, the hermeneutics of eighteenth century Germany and France, and modern practitioners of alchemy.
This book will be welcomed by modern practitioners of alchemy and the occult as well as by scholars of esotericism.
Antoine Faivre is Directeur d'Etudes a l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Section des Sciences Religieuse), Sorbonne, Paris.
Table of Contents
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
