Podcast episode

March 4, 2026

Episode 214: The Horoscope of Islām and The Alchemical Stone: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part II

[Don’t forget to download and follow along with the slide-show accompanying this interview: STEPHANOS podcast]

We begin Part II with a discussion of Stephanos’ astrological treatise, the Apotelesmatikē pragmateia. We discuss the three main parts of the work, and then hone in on part three, where we find something extraordinary: a natal horoscope drawn up by Stephanos for the nascent movement of Islām. Of course it is more complicated than this: the ‘horoscope of Islam’ has clearly had some later fiddling done to it, such that it records the succession of early khalifs in perfect detail; and yet, Papathanassiou sees in this text a kernel genuinely going back to Stephanos.

We then turn to Stephanos’ influential alchemical work, On the Great and Holy Art of Gold-Making, a series of nine lectures (on at least one of which the emperor Herakleios himself seems to have been in attendance) on, well, what the title says. Only, as the genre would rightly lead you to suspect, things are not so simple. The instructions are elusive (of course). The (meta)physics lying behind the practices rely on the fundamentals of Damascius’ De principiis (!!!). The Art, through its practice, leads in some way to the assimilation-to-god of its practitioner. The philosophers’ Stone has a secret name.

Interview Bio:

Maria Papathanassiou is Professor Emerita in the Dept of Mathematics at the Kapadistrian and National University of Athens. Her publications include numerous studies in ancient and medieval exact sciences, the standard edition of Stephanos’ alchemical work, numerous studies of his other writings (see Recommended Reading bibliography), and much more.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Our special episode on the talismanic Constantinople can be listened to here, for Vettius Valens (and Apollonios of Tyana; in Part II we discuss Sopatros, the student of Iamblichos alleged to by John the Lydian to have aided Constantine through theurgic rituals).

We also cite Marcelin Berthelot and Ch.-Em. Ruelle, editors. Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs, texte et traduction. Georges Steinheil, Paris, 1883-8.

For Recommended Reading, see notes to Part I

 

Themes

Alchemy, Astrology, Damascius, Divinisation, East Rome, Interview, Islam, Olympiodorus, Orthodoxy, Stephanos of Alexandria