In his early alchemical works, Bolos Democritus of Mendes, around 200 AD. ex. n. e., says that sulfur should be mixed with a beam so that bronze acts like gold, that the wine is of the best quality if one quarter evaporates during cooking and if it is used after four years, and how gold and silver can be obtained from different me
tals. After Bolos, there appeared a large number of alchemical texts whose authorship is attributed to Hermes, Agathodaimon, Isis, and other gods. The last texts of alchemical content in which Hermes appears come from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Today they remain only in fragments (about 30 in total).
The most extensive part of this literature, Anepigraphos, whose authorship is attributed to Hermes and Agathodaimon, tells about the creation of silver (called “the moon”) from different metals. In the text of the prophetess Isis to her son Horus, the angel Amnael unravels the alchemical mystery: just as wheat begets wheat, so gold begets gold.
