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Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger)

The Golden Chain of Homer

A New Translation from the German Edition of 1723

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The Golden Chain of HomerI.21 · The Generation of Animals

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English Page · Branch 166 of 504

I.21 · The Generation of Animals

German & Latin

1723 pp 115–116

In diesem Capitel wollen wir nur von denen vollkommenen Thieren etwas melden. Alle vollkommene Thiere werden gezeuget durch die Bewegung, mittelst welcher der Same gereitzet und heraus gelocket wird in Gestalt einer zähen wässerigen Materie als ein Schleim oder Rotz, und lauffet in seine gehörige matricem, allwo der weibliche Samen sich auch erzeiget ihres gleichen hervor zu bringen. Solcher Same ist nun ein dickes oder coagulirtes ▽ und kan billig die animalische Gur genennet werden. Aus diesem siehet man, daß das animalische Reich aus ▽ oder schleimichten wässerigen Wesen geboren, und in der feuchten Materie durch säfftige und wässerige Nahrung des Geblüts erzogen wird. Nun sobald es geboren, so geneust es meist-feuchte animalische und vegetabilische Speisen, und diese transmutiret es per proprium Archeum in seine eigene Natur, Fleisch, Blut, Haupt und Bein, nimt davon seinen Wachsthum, zur Erhaltung seines elenden Lebens, bis zu seinem prædestinirten Termino, da es denn stirbt, und in oder auf der Erden verfaulet zu Safft und Schleim, zu Rotz und Koth, und zu einem schlüpfferigen wässerigen Wesen wird. Solche Feuchtigkeit krieget in die Erde zu denen Vegetabilien, und wird also denen gleich, wie zuvor die Vegetabilien des Thieres Speise und Nahrung waren, daraus denn wieder andere vegetabilia zur Speise des Thiers wachsen, solche wieder zu ernähren. Denn wie das Animale gleich war durch seine Zerlösung und Verfaulung völlig zu einem Vegetabile transmutiret worden, also wird das daraus gewachsene zu einem Animale verwandelt, wie oben auch sattsam angezeiget worden.

1723 pp 115–116

The Golden Chain of Homer: I.21 · The Generation of Animals

1723 pp 115–116

In this chapter we shall speak only of perfect animals. All perfect animals are generated through movement, which stimulates and draws out the seed as a viscous, watery matter, like mucus or snot. It flows into its appropriate matrix, where the female seed also appears, to bring forth their like. This seed is a thick or coagulated water and may rightly be called animal Gur. Thus the animal kingdom is born from water, or a slimy, watery being, and is nurtured in moist matter through the juicy, watery nourishment of blood. Once born, it consumes mainly moist animal and vegetable foods. Through its own archeus it transforms these into its own nature—flesh, blood, head and bone—and gains its growth from them to maintain its wretched life until its predestined term. Then it dies and putrefies in or upon earth into juice and slime, snot and filth, becoming a slippery, watery being. This moisture enters the earth among the vegetables and becomes like them, just as vegetables were previously the animal’s food and nourishment. Other vegetables grow from it as animal food, to nourish them again. Just as the animal had been wholly transformed into a vegetable through dissolution and putrefaction, what grows from it is transformed into an animal, as already sufficiently shown above.

1723 pp 115–116

About This Reading Edition

The two-book alchemical work of 1723 in German with a new English translation, 399 notes, eight historical diagrams, chapter outlines, keyword essays, a glossary, bibliography, subject index, and 400 discussion questions.

Discussion Questions

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Aurea Catena Homeri. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johann Georg Böhme, 1723. Traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger; the attribution remains uncertain. Historical diagrams from the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung copy digitized by e-rara.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The supplied edition identifies the 1723 German source and historical diagrams as public-domain material. Its new English translation and editorial apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization. The complete original files are retained unchanged.