From the book
The Golden Chain of Homer
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger) · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordReadily mobile or separable compared with the more enduring portions that follow it.
- In the Golden ChainThe volatile stands at the upper pole of the chain yet can be retained, fixed, and made bodily.
- TranslationThe word describes comparative behaviour and can apply to collected liquid, dry, or coagulated portions.
- A place to readB1C20S001, the explicit definition of volatile, acid, and alkali.
Meaning
Volatile identifies the subtler and more readily mobile portion of a subject, particularly what comes first in its fiery anatomy. It is opposed to fixed without forming an absolute separation. The author’s elemental scheme treats heaven as volatile earth and earth as fixed heaven: one original matter occupies different conditions of mobility and retention.
The collected volatile is not necessarily a gas. The defining passage allows it to take liquid, dry, or coagulated form. Nor is volatility uniformly beneficial. It can bring quick penetration and rapid action, but excessive mobility can carry a preparation away before it has the sustained effect the author desires. The operative value depends on the body and the intended end.
Use in the book
PRE00S002 places volatile at the upper pole of the preliminary image, opposite fixed below. B1C05S002 explains the separation of heaven and air from heavier water and earth through this contrast. B1C09S012 then insists that each pole contains something of the other. Relative to heaven, earth’s mobility counts as fixity; relative to earth, heaven’s stability counts as volatility. The term therefore cannot be interpreted accurately without asking what comparison the author is making.
B1C20S001 defines the volatile by its early appearance and extreme subtlety in analysis. B1C20S002 gives universal water as a clear, bright, tasteless example, while animal and vegetable analyses yield more specifically marked portions. B2C07S006 and B2C08S004 qualify the expectation that every analysis must yield an identical volatile: hard dried parts treated without prior putrefaction may lack the ordinary first fraction, because the author says it has partly departed or changed into acid. Preparation and material history affect which portion receives the name.
The medical argument prevents making volatility an unqualified goal. B2C10S024 says an excessively volatile preparation can pass too quickly through and out of the body, while an excessively fixed one may remain inaccessible. The desired middle must be transformable and retentive enough for the author’s proposed therapeutic end. Similarly, B2C08S007’s claim that many poisons are immature and volatile belongs to his theory of ripening; it does not make every volatile subject poisonous or establish that fixation alone makes a substance safe. The defining category and the medical valuation must be kept distinct.
Places to read
- Title and Diagrams · §2The upper pole is labelled volatile.
- Book I · Ch. 9 · §12Volatility and fixity are relative conditions.
- Book I · Ch. 20 · §1The author defines the earliest and subtlest portion.
- Book II · Ch. 7 · §6Dry treatment can lack the ordinary volatile fraction.
- Book II · Ch. 10 · §24Excessive volatility can thwart the intended medicinal effect.
Translation in this edition
Volatile, volatil, flüchtig, Volatilität, and Latin inflections are attested in the source. The substantive “the volatile” can name a separated fraction or a general pole within a scheme. It should not be taken to imply one independently existing substance shared unchanged by all subjects.
B2C08S006 explicitly says different names arise as one matter is made volatile or fixed. Its discussion of a delicate oil accompanying a volatile spirit also cautions against a rigid list of entirely exclusive fractions. The name follows relative condition and predominance, while local specification continues to matter.