The Golden Chain of Homer Lexicon

About these entries

This lexicon explains 128 words, substances, processes, and governing images in The Golden Chain of Homer. Its subject is the work in two books published in German in 1723, read through the German text and English translation in the annotated Diotimos edition. The entries show how the book connects the generation of natural things with their dissolution and renewed formation. They are arranged by subject, and alphabetically within each subject; the alphabetical index provides a second route into the whole lexicon.

English words in quotation marks are drawn from the supplied translation where expressly tied to a passage. German and Latin forms retain historical spelling when quoted; a heading may use a familiar English access term for a related phrase. The label In this edition concerns the wording and distinctions of the supplied translation, not a claim about every historical edition. Forms and phrases is selective: it explains attested wording without claiming a complete list of inflections or spellings.

The work appeared anonymously. Anton Joseph Kirchweger is its traditional attribution, not a name printed on the original title page. Homer belongs to the title’s image and is not the author of this eighteenth century treatise. The original editor speaks of an unnamed author and explains that a proposed third part on metallic transmutation was withheld (PRE01S003–006). This lexicon therefore keeps its explanations within the two books and their preliminary and concluding matter.

The book’s claims about creation, elemental change, the generation of minerals, living bodies, and medicines are historical claims. Explaining them accurately requires preserving their local meaning and distinguishing reported observations from the conclusions drawn from them. Words such as acid, alkali, spirit, sulphur, salt, and mercury do not each identify one modern substance throughout the work. Relations among states, preparations, and degrees often matter more than a single modern equivalent. Therapeutic promises are attributed to the author and are not evidence of established medical efficacy.

The annotated edition explicitly marks a local omission at B1C11S003. References here follow the surviving argument and do not reconstruct the omitted passage. Later editions, later translations, and later symbolic interpretations have their own histories; they do not silently supply missing meanings for the text of 1723. The source note at the end identifies the edition used, the layout model, and two independently checked catalogue records for the original work.

The annotated reading edition

The Golden Chain of Homer. A New Translation from the German Edition of 1723. With the German Text, Annotations, and a Reader’s Companion. Diotimos Editions, 2026. The parallel German and English passages are the textual basis for the entries. Passage identifiers and the original page or scan locators are those of this edition.

The original German witness

Aurea catena Homeri oder eine Beschreibung von dem Ursprung der Natur und natürlichen Dingen. Franckfurt und Leipzig: Johann Georg Böhme, 1723. E-rara, copy held by the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung, Zürich. The catalogue records the imprint and 404 numbered pages and places the attributed author’s name in brackets. Persistent record: https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-3819

An independent catalogue record

Wellcome Collection, Aurea catena Homeri, 1723, work h9pqthwg. The record identifies the 1723 Frankfurt and Leipzig imprint and describes preliminary and concluding matter, 404 numbered pages, and folded plates. Catalogue: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h9pqthwg

The scope of the references

The catalogue records were checked on 17 October 2026 for bibliographical context. Interpretive statements in the entries are anchored to the supplied edition’s primary passages. Selected references are evidence for the local explanation, not a claim to list every use of a word. The lexicon does not present later additions as part of the first printed two book arrangement.