Martelli Matteo
University of Pisa, Italy.
Ambix. 2009 Mar;56(1):5-22. doi: 10.1179/174582309X405192.
The name of the chemical solution (divine water) or (sulfur water) is characterised by semantic ambiguity: the term theion means both "divine" and "sulfur," and Greek alchemists frequently play on this polysemy. This article analyses the use of this and similar expressions in the writings of pseudo-Democritus from both a technical and a philological point of view. A fragment preserved by the alchemists Moses and Synesius shows that pseudo-Democritus knows two different kinds of this "water," the second of which recalls a recipe found in the chemical Leiden Papyrus, and that the composition of the substance determines the form of its name.
这种化学溶液（神水）或（硫磺水）的名称存在语义模糊性：theion一词既有“神圣的”意思，也有“硫磺”的意思，希腊炼金术士经常利用这种一词多义。本文从技术和语文学的角度分析了伪德谟克利特著作中此类及类似表述的用法。炼金术士摩西和西内修斯保存的一个片段表明，伪德谟克利特知道两种不同的这种“水”，其中第二种让人想起在《莱顿化学纸莎草文献》中发现的一种配方，而且该物质的成分决定了其名称的形式。
