The Fragments on Democritus and Magic is a pseudepigraphic collection attributed to Bolus of Mendes, a Hellenistic writer active around 200 BCE. Composed in Koine Greek, the work falsely ascribes its content to the pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus in order to connect his intellectual authority with emerging traditions of magic and the occult. The surviving passages, which are not from a continuous manuscript but are quotations preserved by later Greek, Byzantine, and Arabic authors, discuss the hidden properties of stones, plants, and animals. These properties are typically explained through the principles of sympathy and antipathy, a conceptual framework wherein natural objects possess inherent affinities or aversions to one another. Modern scholarship interprets these fragments as excerpts from a larger, now-lost corpus by Bolus, designed to legitimize magical and proto-alchemical knowledge by associating it with a venerable philosophical figure. The work appears intended for an audience of practitioners or students in Ptolemaic Egypt interested in synthesizing Greek philosophical thought with Egyptian and Near Eastern traditions of natural magic. Through this and similar pseudepigrapha, Bolus played a significant role in forging the enduring legendary image of Democritus as a master of alchemy and esoteric arts.
| 3a,263,F 1 | CLEM. AL. Strom. 1, 69, 4: Δημόκριτος γὰρ τοὺς Βαβυλωνίους λόγους ἠθικοὺς πεποίηται· λέγεται γὰρ τὴν Ἀκικάρου στήλην ἑρμηνευθεῖσαν τοῖς ἰδίοις συντάξαι συγγράμμασι· κἄστιν ἐπισημήνασθαι παρ’ αὐτοῦ «τάδε λέγει Δημόκριτος» γράφοντος. (5) ναὶ μὴν καὶ περὶ αὑτοῦ ἧι σεμνυνόμενός φησί που ἐπὶ τῆι πολυμαθίαι· «ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν κατ’ ἐμαυτὸν ἀνθρώπων γῆν πλείστην ἐπλανησάμην ἱστορέων τὰ μήκιστα, καὶ ἀέρας τε καὶ γέας πλείστας εἶδον, καὶ λογίων ἀνθρώπων πλείστων ἐσήκουσα, καὶ γραμμέων συνθέσιος μετὰ ἀποδείξεως οὐδείς κώ με παρήλλαξεν, οὐδ’ οἱ Αἰγυπτίων καλεόμενοι ἁρπεδονάπται, σὺν τοῖς δ’ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἐπ’ ἔτεα πέντε ἐπὶ ξείνης ἐγενήθην». (6) ἐπῆλθε γὰρ Βαβυλῶνά τε καὶ Περσίδα καὶ Αἴγυπτον τοῖς τε μάγοις καὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσι μαθητεύων. Ζωροάστρην δὲ τὸν μάγον τὸν Πέρσην ὁ Πυθαγόρας ἐζήλωσεν .... |
| 3a,263,F 2 | PLIN. NH 30, 7: Orphea putarem e propinquo artem primum intulisse ...., si non expers sedes eius tota Thrace magices fuisset. (8) primus, quod extet, ut equidem invenio, ... Osthanes Xerxen regem Persarum bello quod is Graeciae intulit comitatus ac velut semina artis portentosae sparsit .... diligentiores paulo ante hunc ponunt Zoroastren, alium (?) Proconnensium. quod certum est, hic maxime Osthanes ad rabiem .... scientiae eius Graecorum populos egit. quamquam animadverto summam literarum claritatem gloriamque ex ea scientia antiquitus et paene semper petitam. (9) certe Pythagoras Empedocles Democritus Plato ad hanc discendam navigaver e , exiliis verius quam peregrinationibus suscepti s ; hanc reversi praedicaver e , hac in arcanis habuer e . Democritus Apollobechen Coptiten et Dardanum e Phoenice (? ) inlustravi t , voluminibus Dardani in sepulcrum eius petiti s , suis vero ex disciplina eorum editi s . quae recepta ab ullis hominum atque transisse per memoriam aeque ac nihil in vita miradum est; (10) in tantum fides istis fasque omne deest, adeo ut qui cetera in viro probant, haec opera eius esse infitientur. sed frustra. hunc enim maxime adfixisse animis eam dulcedinem constat .... (11) est et alia magices factio a Mose et Janne et Lotape ac Judaeis pendens, sed multis milibus annorum post Zoroastren. tanto recentior est Cypria. non levem et Alexandri Magni temporibus auctoritatem addidit professioni secundus Osthanes, comitatu eius exornatus, planeque (quod nemo dubitet) orbem terrarum peragravit. |