To some, quintessence was a subtle substance found in some degree in each of the other four elements. Alchemy was a secretive and enigmatic art with endless interpretations. The ultimate goal was to turn immature base metals like lead into higher metals like gold by releasing their perfect state, or quintessence.īut what exactly was quintessence? That depends on which alchemist you ask. The theory, then, was that by distilling a substance down to its elemental form and creating the perfect balance and proportions of the different elements, you could purify matter and transmute one substance into another. Metals were all composed of the four elements, but were in different stages of maturity on their way to spiritual perfection. The underlying belief was that metals were alive and growing, and could change into other substances. The trick was freeing it.Īristotle believed the four physical elements were changeable, and alchemists took this idea and ran with it.

A bit of godly essence was hidden in all things, whether animal, plant, or mineral.

To them, it described the most pristine and perfect essence found in nature, which they called “quintessence.” They too saw quintessence (so named from the Latin phrase qüinta essentia, meaning “fifth essence”) as divine, but believed it was found on Earth as well as in the heavens. Derby Museum and Art GalleryĪlchemy, the magical medieval proto-science, came into vogue in the Western world in the 12th and 13th centuries, when the texts of the Greek and Arab philosophers were translated into Latin and European scholars finally got wind of these ancient ideas.Īlchemists dusted off the antique concept of aether and put a new spin on it. The Alchymist, In Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful Conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers, by Joseph Wright of Derby, now in Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, U.K. In Plato’s theory of the cosmos, he writes that there are different kinds of air and “the brightest part is called the aether.” This bright, divine Aether was the classical philosophers’ version of our upper atmosphere. Aether was also a Greek god, one of the first-born deities in the pantheon, the primordial god of light and the sky. The word “aether” comes from the Greek aithêr, meaning “upper air.” The Greeks’ mythology described the pure air that the gods breathed in the heavens as opposed to the normal air breathed by mortals on Earth, and went further than that. In Greek mythology it described the pure air that the gods breathed in the heavens as opposed to the normal air breathed by mortals on Earth. It may be the most enduring imaginary concept in scientific history.Īether was invented by the ancients. Yet aether does not exist, and it never did. Centuries later, early modern scientists like René Descartes and Nikola Tesla were still pointing to aether to explain fundamental natural phenomena like gravity and light. To the medieval alchemists, it was the fabled philosopher’s stone that could turn lead into gold and prolong life. Ancient Greeks saw aether as the god of light and the fifth element of the universe. Wikimedia Commons / Public DomainĪether meant many things to many people.

Aether meaning