eyes of eidola, or thin atomic images, that all objects are constantly shedding. Perceptible
qualities (e.g., color, taste, temperature) of compound bodies did not belong to individual
atoms, but were the result of the particular shapes and arrangements of atoms that struck
and produced impressions in our sense organs. These secondary qualities existed “by
convention.”
Little is known about his views on the gods, though De ̄mokritos seems to have thought
humans developed their belief in gods as a result of receiving images of huge and powerful
anthropomorphic beings. His ethical system is also difficult to assess, though he is said to
have made euthumia (“contentment”) the goal of life.
Ed.: DK 68.
DSB 4.30–35, G.B. Kerferd; KRS 402–433; OCD3 454 – 455, D.J. Furley; ECP 169 – 172, J.S. Purinton;
REP 2.872–878, C.C.W. Taylor; BNP 4 (2004) 267–269 (#1), I. Bodnár.
Walter G. Englert
De ̄mokritos, pseudo (Lith.) (250 BCE – 50 CE)
P refers to De ̄mokritos on the virtues and properties of gems and precious stones:
Macedonian and Persian emeralds (37.69); Arabian aspisatis (perhaps a variety of coal) and
the Leukopetrian silvery stone, effective respectively against spleen diseases and hysteria
(37.146); Erbilian belum (37.149: a kind of agate?); erotylos (or amphicomos or hieromnemon),
valued for divining (37.160); and finally Median zathene (37.185: a kind of amber?).
De ̄mokritos’ identity is entirely uncertain. T M assigns a book on
stones to D A (see D L 9.47), but this study very
probably treated magnets exclusively (cf. DK 68 A 165 = A A
Quaest. 2.23). Pliny’s De ̄mokritos is more likely a late homonym or rather pseudonym,
perhaps concealing B M.
RE S.4 (1924) 219–223, I. Hammer-Jensen.
Eugenio Amato
De ̄mokritos, pseudo (Alch.) (200 BCE – 250 CE)
Pre-eminent amongst authorities cited in the Greek alchemical corpus where he is often
called simply “the Philosopher,” esteemed not for his atomist doctrine, but rather for the
magical and alchemical pseudepigrapha circulating under his name and largely believed
genuine (P 30.8–11; Gellius 10.12). At least one of pseudo-De ̄mokritos’ magical works,
the Kheirokme ̄ta (Things Wrought by Hand), is thought to have been written by B
M (C 7.5.17) and some of the alchemical or proto-alchemical recipes
ascribed to De ̄mokritos (P. H. recipe 2; DK B300, 25; S Ep. Mor. 90.33) were
written by anonymi perhaps as early as the last few centuries BCE. However, the texts
for which alchemists revered him, or at least those that are extant, appear to have been
composed after the mid-1st c. CE (Letrouit 1995: 74).
These texts, cited throughout the Greek alchemical corpus, which (on the sole testimony
of O, CAAG 2.102) together formed the lost Principles, were four in number:
On Gold (aka The Yellow or Gold-making), On Silver (aka The White or Silver-making), On Stones and
On Purple (Letrouit 1995: 75–80). The A A P tentatively
suggests a fifth book, On Pearls (CAAG 2.433).
Berthelot published two alchemical treatises ascribed to De ̄mokritos: the so-called
DE ̄MOKRITOS, PSEUDO (LITH.)