Aspects of Gold Found in Literature

Gold has always been a material that people valued, either for its precious look, or for its properties. Just like in real life, fictional characters have also chased gold, and even a history of gold in literature can be written.

The yellow metal plays an important role in Oriental literature. Ancient stories contain lavish descriptions of jewelry almost entirely made out of gold and precious diamonds. Just like nowadays, gold was a sign of aristocracy, just that, in the old days, it was almost exclusively a mark of nobility.

Ancient Egyptian literature is rich in descriptions of gods, goddesses, but also pharaohs covered in gold and there are mentions of this metal as being the flesh of the gods. This is understandable since gold was one of the first metals to be exploited in the region and buying gold was common. Moreover, in the beginning, coins were used as standardized pieces of precious metal and they acquired a value of their own only later on.

There are other mythologies that also refer to gold. Greek and Roman ancient writings often mention this metal as a symbol of ultimate perfection and authors associate it with power and desire. There are numerous famous representations of such a story in ancient temples, depictions copied by many famous Renaissance artists. This is the case of King Midas, who ultimately sees his greatest wish come true: he gets the ability to turn everything he touches into gold.

This desire is not unique in literature since people, as well as characters in books, wished to turn simple objects and materials into gold for many centuries. Alchemy is at the same time a philosophy and an ancient practice. People who practice it try to change metals into gold, and their attempts are also associated with the preparation of the elixir of longevity, and achieving ultimate wisdom.

The philosophy is the subject of novels such as Goethe´s Faust, and, of course, the successful Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s Stone, by J.K. Rowling. The bibliography is diversified when it comes to this subject and books range from pure fiction to volumes claiming scientific accuracy.

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