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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThe fragment displays multiple lines of Greek cursive script written in a professional scribal hand on weathered papyrus. At the bottom of the column, a second hand has added the Greek word 'γινέσθω' (ginesthō), meaning 'let it be done.' This brief command is widely identified by historians as the personal autograph of Cleopatra herself.
This document is a rare primary source from the Ptolemaic administration in Alexandria, the city that served as the intellectual cradle for the Hermetica and Neoplatonism. Cleopatra VII would later become a legendary figure in the Western esoteric tradition, specifically within alchemy, where she was credited as the author of early foundational texts like the 'Chrysopoeia.'
γινέσθω
Cleopatra the Alchemist
Cleopatra VII was mythologized in the alchemical tradition as a master of the art and the purported author of the 'Chrysopoeia' or 'Gold-Making of Cleopatra.'
Object
scientific
Digital Source
Unknown · Public domain
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 4, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.