| Gold has always been a material that people valued, | | | | metal as a symbol of ultimate perfection and authors |
| either for its precious look, or for its properties. Just like | | | | associate it with power and desire. There are |
| in real life, fictional characters have also chased gold, | | | | numerous famous representations of such a story in |
| and even a history of gold in literature can be written. | | | | ancient temples, depictions copied by many famous |
| The yellow metal plays an important role in Oriental | | | | Renaissance artists. This is the case of King Midas, |
| literature. Ancient stories contain lavish descriptions of | | | | who ultimately sees his greatest wish come true: he |
| jewelry almost entirely made out of gold and precious | | | | gets the ability to turn everything he touches into gold. |
| diamonds. Just like nowadays, gold was a sign of | | | | This desire is not unique in literature since people, as |
| aristocracy, just that, in the old days, it was almost | | | | well as characters in books, wished to turn simple |
| exclusively a mark of nobility. | | | | objects and materials into gold for many centuries. |
| Ancient Egyptian literature is rich in descriptions of | | | | Alchemy is at the same time a philosophy and an |
| gods, goddesses, but also pharaohs covered in gold | | | | ancient practice. People who practice it try to change |
| and there are mentions of this metal as being the flesh | | | | metals into gold, and their attempts are also associated |
| of the gods. This is understandable since gold was one | | | | with the preparation of the elixir of longevity, and |
| of the first metals to be exploited in the region and | | | | achieving ultimate wisdom. |
| buying gold was common. Moreover, in the beginning, | | | | The philosophy is the subject of novels such as |
| coins were used as standardized pieces of precious | | | | Goethe´s Faust, and, of course, the successful |
| metal and they acquired a value of their own only later | | | | Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s Stone, by |
| on. | | | | J.K. Rowling. The bibliography is diversified when it |
| There are other mythologies that also refer to gold. | | | | comes to this subject and books range from pure |
| Greek and Roman ancient writings often mention this | | | | fiction to volumes claiming scientific accuracy. |