Kollourion

In Revelation 3:18, God advises the church in Laodicea to purchase eye salve from him, "so that you may see." In the context this has been explained as a metaphor for gaining spiritual sight and avoiding spiritual blindness, but the metaphor is based off of a well-known Roman practice.

A good deal is actually known about Roman "eye salve" (коλλоúριov). It is attested in numerous written sources, and a surprising amount is also known from archaeology. One of the interesting aspects of Roman eye salve is that it was mixed as a paste, then stamped with a seal before being allowed to dry. The seal usually stated the name of the eye doctor (oculist), the kind of salve, and the condition or disease it targeted. The salve was dried to allow for easy storage and transportation. When it was needed, it was powdered and mixed with a liquid again before application.

Hundreds of seals used to stamp cakes of Roman eye salve have been discovered, usually associated with Roman military camps abroad. Here is a four-sided stamp of the oculist Junius Taurus. All four concoctions (Lat. collyria) make use of saffron as an ingredient.

• New Testament Revelation 3:18
• Greek Sources
• Latin Sources
• Archaeological Evidence
• PGM has a recipe
• Tobit
• See Also

New Testament Revelation 3:18

Christing the eyes in revelation in order to "see" the divine. It's the most literal place in the Greek New Testament that uses χριω (εγχριω/egchrio) for transcendent visionary "sight", while obviously mirroring the mystery application of the drugs... showing that the mystery language and practice directly applies to that work, and thus to the practice of those apostles.

It’s the only place in the entire Greek New Testament where a direct medical use of χρ‑ is applied to a bodily orifice-and not just any orifice, but the eyes, the center of perception, vision, and spiritual insight.

• κολλούριον (kollourion) - eye-salve (medical)
• ἐγχρῖσαι (eg-chrisai) - to smear/apply a medicated salve in (aorist infinitive of ἐγχρίω)
• τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς (tous ophthalmous) - the eyes
• σου (sou) - of you (your)
• ἵνα βλέπῃς (hina blepes) - so that you may see

Applying drug salves to the eyes to induce the spiritual visions that are not normally seen without those salves.

• ἐγχρίω (eg + χρίω): This is not ritual. This is bodily, medicinal, physical.
• Applied to the eyes, the seat of perception. To change what is seen from optical/external to entheogenic (spiritually hallucinogenic).
• Medicinal, not symbolic: While the metaphor is obvious (spiritual blindness), the verb’s usage reflects practical medical smearing-as seen in Galen and other classical medical authors as well as literature from the classical period (Homer, etc).
• It reflects the ancient Greek medical practice of applying kollouria (eye salves) by rubbing them into the eye socket-direct, physical contact.

Implication
This passage subtly reverses the expected order:

• The church typically tells us not to seek external ritual christing.
• This passage in revelation aligns more with Asklepian healing rites, or oracular mystery rites, than the catholic/orthodox/popularized model of Hebrew priesthood.
• The act is medical and visionary.... not theatrical nor metaphorical nor supernatural.

We know that The Purple was a common (expected) ingredient of the Roman kollourion salve. The kollourion cakes were expected to be purple or dark-purple to indicate potency.

Greek Sources

• Dioscorides, De Materia Medica 5.99 (1st c. CE):

Καὶ κολλύρια δὲ ποιοῦσιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ…
(“And they also make collyria [eye-salves] from it…”)
Here Dioscorides gives recipes for ophthalmic remedies, including saffron, copper compounds, and lead-based powders.

• Galen, De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos 12.824 Kühn:

Galen preserves numerous recipes for κολλύρια; he describes their preparation, drying, and later reconstitution with liquid for application to the eyes.

• Aetius of Amida, Tetrabiblos 8.6 (6th c. CE):

Lists many named κολλύρια with instructions for eye diseases (ophthalmia, ulcers, dim vision). He explicitly notes the practice of stamping them into cakes.

Latin Sources

• Celsus, De Medicina 6.6.1–6 (1st c. CE):

Celsus gives detailed lists of collyria, describing them as dried, powdered, and then reconstituted with liquid:

Collyria autem sic fiunt:… cum induruerunt, adservantur; deinde, cum opus est, teruntur et instillantur.
(“Collyria are made thus: … when they have hardened, they are kept; then, when needed, they are ground and instilled.”)

• Pliny the Elder, Natural History 26.20.39:

Pliny describes saffron and other substances as ingredients in collyria.

• Marcellus Empiricus, De Medicamentis 15 (4th–5th c. CE):

Includes numerous collyria prescriptions with the term itself.

Archaeological Evidence

• Hundreds of oculist stamps (stamps for collyria) have been found across the Roman world, especially near military sites (e.g. along the Rhine and in Britain).

These stamps bear inscriptions like:
“Lucius Julius Bassa, collyrium for weak sight” (L. Iuli Bassi collyrium ad caliginem).

• See R. Jackson, Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire (1988), pp. 75–82.
  • The Greek term κολλύριον literally means “a small roll of bread” (diminutive of κόλλυρα), but in medical context it means “a little roll of medicine” - perfectly describing the stamped cakes of eye-salve.

PGM has a recipe

The PGM IV32.12 has a recipe for it…

• λευκὸς ἑλλέβορος / White hellebore - violent emetic / neuroactive agent; classically associated with purgation of the senses.
• μήκων / opium - μῆκων functions here as a pharmakon that slows vital signs, producing the entrance-into-death state.
• μάνδραγορα ῥίζα / Mandrake - sedative, deliriant, heavily used in temple-medicine and oracular incubation.
• κρόκος / Saffron - stimulant, color-vision enhancer, associated with dawn-vision and ecstatic perception.
• οἶνος παλαιός - Old wine - solvent → enhances alkaloid extraction, increases transdermal absorption when used in a kollourion.
• χρίσας τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς - χρίω = “to christ,” to apply salve or plaster medicamentally, to drug the eyes for visionary incubation.
• εἰς καθαρὸν οἶκον - the pure (prepared or quiet) house (cell, chamber) - the controlled sensory environment for the drug-vision.
• ὄψει θεοὺς νυκτός - Drug-state hallucinations framed in Greek oracular tradition: θεοὶ walking about = moving shapes with agency (entoptic + cognitive overlay).

Tobit

Remember in the book of Tobit when the sparrow dropped dung in Tobit's eyes, in order that his eyes may be opened as he entered into the sleep of death? Dung is a type of clay used to mix drugs into, that acts as a plaster, to administer the drugs in the eyes of the person.

See Also

• How God Formed Man - for a kollourionic practice that appears to be used in the mystery initiation rites. Many more sources than just Rev 3:18
• The Purple - has some more context about the use of Tyrian Purple Murex dye use in the Kollourion eye salve used in Revelation 3:18.