This is not far short of what has ever been dreamt before, when beliefs in potions for eternal life were sought by the powerful and influential. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, feared death mightily and chased after an elixir of life, no doubt falling prey to many charlatans on the way. He sent subjects on journeys to fabled locations and had alchemists brew up potions. The latter often contained metals such as mercury and other minerals so it is speculated that he died from poisoning himself. He was not alone in this folly.
Tales of a Fountain of Youth, a spring that endows youthfulness on an ageing man or woman, are as old as the father of history, Herodotus, in whose writings such tales appeared. A painting by Cranach the Elder in the 16th Century chose the mythical fountain as its subject and Cranach had likely heard of the story of the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, who was supposedly told of a magical place of restorative waters in the Caribbean. Cranach painting (below) shows elderly women arriving (on the left) at a pool, being lead into the water and then progressing to right of the pool, all the while becoming miraculously younger. A group of amorous suitors await their nubile arrival. Apparently old men only required the presence of a rejuvenated woman for their own transformation to occur!
In Greek mythology, Tithonus is granted eternal life at the request of Eos, but neglects to ask Zeus that he remain eternally young. In Tennyson's wonderful poem of the same name, Tithonus reflects upon the apparent curse of living forever.
'The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes....'
It's a case of being careful what you wish for.
The Fountain of Youth, Cranach the Elder.
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