Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making

Sacred Fire — When Asbestos Became Divine

• MesotheliomaPodcast.com • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Around 400 BCE, the sculptor Callimachus—nicknamed "katatêxitechnos" (the perfectionist) by the Athenians—created a golden lamp for the Erechtheion temple in Athens that burned continuously before the statue of Athena. The secret: an asbestos wick that never consumed itself. Oil refills were required only once per year. This is one of the earliest verified uses of asbestos technology, documented in the primary source account of Greek traveler Pausanias (c. 150 CE).

In this episode, we examine the verified historical record of asbestos in the ancient Mediterranean—and separate fact from persistent myth.

Topics covered:

  • Pausanias's firsthand account of the golden lamp of Athena in his Description of Greece (Book 1.26.6–7)
  • Why the claim that Vestal Virgins used asbestos wicks has no primary source evidence—Plutarch's Life of Numa describes wood, oil, and incense instead
  • "Linum vivum" (live linen): Pliny the Elder's account of asbestos napkins fire-cleaned at Roman banquets (Natural History, c. 77 CE)
  • Dioscorides' De Materia Medica (c. 50-70 CE): reusable napkins sold to theater patrons, fire-cleaned between performances, and resold the next night
  • Strabo's independent confirmation of fire-cleaned towels from Karystos, Greece (Geography, Book X)
  • Royal funeral shrouds: how asbestos cloth preserved cremation ashes separate from the pyre
  • Pliny's valuation: asbestos cloth "equals the prices of exceptional pearls"cover

Who this episode is for: Anyone researching the ancient history of asbestos, the Vestal Virgin eternal flame, Pliny the Elder's writings on minerals, Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, or the use of asbestos in Greek and Roman religious practice.

Sources cited:

  • Pausanias, Description of Greece (c. 150 CE)
  • Pliny the Elder, Natural History (c. 77 CE)
  • Dioscorides, De Materia Medica (c. 50-70 CE)
  • Strabo, Geography (c. 1st century BCE/CE)
  • Plutarch, Life of Numa
  • Vitruvius, De Architectura (Callimachus nickname source)
  • Loeb Classical Library scholarly annotations

Next episode preview: The "sickness of the lungs" passage everyone cites—and why it may not be about asbestos at all. What Pliny actually wrote, and the mistranslation that persisted for over a century.


Resources

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano Mesothelioma Law Firm, a nationwide practice with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the exposure happened somewhere—and Paul Danziger and Rod De Llano know how to trace it back. For a free consultation, visit https://dandell.com.

Resources:

→ Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/

→ Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

→ Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/

→ Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/

Sister Podcast - MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast:

http://mesotheliomapodcast.com/

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making


Episode 3: Sacred Fire — When Asbestos Became Divine

Published by Danziger & De Llano | Dandell.com


Key Takeaways

  • Pausanias's golden lamp of Athena (c. 150 CE): The earliest detailed primary source account of asbestos technology in practical use — a lamp in Athens's Erechtheion temple that burned continuously with only annual oil refills
  • Sculptor Callimachus created the lamp around 400 BCE; the Athenians nicknamed him "katatêxitechnos" (the perfectionist)
  • "Carpasian flax" from Cyprus was the asbestos wick material, confirmed by modern scholars (Loeb Classical Library)
  • Vestal Virgin asbestos myth debunked: No primary source supports the claim that Rome's eternal flame used asbestos wicks — Plutarch's Life of Numa describes wood, oil, and incense instead
  • Roman "party tricks": Pliny the Elder describes banquet napkins ("linum vivum") thrown into fire for cleaning, emerging "brighter from the flames than they could have been made by being washed"
  • Dioscorides's theater napkins (c. 50–70 CE): Reusable napkins sold to theater patrons, fire-cleaned between performances, and resold the next night
  • Strabo's independent corroboration: Greek geographer describes the same fire-cleaning technology in Karystos, Greece
  • Royal cremation shrouds: Asbestos cloth kept royal ashes separate from pyre wood — "funeral tunics for royalty"
  • Value: Pliny states asbestos cloth "equals the prices of exceptional pearls" — equivalent to approximately $25 million in modern currency
  • Pliny's botanical confusion: He believed asbestos was a plant from India, "guarded by serpents" in the desert
  • Medieval True Cross fraud: Merchants later sold asbestos as holy relics — "if it doesn't burn, it must be divine"


Episode Transcript


Introduction: The Impossible Lamp

HOST: Athens. Twenty-four hundred years ago. Inside the Erechtheion temple, there's a golden lamp. It burns day and night before an ancient wooden statue of Athena.

CO-HOST: An eternal flame.

HOST: But here's what's strange. The priests fill it with oil once per year.

CO-HOST: Once a year? How is that even possible?

HOST: The wick. It doesn't burn.

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm. Visit Dandell.com for a free consultation.


From Discovery to Divinity

HOST: Last episode, we talked about the earliest asbestos use — Finnish pottery, seven thousand years ago. The salamander myth. But by the time we get to ancient Greece and Rome, asbestos becomes something else entirely.

CO-HOST: What do you mean?

HOST: Sacred. Think about it. Fire that never dies. Cloth that emerges pure from flames. To the ancient world, that's not just useful — that's divine.


Pausanias's Golden Lamp: The Primary Source

CO-HOST: So this lamp in Athens —

HOST: We actually have a primary source for this. A traveler named Pausanias, around 150 CE. He visited the Erechtheion and described exactly what he saw. In detail.

CO-HOST: What did he write?

HOST: He says the lamp was made by a sculptor named Callimachus. The Athenians had a nickname for him — katatêxitechnos.

CO-HOST: What does that mean?

HOST: Loosely? "The perfectionist." The guy who fusses over his own work until it's flawless. And the wick was made of "Carpasian flax" — from Karpasia, a region in Cyprus.

CO-HOST: And that's asbestos?

HOST: Modern scholars confirmed it. The Loeb Classical Library translation has a footnote — "probably asbestos." So we have a primary source describing asbestos in practical use, written by someone who actually saw the thing.

CO-HOST: How did it work mechanically?

HOST: The asbestos wick didn't consume itself like ordinary wicks do. The flame kept burning while the oil slowly depleted. And there was a bronze palm tree above the lamp that drew smoke up to the temple roof. They only refilled it once a year, on the same day. It became part of Athenian religious ritual.

CO-HOST: Fire technology as sacred practice.


The Vestal Virgin Myth: Debunked

CO-HOST: So if Greece has the eternal flame of Athena — what about Rome? The Vestal Virgins?

HOST: Right. The Temple of Vesta. Another eternal flame. Six priestesses whose only job was to keep it burning. If they let it go out, they were beaten publicly by the high priest.

CO-HOST: And the "buried alive" thing?

HOST: That was for breaking their vow of chastity. Different offense. For over a thousand years, that flame burned — from the founding of Rome until 394 CE.

CO-HOST: Did they use asbestos wicks too?

HOST: Here's the thing. There's no evidence they did.

CO-HOST: What?

HOST: You'll see it everywhere. "The Vestal Virgins used asbestos wicks to maintain the eternal flame." It's in textbooks. Wikipedia. Documentary scripts. But no primary source supports it. None.

CO-HOST: None?

HOST: Plutarch describes the Vestal flame in detail in his Life of Numa. You know what he says about how they kept it burning? Wood. Oil. Incense. Added daily. And if it went out, they relit it using sunlight focused through bronze mirrors.

CO-HOST: No asbestos.

HOST: No asbestos. The claim appears to be modern speculation — people just assuming Rome must have used the same technology as Greece. Another myth. Great story. No evidence.


Roman Party Tricks: Fire-Cleaned Napkins

HOST: But Rome did use asbestos. Just not for Vesta.

CO-HOST: For what then?

HOST: Party tricks. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, around 77 CE. He describes banquets where guests used napkins made of — his term — "live linen." Linum vivum.

CO-HOST: How did they clean them?

HOST: They threw them into the fire. Pliny writes that the napkins came out — and I'm quoting here — "brighter from the flames than they could have been made by being washed in water."

CO-HOST: So it's not just that they survived the fire — they came out cleaner than if you'd washed them?

HOST: The stains just burned away. Imagine you're a guest at a Roman banquet. You spill wine on your napkin. The host picks it up, tosses it into the flames, and pulls it out spotless. Gleaming white.

CO-HOST: Magic.

HOST: As far as anyone understood at the time? Yeah. Magic.


Dioscorides's Theater Napkins: The Business Model

HOST: And this wasn't just rich people showing off. It became a business. Dioscorides — Greek physician, same era — describes something even stranger.

CO-HOST: What?

HOST: Reusable napkins sold to theater patrons. You buy a napkin. You use it. At the end of the show, they collect them, throw them in the fire, sell them again the next night.

CO-HOST: Ancient disposable napkins. That you un-dispose.

HOST: Cleaned and whitened with fire. Ready for the next customer.


Strabo's Corroboration

HOST: And Pliny wasn't the only one who wrote about this. Strabo — Greek geographer, around the same era — describes the same thing in Karystos, a town on the island of Euboea in Greece.

CO-HOST: What did he say?

HOST: He describes "stone which is combed and woven" — stone you can weave — made into towels that, quote, "when soiled, are thrown into fire and cleansed, just as linens are cleansed by washing."

CO-HOST: Two independent writers describing the same phenomenon.

HOST: That's how we know it was real. Corroboration.


Royal Cremation Shrouds

CO-HOST: So asbestos for napkins and towels. What else?

HOST: Funeral shrouds. Pliny writes that asbestos cloth was used for "funeral tunics for royalty."

CO-HOST: For cremation? Why royalty specifically?

HOST: Think about what happens when you cremate someone. The body burns along with the wood of the pyre. Everything becomes ash. Mixed together. But if you wrapped the body in asbestos — the cloth survives. The body's ashes stay inside. Separate from the pyre.

CO-HOST: You get pure ashes. Only the deceased. Nothing else.

HOST: Important enough to deserve that separation. Important enough to afford it.


The Value: Equal to Exceptional Pearls

CO-HOST: How expensive was this stuff?

HOST: Pliny tells us exactly. Quote: "When any is found, it equals the prices of exceptional pearls."

CO-HOST: Pearls?

HOST: In the Roman world, pearls were among the most valuable substances known. Cleopatra allegedly dissolved a pearl worth ten million sesterces in vinegar just to win a bet.

CO-HOST: What's that worth today?

HOST: About twenty-five million dollars. And asbestos cloth matched that value. Twenty-five million dollars for cloth that doesn't burn.


Pliny's Botanical Confusion

CO-HOST: So where did they get it?

HOST: Well, Pliny thought it came from India. Quote: "The deserts and sun-scorched regions of India where no rain falls, amid terrible serpents."

CO-HOST: Serpents?

HOST: He thought it was a plant. Growing in the desert. Guarded by snakes. He says it "has become habituated to living in the burning heat."

CO-HOST: So the Romans were using this incredibly valuable material — worth more than pearls — without understanding what it actually was.

HOST: Not a clue.


Medieval Fraud: The True Cross

HOST: And eventually, medieval merchants figured out another use.

CO-HOST: What?

HOST: Selling it as pieces of the True Cross. If it doesn't burn, it must be holy. Proof of divine origin.

CO-HOST: That's actually kind of genius. Definitely going to hell, but genius.


What's Next: The Workers

HOST: But first — the workers. The slaves mining it. Weaving it. Breathing it. Nobody talks about the workers.

CO-HOST: Did they know it was dangerous?

HOST: That's the question. There's a passage everyone cites — Pliny describing workers with "sickness of the lungs." Wearing masks made of bladder skin.

CO-HOST: So they knew.

HOST: Except — that passage might not be about asbestos at all. Next episode, we dig into the most misquoted passage in asbestos history. What Pliny actually wrote. What scholars got wrong for over a century. And why it matters.

CO-HOST: Episode 4: The First Victims.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma — or any illness related to asbestos exposure — you deserve to know your options. Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is brought to you by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. For a free consultation, visit Dandell.com.


Frequently Asked Questions


Did the Vestal Virgins use asbestos wicks for the eternal flame?

No. Despite widespread claims in textbooks and online sources, no primary source supports the assertion that Rome's Vestal Virgins used asbestos wicks. Plutarch's Life of Numa describes the flame being maintained with wood, oil, and incense added daily. If the flame went out, it was relit using sunlight focused through bronze mirrors. The asbestos claim appears to be modern speculation based on conflation with Greek practices.


What is the earliest primary source describing asbestos technology?

Pausanias's Description of Greece (c. 150 CE) provides the earliest detailed primary source account of asbestos in practical use. He describes a golden lamp in Athens's Erechtheion temple with a wick made of "Carpasian flax" (asbestos from Cyprus) that burned continuously, requiring oil refills only once per year. The lamp was created by sculptor Callimachus around 400 BCE.


How did Romans clean asbestos napkins?

Romans threw asbestos napkins directly into fire for cleaning. Pliny the Elder (Natural History, c. 77 CE) writes that the napkins came out "brighter from the flames than they could have been made by being washed in water." Dioscorides describes a commercial application: reusable napkins sold to theater patrons, fire-cleaned after each performance, and resold the following night.


How valuable was asbestos in ancient Rome?

Pliny the Elder states that asbestos cloth "equals the prices of exceptional pearls." For context, Cleopatra allegedly dissolved a pearl worth ten million sesterces (approximately $25 million in modern currency) in vinegar to win a bet with Mark Antony. Asbestos cloth commanded similar prices, reflecting its extreme rarity and remarkable fire-resistant properties.


Why was asbestos used for royal cremation shrouds?

Asbestos shrouds allowed cremated remains to be collected separately from pyre ash. When a body wrapped in asbestos cloth was cremated, the cloth survived the fire, keeping the deceased's ashes pure and unmixed with wood ash. This was considered appropriate only for royalty — those "important enough to deserve that separation" and wealthy enough to afford the extraordinary cost.


Did ancient Romans understand that asbestos was a mineral?

No. Pliny the Elder believed asbestos was a plant from India, growing "amid terrible serpents" in "deserts and sun-scorched regions where no rain falls." He wrote that it had "become habituated to living in the burning heat." Despite using asbestos for napkins, funeral shrouds, and other applications, Romans did not understand its geological origin.


What is "katatêxitechnos"?

"Katatêxitechnos" was the Athenian nickname for sculptor Callimachus, who created the golden lamp of Athena around 400 BCE. The term roughly translates to "the perfectionist" — someone who fusses over his own work until it's flawless. The nickname appears in Vitruvius's writings.


Did medieval merchants really sell asbestos as True Cross relics?

Yes. Medieval merchants exploited asbestos's fireproof properties for religious fraud, selling pieces as fragments of the True Cross. The logic was simple: if the material doesn't burn, it must be holy — proof of divine origin. This represented yet another chapter in the long history of asbestos mysticism and misunderstanding.


Primary Sources Cited in This Episode

  • Pausanias, Description of Greece (c. 150 CE) — Book 1.26.6–7, describing the golden lamp of Athena
  • Pliny the Elder, Natural History (c. 77 CE) — Accounts of "linum vivum," fire-cleaned napkins, funeral shrouds, and asbestos valuation
  • Dioscorides, De Materia Medica (c. 50–70 CE) — Description of theater napkins sold, fire-cleaned, and resold
  • Strabo, Geography (c. 1st century BCE/CE) — Book X, describing fire-cleaned towels from Karystos, Greece
  • Plutarch, Life of Numa — Description of Vestal flame maintenance (no asbestos mentioned)
  • Vitruvius, De Architectura — Source for Callimachus's nickname "katatêxitechnos"
  • Loeb Classical Library — Modern scholarly annotations confirming "Carpasian flax" as asbestos


Resources for Mesothelioma Families


About This Series

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making traces the complete history of asbestos — from Neolithic Finland to ancient Rome to the Industrial Revolution to the largest corporate cover-up in American history.

Produced by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience representing asbestos victims and their families. The firm has recovered nearly $2 billion in compensation for mesothelioma patients, veterans, and families affected by asbestos-related disease.

Companion Podcast: MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast offers medical guidance, legal information, and survivor stories for families navigating a mesothelioma diagnosis.

© 2025 Danziger & De Llano. All rights reserved. For a free mesothelioma case evaluation, visit Dandell.com or call for a confidential consultation.