Aeson is rejuvenated by having his blood replaced by magic juices in a boiling vat; representing the process of self-destruction in order to attain the elixir of life. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs after Salomon Trismosin.

The Harley MS of Splendor solis identifies the man in the vat as Aeson as described by Ovid in Metamorphoses VII, 234-293. Lennep claims that this image is related to a text by the ancient alchemist Zosimos of Panoplis, who writes: "These old sages voluntarily dismembered themselves and boiled the pieces until a perfect decoction took place, in order to change their feeble old age into a state of force and vigour". The image here also has Christian resonances of baptism and resurrection. In alchemy the dove represented the volatile spirit of putrefying matter (Lennep, p. 122)