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Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis

Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis Page of 251 Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK VI
145
that aspilates is found in Arabia and has a flame-red color. Black baroptes is said to have an outer band of blood-red and white knots giving it a supernatural appearance. Eumetris, from Balk, is similar to flint and hav­ing been placed on the head produces nocturnal dreams resembling visions.60 Although zoronisios is found along the Indus river and eumetris in Balk nevertheless xistios appears to be the gem of the lower classes of India. Lesbia which takes its name from Lesbos is another gem of the Magi that is also found in India. Catopyrites comes from Cappadocia. This is all Democritus writes concerning these gems.
Democritus writes that mithrax is popular with the Persians. It has the multicolored brilliance of the mountains of the Red Sea against the sun. He has described the color of certain other gems, for example, that of cerites which is similar to wax; eurotias, a blackness that is not evident when the stone is first found; chrysophis, golden yellow. He also describes the form of other gems, for example, bolenia which is found as lumps only during storms. Both the form and other qualities are mentioned in the descriptions of some stones since he writes that orites is an earthy species which is so-named because, like siderites, it is not affected by fire. Since Pliny does not write more than this concerning these same species it is evident that he had not seen them himself nor did he know what they were. Actually we cannot say whether the Magi named these stones or gems with appropriate names, descriptive of what they are, or if they too were as ignorant of these facts since both the Greeks and Latins are seen to have been as ignorant of them as are we.
Chloritis has the green color of emerald when transparent and that of jaspis when non-transparent, or the color of Persian, Median and similar smaragdi. This stone, according to the Magi, is found in the stomach of the Scylla bird.61 They believed that since it contains iron this was an indication of its supernatural origin. Sagda is also green, prase-green when transparent, jasper-green when not. The Chaldean soothsayers believed that it adhered to the bottom of ships. It is impossible to discuss the other stones since the writers Democritus has followed give no descriptions of differences between these stones and the green gems. Zmilaces,62 found in the Euphrates river, is similar to the blue-gray Proconnesian marble and is seen to consist of pieces of marble of that genus that have been carried along by the river. Eusebes is a similar stone and, it is related, a seat was made from it, for the Temple of Hercules in Tyre, from which a person would rise God-like. However Pliny does not say what kind of stone it is.
Stones that form in living bodies are placed among the gems. These stones are found in birds, fish and shell-fish. Alectorius takes its name from
60 No mineral name has been spelled as many different ways as this one. The more proper form would be eumitres.
11 The daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, was turned into the Scylla bird or sea-monster by Ciris for cutting off her father's hair upon which depended his happiness.
62 Pliny calls this gem zimilampis and describes it as having a sea-green color.
Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis Page of 251 Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis
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