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Amethystus, Amethyst

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AMETHYSTUS.
31
the elegant contour of her whole body is distinctly visible. She is turning round her neck and looking back as if about to stop to pick up the golden apple thrown down by her competitor.
Heads, and even busts, both in full and in half-relief, often occur of antique workmanship in this stone : as some perfectly preserved remains show they served to complete statuettes in the precious metals. The grandest of Medusa-heads, the Blacas, is carved out of an Amethyst of the darkest violet, two inches in diameter. Although the Amethyst came into use amongst the earliest materials used by the gem-engraver, for we find in it an abundance of Egyptian charms (pendants for necklaces), in the form of vases, shells, hands, &c, and sometimes scarabaîi, the last of Etruscan work also, and Roman intagli in it are sufficiently numerous, yet it is a singular fact that we rarely meet with works in the highest style executed in this material. Probably the superior kind was too precious to be so employed, whilst the paleness of the other and cheaper sorts was repugnant to the taste of first-rate artists.
But besides the stone known at present by the same name, there can be little doubt the Roman " Amethystus " included amongst its varieties a totally distinct species of gem—some kinds of our common garnets. This conjecture b supported by the authority of Do Boot, who says.(ii. SO), "Amethystus veterum nunc Granati nomen obtinet."*
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