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HELIOTROPIUM.
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135
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the locality mentioned as producing it leads to the infer ence that the Hephsestites was the common áíèñÜêùí of Theophrastus, found according to him in that place.
Marbodus adds to the other powers of the Heliotrope that of bringing together the clouds and evoking tempests :—
"
The Heliotrope, or ' gem that turns the Sun,' From its strange force
the name hath justly won ; For set in water opposite his rays, As red
as blood 'twill turn Sol's golden blaze ; And, far diffused the
inauspicious light, Doth with the strange eclipse the world affright.
Boils next the vase, urged by its secret power, And flings far o'er the
brim the sudden shower ; And as when day enshrouded is in storms, With
blackest clouds it heaven's fair face deforms."
This
material was very little employed in ancient art in spite of its beauty
; the irregular distribution of its colours totally destroying the
effect of any work cut upon it. For, except in the case of the banded
Agate, it was a necessity with the ancient engraver that the field of
his design should be of one uniform shade. A Mercuiy seated, the
tortoise upon his hand (once Bishop Horsley's) ; and Sol standing with
his whip raised, are the only specimens of really antique work in
Heliotrope within my knowledge, and in both instances we may suspect
the substance was recommended to superstition by the analogy of its
name to the nature of the subjects engraved upon it. The coarser and
commoner Bloodstone, though never employed for the productions of high
art, occurs not un-frequently amongst the talismans of the later
Egyptian and Gnostic religionists.
The
exact converse to the ancient neglect of the latter stone holds good
for the Glyptic art of the Byzantines, with whom the Bloodstone became
the material especially preferred for their relievi of sacred subjects,
particularly
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