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Onyx, Nicolo

Obsidianum, Obsidian Page of 384 Onyx, Nicolo Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
ONYX.                                     213
ONYX : 'Ïíý÷ùí : ¼ííãßôçò : Nicola.
The name of Onyx was given by the Romans to two totally distinct substances : a species of marble, and a silicious gem. Pliny states this expressly : " hoc aliubi lapidis, hic gemmas vocabulum." As it would appear, from a circum­stance hereafter to be noticed, that the marble was the first of the two to be known under that name to the Romans, it is properly the first to be here considered. It was the carbonate of lime, now called Oriental alabaster, and re-ceived its original appellation from the fancied resemblance of its clearly defined white and yellow veins to the shades in the human finger-nail (ïííî). The Greeks, as was their wont, discovered this familiar word in the Semitic " Oneg," "a delight," or "the jewel" above all others ; seeing the paramount value that race have ever attached to the gem, of which more shall be said anon. " Oneg " in the sense of "jewel" is exactly analogous to our derivation of the latter word from "joyau" and " gioiello."
In the republican times of Rome the marble was a material of incredible value and rarity, supposed to be peculiar to Arabia, and solely employed for making drinking-cups and the feet of couches. Some singular illustrations of its original scarcity in that city, and of the rapidity with which it became plentiful there under the stimulating influence of the fast-growing luxury of the early empire, will be found collected under Alabastrites. Being con-
Obsidianum, Obsidian Page of 384 Onyx, Nicolo
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