Plutarch (' On Rivers') says that the Sangaris produces the gem called Aster, which is luminous in the dark, and therefore called Batten, "
the King," by the Phrygians. Ptolem. Heph-aestion describes a gem,
Asterites, found in the belly of a huge fish called Pan, from its
resemblance to that god. This, if exposed to the sun, shot forth
flames, and was a powerful philtre. Helen used it for her own signet,
engraved with a figure of the Pan-fish ; 'and hence her conquests. The
superstitious Byzantine evidently did not acquiesce in Propertius'
axiom—
"Forma nihil magicis utitur auxiliis.'' Beauty, resistless, craves not magic's aid.
Suidas quotes the same legend on the authority of ^Esopus, reader to King Mithridates.
Some,
adds Pliny, derive the name of Astrion from the stone's property of
imbibing and reflecting the light of the stars, if held opposite to
them. The best sort was found in Carmania, being subject to no defects.
The Ceraimia was the same stone, but of an inferior quality. The worst kind of all resembled the light from a lantern (i. e. a very dull yellow).
The Astroites, celebrated for its magic virtues by Zoroaster, appears to be the same as the Astrion.
The
Astrobolos also may be regarded as a Moonstone, for Sudines describes
it as being like a fish's eye, and emitting a white radiating lustre in
the sunlight.
The Selenites has a better claim, from its specified greenish tint, than any of the preceding to be considered the Cat's-eye.
The only conclusion to be derived from the brief notices of the several stones above quoted is that Asteria and
similar names were used in different senses by authors of different
times, but that Pliny understood by Asteria the same gem as we do at
present—the Star-Sapphire; and that this, when possessing more purple
than blue, was distinguished as the Ceraunia, or Lightning-stone.
The same stone appears also to be intended under the title of Astrapia (Lightning-stone), where, in a colourless or azure ground, as it were, the rays of lightning diverge from the centre.
