320 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
SACRED JEWELS.
Gems, both,
unset and set, were from the very earliest times reckoned amongst the
most grateful offerings to the gods, and therefore dedicated in
profusion in their temples. Thus Boeckh's Inscriptions (dating from the
Peloponnesian War) enumerate in the Treasury of the Parthenon : " A
large onyx engraved with an antelope rutting, -weighing 32 drachms; an
onyx, plain, 276 drs. and half an obole; an onyx set in a gold ring ;
an onyx set in a silver ring ,· a jasper set in a gold ring ; a jasper seal enclosed
in gold (seemingly a mounted scarabeus) ; a signet in a gold ring ; a
signet in a gold ring dedicated by Dexilla (the two last were evidently
cut in the gold itself) ; two gem-signets set in one gold ring ; two
signets in silver rings, one plated with gold ; seven signets of coloured glass, plated with gold (i.e. their
settings) ; eight silver rings, and one gold piece, fine (probably a
Daric) ; a gold ring of li drs. offered by Axiothea, wife of Socles ; a
gold ring with one gold piece, fine, tied to it, offered by
Phryniscus the Thessalian ; a plain gold ring weighing half-a-drachm
offered by Pletho of iEgina (a widow's mite) ; five ear-rings in tin offered by Thaumarete."
And
this custom flourished down to the fall of Paganism, but the donaria at
the shrines of Imperial Pome were of a very different class from the
tiny jewels extorted from the devotion of the poverty stricken natives
of Attica. Precious stones, in their native state, and engraved gems,
still continued to pom· into the sacred treasuries. Every example of
unusual beauty or rarity became a thank-offering to the patron-god of
its possessor. Pompey consecrates to Jupiter the rarest mineral
specimens found in the Pontic treasury ; Cœear, an enthusiastic
gem-collector, six caskets of his own choicest rings to his
progenitrix, Venus ; his amiable
