|
TALISMANIC USE OP PRECIOUS STONES 57
south.
Schliemann found considerable amber from the Baltic in the graves of
Mycenae, and the frequent allusions to it in the works of Latin
authors of the first and succeeding centuries testify to its popularity
in the Roman world.
Probably the very earliest allusion in literature to the ornamental use of amber appears in Homer's Odyssey,12 where we read:
Eurymachus
Received a golden ileeklaee, richly wrought, And set with amber beads,
that glowed as if With sunshine. To Eurydamas there came A pair of
ear-rings, each a triple gem, Daintily fashioned and of exquisite
grace. Two servants bore them.
Amber ingeniously carved into animal forms has been discovered in tumuli at Indersoen, Norway.13
These curious objects were worn as amulets, and the peculiar forms were
supposed to enhance the power of the material, giving it special
virtues and rendering it of greater value and efficacy.
Pieces
of amber with singular natural markings were greatly esteemed,
especially when these markings suggested the initials of the name of
some prominent person. Thus, we are told that Friedrich Wilhelm I of
Prussia paid to a dealer a high price for a piece of amber on which
appeared his initials. The same dealer had another piece on which he
read the initials of Charles XII of Sweden. When he received the news
of this king's death, he bitterly lamented having lost the opportunity
of selling him amber for a high price. But he was cleverly consoled by
Nathaniel Sendal, the relator of the
" Bk. xviii, 11, 295-298, trans, of William Cullen Bryant. * Du Chaillu, " The Viking Age," New York, 1889, vol. ii, p. 314. (Figs. 1210, 1211, 1212.)
|
||
|
|
||