MAGIC AND TALISMANIC RINGS 293
given to Seleucus I, Nicator (365-281 b.c.), whose
wide dominions stretched from the western seaboard of Asia Minor to
India. This prized ring was lost by chance near the river Euphrates,
but was later recovered at the very spot where the ruler's mother had
predicted it would be found.8 Whether this was revealed to her in dream or trance the recital does not state.9
A
talismanic bronze ring in the British Museum is set with an amethyst on
which has been engraved a human eye, evidently a charm against the Evil
Eye. This dread influence was also combated by a peculiar type of ring
having gold nails or studs inserted in them. This is a Graeco-Roman
type of about 500 to 200 b.c., and
does not appear to have gained favor with the Romans. In a large and
massive gold ring of the late Roman period, the entire bezel has been
given the form of an eye. This ring weighs 975 grains, or over two
ounces ; it was found in Tarsus, and belongs to the third Christian
century.10
In
a few ancient rings gold and silver have been combined, as shown by a
striking example in the British Museum, where the upper part of the
hoop is of gold and the lower half of silver. This has been conjectured
to have been designed to render the ring a talisman, the joining of
gold and silver having a similar effect to that obtained by inserting a
gold nail in the bezel of a silver ring. The bezel of the massive ring
we have
8 This may have been the ring supposed to have been given
by Apollo, before the birth of Seleucus.
1601, p. 3.
9Abrahami Gorlœi, "Dactyliotheca," Delphi Batavorum, 10F. H. Marshall "Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Greek,
Etruscan and Roman, in the British Museum," London, 1907,
pp. xxiii, xxxiii, 131, Plate XX, fig. 801.
