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8
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THE BOOK OF THE PEARL
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of
the trees are pearls and emeralds ; and each person admitted to the
delights of the celestial kingdom is provided with a tent of pearls,
jacinths and emeralds ; is crowned with pearls of incomparable luster,
and is attended by beautiful maidens resembling hidden pearls.1
The
estimation of pearls among the art-loving Greeks may be traced to the
time of Homer, who appears, to have alluded to them under the name τρίγληνα (triple drops or beads) in his description of Juno; in the Iliad, XIV, 183:
In three bright drops, Her glittering gems suspended from her ears.
and in the Odyssey, XVIII, 298:
Earrings bright With triple drops that cast a trembling light.
Classical
designs of Juno usually show the three pear-shaped pearls pendent from
her ears. The ancient Greeks probably obtained their pearls from the
East through the medium of Phenician traders, and a survival of the
word τρίγληνα. seems to exist in the Welsh glain (bead),
the name having been carried to Britain by the same traders, who
exchanged textiles, glass beads, etc., for tin and salt.
The Persian wars in the fifth century b.c., doubtless
extended the acquaintance which the Greeks had with pearls, as well as
with other oriental products, and increased their popularity. One of
the earliest of the Greek writers to mention pearls specifically
appears to have been Theophrastus (372-287 b.c.), the disciple and successor of Aristotle, who referred to them under the name μαργαρίτης (margarites), probably derived from some oriental word like the Sanskrit maracata or the Persian mirwareed. He stated that pearls were produced by shell-fish resembling the pinna, only
smaller, and were used in making necklaces of great value. In Pliny's
"Historia naturalis," that great storehouse of classical learning,
reference is made to many other writers—mostly Greeks—who treated of
gems; but virtually all of these writings have disappeared, except
fragments from Theophrastus, Chares of Mytilene, and Isidorus of
Charace.
From Greece admiration for pearls quickly extended to Rome, where they were known under the Greek word margaritœ. However, a more common name for this gem in Rome was unio, which
Pliny explained by saying that each pearl was unique and unlike any
other one. The conclusion of the historian Ammianus Marcellinus
(330-395 a.D.),
1Sale, "Preliminary Discourse to the Quran," London, 1882, Vol. I, pp. 153-159.
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