For remarks on the use of chrysokplla as a pigment, see the notes on section 51.
27. iaspis. Though the word "jasper" is derived from the Greek ιασπι? and is often used to translate the Greek word and its Latin equivalent iaspis, the one fact that is most certain about the ancient name is that it did not designate the kinds of opaque colored silica that are now called jasper. The descriptions of ancient writers usually show that tiie name denoted certain transparent or translucent stones, and there is no definite evidence that it was ever applied to an opaque mineral substance. Though Theophrastus does not allude clearly to iaspis as a transparent stone, there is no such uncertainty about the descriptions left us by other ancient writers. Pliny opens his account of the stone with the words: Viret et saepe tralucet iaspis143 (iaspis is green and often translucent). Later he144 mentions a kind that resembles rock crystal. Pliny145 also alludes to imitations of iaspis made of glass. Moreover, the descriptions of Dioscorides146 show that the name was not applied to an opaque stone. Dionysius Periegetes describes it as being watery,147 green and translucent,148 and cloudy.149 This is not an appropriate description of the stone that is now called jasper. Though there can be no doubt that it was not our modern jasper, there is less certainty about its positive identification.
Since Theophrastus shows its relationship to smaragdos in this passage, one might infer that iaspis was a green stone, and this color is mentioned by all ancient writers who describe it. Indeed, some of them mention this color only, and in the Stockholm Papyrus,150 where a recipe is given for the preparation of an artificial iaspis, it is clear from the ingredients that the resulting product was a green stone. On the other hand, Pliny151 refers to iaspis of various other colors, such as blue and rose, as well as to a colorless variety. In fact, he classifies the best as having a shade of purple and assigns only third place to the green kind. He also
143XXXVII, 115. 144XXXVII, 116. 145XXXVII, 117.
14eV, 159 (Wellmann ed., V, 142). 147 782 (bSarieaaav).
148 1120 (χλωρά, δίανγάξουσαν, lit., "shining through green").
149 724 (ήερόεσσαν). 15° Lagercrantz, Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis, p. 15. 151 XXXVII, 115-16.
