Commentary Page 140



	COMMENTARY

	kinds of hematite exhibit the pronounced red color from which its name was derived. Since Theophrastus is speaking here of an opaque stone, haimatitis could not have been any of the transparent or translucent red stones such as garnet or carnelian, though the practical certainty that these were always known by other names is itself sufficient warrant for rejecting them. The only common red opaque stone extensively used by the ancients was red jasper, an impure form of silica colored by ferric oxide, and it seems very probable that this was the haimatitis of Theophrastus. The allusion to its dull texture agrees well with the suggested identification, though it is probable that other stones of the same general appearance, such as red felsite, would have been given the same name by the ancients. Pliny²⁷¹ names Africa as a locality for haematitis and mentions its various uses as an amulet, all of which tends to support the identification here advanced, for red jasper is of common occurrence in northern Africa and it is known that the Egyptians obtained it locally and frequently used it for amulets and ornamental purposes.²⁷² 37. xanthe. Though different in color, this stone was probably dull and opaque like the haimatitis, since the close relationship between the two stones implies that they were similar. Pliny²⁷³ names xuthos as a stone of the same class as his haematitis, and it is almost certain that xuthos is the Latin equivalent, probably corrupt, of ξανθή, for Pliny seems on the whole to be following the statements that Theophrastus makes here. Since haimatitis was probably red jasper, it seems very probable that xanthe was yellow jasper. These two varieties of jasper are similar in all respects except color; even the color is due to iron oxide in both stones, but the difference is that in yellow jasper the oxide is in the hydrated form. Furthermore, red jasper and yellow jasper are often found together, sometimes in the same small piece, and this mode of occurrence probably explains why the close relationship between these two kinds of impure quartz was early recognized. Numerous ancient ob- 2" XXXVII, 169. ²⁷² Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, p. 454. ²™XXXVII, 169.

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