Amethyst: February's Birthstone

Bacchus had grown angry with mortals and had therefore

determined that tigers would devour the next mortal who

crossed his path. The young maiden Amethyst was on

her way to worship at the goddess Diana’s temple. Diana

knowing Bacchus’s plan turned the young maiden into a

white statue of colorless quartz to save her. When Bacchus

realized what he had precipitated he was filled with remorse

and cried tears of wine, staining the statue a beautiful purple.

The origin myth of the amethyst is beautiful and tragic

like so many Greek legends. It is easy to paint a picture in

your mind of the beautiful white quartz dappled with purple

tears until it becomes the exquisite stone we know today as

amethyst and my jewelry obsessed mind begins to wonder—

what shade of purple did those tears create. Were there

only a few tears, creating a pale lilac statue, the stone

sometimes termed ‘the Rose of France’ or were his tears

plentiful producing a deep purple amethyst with red flashes?

It is February, and February is the month of amethysts

in the jewelry world so I decided to explore the myths and

legends surrounding this stunning stone.

A quartz, it rates a 7 on the Mohs scale and has color

ranging from the palest lilac to the deepest purple. A royal

color it has often been worn by the clergy and royalty and it

can be seen in the crown jewels of both Britain and Russia.

And today most amethysts can be found in Brazil.

This incredibly beautiful stone has wooed warriors,

intellectuals and great monarchs. It is said the ancient

Egyptians brought an amethyst stone into battle for

protection, that Leonardo da Vinci considered the amethyst

the seat of intelligence and a means of warding of evil and

that Catherine the Great prized the amethyst above all other

stones.

Everyone has his or her own personal relationship to a

stone, whether it is a fascination founded on a stone being

assigned ones birthstone or the moment when one espies

the perfect ring. My fascination began with a perfect 1950’s

cocktail ring with an amethyst stone that can be called

nothing short of charismatic. I look at it today and wonder

what began Catherine the Great’s fascination or Leonardo

da Vinci’s and it gives me pleasure to know that while the

world moves forward there are some things that maintain

their beauty and fascination from ancient Greece through my

own personal history.