Agate was very popular with the ancient greeks and romans, as
well as ancient chinese. The name comes from the greek word
onux, which means fingernail. The story is that cupid cut the
divine fingernails of venus while she was sleeping. He left
the clippings scattered on the sand and the fates turned them
into stone so that no part of venus' heavenly body would ever
perish. The beautiful blues in paintings from the renaissance
are thanks to the blue of lapis lazuli, the blue rock loved
by the ancients, from mesopotamia, to egypt, persia, greece
and rome - and of course to china. The name is from the latin
word, lapis, which means stone, and from the arabic word, azul,
which means blue.
The romans believed that lapis was a powerful aphrodisiac.
In the middle ages, it was thought to keep the limbs healthy
and free the soul from error, envy and fear. What a delightful
thought!
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