72692 Stone mascot Fish, Pearl

Stone mascot Fish, Pearl



Stone mascot Fish, Pearl

From where do the shells that are caught in the depths of the oceans take these rounded, with delicate splendor particles? The Greeks claimed that it was the hardened tears of the oceans, sea nymphs. In the Middle Ages, a poetic legend was told that tears of orphans and innocently offended, angels close in shells, turning them into a jewel.

Now it is known that the origin of pearls is much more prosaic. It produces a special kind of sea mollusk-pearl mussels. Pearls are of different colors, sizes and shapes. On the coast of India, valuable pearls are caught – pale pink, in the coastal waters of Ceylon divers find silver and yellow pearls, in the Sea of ​​Japan – light green, in Australia – white. In the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen find the original black pearl, and in the Gulf of California live pearl maidens, creating pearls of pink and red. Pearl jewelry was already known almost in prehistoric times.

The queens of antiquity were very fond of pearls. Semiramis at palace festivals appeared in seven strings of pink pearls of extraordinary size. Cleopatra also possessed a casket with pearls of great value. The rich Greek women willingly wore pearl jewelry, which was supposed to give the eyes a shine and protect their owner from the pain of unrequited love.

At the ancient cemetery in Kerameikos, near Athens, in the 4th century. BC. e. buried 25-year-old Gogesjo, the wife of a wealthy resident of the capital. The sorrowful spouse told me to cut out a tombstone from marble. To this day, it can be seen in one of the Athenian museums. A young beautiful woman in a long attire says goodbye to the jewels she dressed up in her lifetime. In the open box there are bracelets and pearl threads. Next to Gogesjo stands the handsome young man Thanatos, the god of death, who leads her to hell.

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Pearl

In Rome and Byzantium, necklaces from three rows of pearls were awarded to winners in quadriga competitions.

The inhabitants of the East also highly valued these beautiful stones. It was said that in the treasury of Maharaja of Hyderabad there were 120 caskets to the brim filled with pearls. Indian merchants believed that the ring with pearls protected from thieves and from dishonest transactions. Embroidered pearls dresses served as the wedding dress of the bride in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. When Jadwiga, the eldest daughter of Casimir the Great, was married to the Bavarian prince, she wore a satin dress so richly covered with pearls and gold that (as the Bavarian chronicler wrote) “Princess led the groom and his brother to the altar, for the bride could barely move her legs, and a train of her festive clothes carried three pages. ”

In those days, pearls were considered a good medicine. The solution, in which pearls were cooked, supposedly helped with liver diseases. Children suffering from malignant anemia were given milk with crushed pearls. And in Italy they believed that pearls save from the evil eye and give the ability to foresee the future.

In the era of Romanticism, it was fashionable to give the object of love a ring with pearls, symbolizing “tears of melancholy.”

On this topic: ( from category Talismans )

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