Fascinating Myths and Legends about Common Gemstones

by Vidya Lakshmi December 14, 2020 3 min read

Fascinating Myths and Legends about Common Gemstones

Okay Fam, we’re back to our gemstone stories once again. And today we talk about something quite interesting. It’s about some fascinating legends that surround some common gemstones we own. Let’s also look at myths about them too, and see if they’re actually true.

Alright so let’s start, shall we?

Tanzanite

If you’ve read our previous post, you’d know we’ve already covered this beautiful gem in one of them. Tanzanite was discovered along the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1960s. It is believed by the Masaai herders who inhabited that region, to have been born from a fire that scorched their lands. They saw these shiny stones scattered across the land once the fire was put out. The gem is named after Tanzania, the place where it was discovered.

Sapphire

In earlier days, some ancient civilizations used to believe that the whole world was set on top of a huge sapphire stone. People often said that the stone was what gave the sky its beautiful blue color. 

sapphire gemstone

There was also another belief during the time, that sapphire was capable of neutralizing poison. It was said that even the most poisonous snake would lose its venom if placed in a vessel made from sapphire stone. 

Aquamarine

This precious gem is said to have been found in the treasure chest of mermaids. It was often worn by sailors because they believed it would ensure a safe voyage across the sea. Aquamarine was also believed to bring victories in battles. 

Onyx

The story is Onyx is actually quite interesting. The onyx gemstone is beloved to have been created from the body parts of Venus, the goddess of love. It is said that Cupid used his arrow to clip her fingernails while she was asleep, which caused them to fall onto the sand. 

The gods didn’t want any part of the goddesses body to perish so they turned the nail clippings into stone. And thus the onyx gemstones were formed.

Diamond

Okay, now on to the final legend. It is believed that Chronos, the god of time, changed a man called Adamas, into stone. This transformation made him extremely strong. It was also said to possess the ability to reinforce affection among lovers and married couples. “Adamas” in Greek, means invincible too. Later the Adamas stone came to be known as diamond across the world.

diamond gemstone

Alright, those are some of the legends behind those beautiful gemstones we see today. There are some more, but we’ll probably cover them in a later post. Now that we’ve covered the legends, let’s also look at some myths surrounding some of them and see if they’re actually true. Most of these myths are about diamonds, and are in fact related to the the story we just saw. There's one about Sapphire too. Which is why we decided to add them along in today’s post.

Myth 1 - Diamonds are Invincible

We just read that the diamond was first called Adamas meaning invincible or indestructible. If they were actually indestructible we wouldn’t be able to cut them into different shapes to make jewelry. Diamonds can actually be cut and scratched if the right amount of force is applied at the right point and at the right time.

Myth 2 - Cubic Zirconia are manmade diamonds

There are man-made diamonds, but they are not the same as cubic zirconia. CZ stones look very similar to diamonds but the two stones do not have anything else in common. They are quite different in chemical compositions, hardness, and durability.

Myth 3 - Sapphires come in only one color - Blue

Sapphires occur in a variety of different colors and can also have different color zones like yellow and blue. There are also pink sapphires. The maroon variety of sapphire is called ruby. Doesn’t that kind of put that “Sapphire gives that sky its blue color” into perspective?

Myth 4 - The bigger the diamond, the better

A large diamond would be impressive only if it’s quality and cut are equally good. A smaller diamond with a better-prescisioned cut and shine can look better than a big one that’s not perfectly cut.

Myth 5 - Diamonds than shine brighter are of higher clarity and color

The precision of the cut is what causes the shine. If it’s able to reflect light quite well, then any kind of diamond would shine quite bright.

Okay guys, so that is about it form us today. Hope you had fun reading about legends and myths that surround some of our favourite gemstones. We'll be back soon with another interesting post. In the mean time, why don't you have a look at some of the awesome CZ jewelry from our shop? 

Bye now!

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