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Superstitions and Their Sources: Syriac

In the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, a new literature on this subject made its appearance, probably in Asia Minor. Some of the works were originally written in Syriac and later translated into Arabic. Others were composed in the latter language. This source was drawn upon for the production of the Lapidarium of Alfonso X, of Castile. This compilation, although dating in its present Spanish form from the thirteenth century, is based upon a much older original in "Chaldee" (Syriac?). There can be little doubt that many Hindu superstitions, no longer preserved for us in the literature of India, are reproduced in these Syrio-Arabic works, wherein we have also much that is of Alexandrian origin. This indeed is easily explained by history, for the Arabs, through their widely extended conquests, were led to absorb and amalgamate the date they secured, directly or indirectly, from the East and the West. While this literature was developing in the Mohamedan world, the tradition of Pliny and Solinus was transmitted to the Christian world of the seventh and succeeding centuries by Isidorus of Seville. This brings us to the remarkable poetical treatise on the virtues of precious stones by Marbodus, Bishop of Rennes, a work written at the end of the eleventh century, and often quoted as that of Evax; indeed, it purports to be by him and really contains a good part of the material composing the treatise of Damigeron or Evax. At the same time Marbodus drew freely upon Pliny, either directly or through Isidorus. For the Middle Ages this poem of Marbodus, already translated into Old French in the twelfth century, became known as the "Lapidario" par excellence, and furnished a great part of their material to medieval authors on this subject. Soon, however, extracts from the Arabic sources became available, and the whole mass of heterogeneous material was worked over and recombined in a variety of ways. This complex origin of the traditions explains their almost incomprehensible contradictions regarding the virtues assigned to the different stones, and also the fact that the qualities of one stone are frequently attributed to another one, so that, in the later works on this subject, it becomes quite impossible to present a satisfactory view of the distinguishing qualities and virtues of the separate stones. The habit of copying, without discrimination or criticism, whatever came to hand, and the aim to utilize as much of the borrowed material as possible, is scarcely less a characteristic of the seventeenth and eighteenth century writers than it is of those of a later date. This is in part an excusable and even an unavoidable defect, but it should be minimized as much as possible.

The treatise known under the title "Cyrianides" was, as we have noted, a poduct of the Alexandrian school. It was asserted to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus, the name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Thoth. Here we have a specimen of the species of magic known as litteromancy, or divination by means of the letters of the alphabet, since a stone, a bird, a plant, and a fish, each begining with the same letter and signifying the four elements, are given for each of the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet. These four objects were to be grouped together to form a talisman, the bird being usually engraved on the stone, while a portion of the fish and of the plant was placed in the bezel of the ring in which the stone was to be set. (De Mely, "Les lapidaires de l'antiquite et du moyen-age," vol. ii, "Les lapidaires grecs," Paris, 1898.) Another, almost contemporary work, is the exceedingly curious and interesting treatise by St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia, in the twelve gems on the "Breastplate of Judgment" of the high priest (Ex., xxviii, 15-21). This unique production is in the form of a letter addressed to Diodorus, Bishop of Tyre, and it is peculiarly valuable as the first of a long series of attempts to elucidate the question as to the identity of the twelve stones. The special virtues of each stone are also given, and this treatise may be regarded as the prototype of all the Christian writings on the symbolism of stones.