PREHISTORIC DACIA

PART 4 – Ch.XXX

Prehistoric monuments of metallurgic art in Dacia

Rings with gems from the rock of Prometheus

PART 4

PREVIOUS

In his Natural History, Pliny, talking about the origin of the gems, and how they had become so valued, tells us the following (lib. XXXVII. 1):

“From folk stories, the first use of the gems started with the rock from Caucasus (of Prometheus). The people, wishing to symbolize the chaining and ordeals of Prometheus, started to tie around with iron some fragment from this rock, and to wear it on the finger. This is the beginning of the ring and this was the precious stone or the gem”.

Hyginus also writes about the same tradition (Astronom. II. 15; Servius, Eclog. vI. 42):

“Jove, intent not to renege on his oath that he will never free Prometheus from his chains, placed on his hand a ring, made from the same metal as the chains, in which he also put a fragment from the rock of the Caucasus”.

The rock of Prometheus, which forms even today the most important monument of the Carpathians, had enjoyed in prehistoric antiquity a great veneration. It was the emblem of the Pelasgian Pantheon. This rock was figured above the cyclopean gates of Mycenae; it was represented as a sacred symbol of eternity on the funerary stelae of Sicily, Cartagena and even in the Christian catacombs of Rome [1].

[1. A painting in the crypt of Lucina, in the catacombs of Rome, shows this rock having the same shape and facets (Northcote et Brownlow, Rome souterraine, 1877, p. 325). Another funerary stela, discovered in the prehistoric necropolis from Bologna, also shows an imitation of the shape of this legendary rock from the Carpathians (Bertrand et Reinach, Les Celtes, p. 165)].

END OF PART 4 – (to follow up go PART 4 – CONTENTS – PART 5)