Agate

Agate
Photo by Solen Feyissa / Unsplash

Agate – an agate stone is believed to quench thirst and turn away thunder in lightning.

A black agate veined with white will protect a person from all violent dangers.

Hyena-coloured agate can cause domestic unhappiness.

Agate was thought to protect from the effects of poison, but agate shaped as eyes were considered most potent.

In East Asia, it was believed that one's fortune could be read in the markings of an agate. Where as in Iceland, placing obsidian (Iceland agate) on a farm will cause those living there to quarrel).

The legendary ancient Greek musician, Orpheus, once said, that if one wears an agate stone ring, it will please the immortal gods. And if the same stone be tied to the horns of your ploughing oxen or around the ploughman's arm, wheat-crowned Ceres will descend form Heavens and bless the furrow.

It was once believed that wearing agates could cure blindness. And that every kind of agate is an antidote to asp bites if taken in wine, but be careful... pulverizing agate and putting the powder into a drink is said to make the unchaste vomit.

Burning agate was thought to prevent storms. The proof of this was said to be that if one put an agate into a pot of boiling water, it cooled immediately. But for this to work properly, the agate must be strung on a hair from a lion's mane.

Pliny once commented that he'd seen an agate stone with lines forming a perfect image of Apollo and the nine muses. Apollo was sat, harp and hand, with the muses around him.

Apollo and the Muses – Heinrich Maria Hess

Source:

Encyclopaedia of superstitions, folklore, and the occult sciences of the world. : a comprehensive library of human belief and practice in the mysteries of life ... Editorial staff: Cora Linn Daniels and C.M. Stevans. (1903). Chicago.

The Power of Poison exhibition. The Power of Poison in Myth and Legend. [online] Available at: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/the-power-of-poison/poison-in-myth-and-legend [Accessed 30 Jul. 2022].