in amber. The most highly approved specimens are the … of the Eridanus, is very rare and precious to men for many ‘Falernian,’ so called because they recall the color of the reasons.” What better material for the divine princeps? wine; they are transparent and glow gently, so as to have, 75. For the Roman preference for a reddish cast in yellow, see moreover, the agreeably mellow tint of honey that has Gage 1993, p. 272, n. 74. On the affinity of red and gold in been reduced by boiling.”79 Egypt, see Wilkinson 1994, pp. 106–7. For the Classical world, The metaphorical resonance of the colors associated with seeGage 1993, p. 26. The flammeum, the most characteristic amber, like the divine and heroic associations of its element of the Roman bridal costume, and the veil of the brilliance, would doubtless have played an instrumental Flaminica Dialis were deep yellow (luteum), the same color as role in the kinds of subjects carved in amber and in its lightning, according to Pliny (Natural History 21.22). See Sebesta and Bonfante 1994, esp. chaps. by L. La Follette, “The Costume use. In ancient gemstones, a correspondence between of the Roman Bride” (pp. 54–64), and by J. L. Sebesta, color and subject was desired. According to an ancient “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman” (pp. 46–53), epigram, the Nereid Galene was cut into an Indian beryl and “Tunica Ralla, Tunica Spissa: The Colors and Textiles of because the stone’s blue color was appropriate for this Roman Costume” (pp. 65–76). Some amber is similar in color to personification of the calm sea.80 egg yolks (said to be the color of the flammeum). As noted in “Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets” below, amber is attested as Amber’s fragrance—it is the only “stone” that is both a gift for Roman brides. shining and fragrant—is enhanced through rubbing.81 Amber is thus a perfect material for a divine image, For the Egyptians, pure gold, its pigment cognate, yellow, and especially when we recall that “statues were regularly the color red were the colors of the sun; gold was symbolic of polished with perfumed oils, perhaps matching the that which was eternal and imperishable. The flesh and bones emanation of fragrance that forms so regular a part of of the gods were held to be of gold, and thus that was the divine ephiphanies.”82 Not only the fragrance, but also the natural material for their images (Wilkinson 1994, pp. 106–9, great age of the material, its mysterious origins, its 116). E. A. Waarska, in The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, exh. cat., ed. E. Hornung and B. Bryan transmuted nature, and its electromagnetic, optical, and (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 105, no. 20, says that gold other properties, as well as its divine and heroic epithets, represented purity, and bedecking a mummy with such a would have evoked a variety of ideas in its beholders— material was thought to ensure a successful afterlife for its radiant Apollo, the fiery sun, Olympian honey, Falernian owner. wine. 76. Gage 1993, p. 26, with bibl. NOTES 77. J. André, Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949), p. 155, discusses the many instances of gold 72. Iliad 19.398 (R. Lattimore, trans., The Iliad of Homer [Chicago, referred to as red in Rome (as cited in D. Janes, Gold and God in 1961]). It is a common tendency in Greek poetry to emphasize Late Antiquity [Cambridge, 1998]). For further discussion of the qualities such as brightness or sheen rather than hue, as C. poetic and symbolic vocabulary for the different colors of gold, Irwin, Colour-Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto, 1974), was among see P. R. S. Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and the first to emphasize. See also Steiner 2001, pp. 97–101; Gage Techniques: The Archaeological Evidence (Oxford, 1994), p. 218. 1993, pp. 11–27; and many of the conference papers in L. 78. Plantzos 1999, p. 36: “The shape in which a stone was going to Cleland, K. Stears, and G. Davies, Colour in the Ancient be cut was also sometimes determined by its colour.” Mediterranean World, BAR International Series 1267 (Oxford, 2004). See C. W. Shelmerdine, “Shining and Fragrant Cloth in 79. Falernian wine, a product of Campania, was among the most Homeric Epic,” in Carter and Morris 1995, pp. 99–107, for a prized in ancient Rome and, as Pliny writes, the second-best discussion of the highly desirable qualities of shininess and wine produced in Italy (Pliny, Natural History 14.8.62). On fragrance in Aegean elite textiles and the larger implications of Falernian wine and its golden, red, and dark red colors, see, for her argument. example, P. McGovern, S. Fleming, and S. Katz, eds., The Origins 73. Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 5.623–25, trans. A. S. Way, and Ancient History of Wine (London, 1996); and T. Unwin, Wine Loeb Classical Library 19 (London, 1913). and the Vine: An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade (London, 1991). See also The Wine of Dionysus: Banquets of 74. Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.12.7–8, trans. W. H. S. Jones Gods and Men in Basilicata, exh. cat. (Rome, 2000). While wine is and H. A. Ormerod, Loeb Classical Library 188 (Cambridge, MA, associated with Dionysos (and the Egyptian Bes), honey is 1966): “Of the statues set up in the round buildings, the amber associated with the Olympians Zeus and Artemis. one represents Augustus, the Roman emperor.… This amber of 80. SeePlantzos 1999, pp. 36, 89. For the use of garnets, hematite, which the statue of Augustus is made, when found in the sands and other red stones for martial subjects, see n. 223. Color and Optical Characteristics 29