Legendary Pearls

As one of the oldest known gems, pearls are surrounded by legends going back to the mists of time. And in all the legends, pearls are the most fortuitous of jewels, bestowing love, happiness and good fortune on their possessors.
In ancient Greece, the word for pearl implied “perfect purity” and in ancient Rome a word for pearls suggested sweetness and pleasure.

In earlier times still, legends and paintings of India depicted pearls as magic charms. in some old stories, wise men sought enlightenment with a ” Talisman Pearl” held as a charm in the palm of one hand. There are also paintings of warriors setting out to battle with shields edged in pearls to protect them from harm.

In another Indian painting, a beautiful princess is pictured making a necklace of pearls plucked from the joints of bamboo, a plant reputed to grow only where the Gods tread.

Pearls also were known as jewels of love in India, as they were in Persia where Alexander the Great received gifts of fabulous pearls from his bride Roxanne. The pearls which Alexander and his men sent back to Greece established a pearl craze in Europe.

As for legends concerning the colors of pearls, there is one which says that lovely greenish pearls are symbolic of happiness. That legend may or may not have something to do with pearls of peacock greenish cast which are so fashionable today.

Perhaps the most famous legend is the one in which Cleopatra was said to have dissolved two precious pearls in wine to seduce Mark Antony. That pearls were a precious possession in Egypt was shown by the discovery of jewelry in the tombs of the Pharaohs. But whether Cleopatra could have dissolved two pearls in wine is debatable because modern science has demonstrated that unless thoroughly pulverized, it would take a pearl at least five days to dissolve in even a strong acid solution. But it is a charming legend and one which illustrates both how prized pearls were and the belief in their love magic.