For thousands of years the amethyst was the embodiment of extravagance. Many yearned for this splendid purple gem – monarchs and religious figures alike. Throughout history thousands of miners have been sent into harms way by their rulers in search of them. While they can be found world-wide, the majority of high quality gem grade amethysts are from Brazil, Uruguay, and Madagascar.
What’s in a name?
“The god Dionysus, enraged by an insult, vows to set his tigers upon the first mortal to cross his path. A young girl on her way to the shrine of the goddess Diana comes upon the tigers. To protect her, Diana transforms her into ‘rock crystal’ (quartz). The remorseful Dionysus pours a goblet of wine onto the crystal in offering to the girl. This gives the crystal a purple hue and the name ‘amethyst’ which derives from the Greek word meaning ‘not drunken’.”*
Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that drinking alcoholic drinks out of amethyst vessels would prevent intoxication. They’ve also been pulverized, ground up and mixed it into a drunkards beverage to prevent delirium. Amethyst is February’s birthstone, a month when lots of carnival celebrations were held, so a gemstone of sobriety was the perfect remedy.
Myths and legends
All sorts or supernatural and miraculous powers are attributed to amethysts. People believed it could protect from evil spirits, theft, anger, seduction, intoxication, snakebite, crop infestations and on. Aside from being a stone of protection it was said to bring good fortune in war and hunting. The amethyst is also believed to encourage bravery, intellect and encourage clarity of mind, gentleness, calmness and contemplation.
The purple stone
The term amethyst only refers to violet quartz. Just like the gemstone Peridot is only found in shades of green, amethyst is only found in shades in purple – from transparent almost colourless light lilac to deep rich purple. Most amethysts are heat-treated or irradiated to improve there colour, or to change them into something else.
Prasiolite is it’s own mineral, but it’s not a commonly found stone. Sometimes it’s mislabelled as green amethyst.
Green Amethyst: This really deserves a post of it’s own but here’s a quick explanation. Green amethyst stones are made by heat-treating or irradiating less valuable pale purple stones. But green amethyst is a misnomer, since an amethyst can only be purple. It should be named green quartz. Prasiolite is a naturally occurring green quartz which is rare in nature and sometimes incorrectly referred to as green amethyst, which is against FTC Guidelines.** To make things more confusing most prasiolite is artificially produced from amethyst. Most of the citrine on the market is also treated amethyst, heated or irradiated until it turns pale yellow to orange.
Ametrine: Natural ametrine is a bi-colour variety or quartz which happens when there is a temperature difference across the crystal during formation, this effects the iron oxidation resulting in yellow and purple banding, or a mix of yellow and purple. The name comes from the two quartz types associated with the colours: Amethyst and Citrine. Bolivia is the only source of natural ametrine.
A stunning example of Ametrine
Oh Canada!
In 1955 a large deposit of amethyst was discovered in McTavish Townshop east of Thunder Bay, Ontario. These deposits are found around the Lake Superior basin, it’s such a mineral rich area a port east of Thunder Bay was named Amethyst Harbour. On May 14, 1975 amethyst was named Ontario’s Mineral Emblem, the official stone of Ontario.
*Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, Ontario.
** Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
