 | ||
Jacinth /ˈdʒæsɪnθ/ is an orange-red transparent variety of zircon used as a gemstone. Jacinth is also a flower of a reddish blue or deep purple (hyacinth).
It has been supposed to designate the same stone as the ligure (Hebrew leshem) mentioned in Exodus 28:19 as the first stone of the third row in the high priest's breast-plate, the Hoshen. or choshen. In Revelation 9:17, the word is simply descriptive of colour.
Use in literature
Jacinths are mentioned as decorating the city of Iram in Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights.
Alfred Lord Tennyson's vision of Excalibur in his epic poem "The Passing of Arthur," from the Idylls of the King, describes its hilt as studded with jacinths:
J.R.R. Tolkien used jacinths to describe the deep-blue wall of space in his poem, The Happy Mariners:
Oscar Wilde's novel Dorian Gray, speaks of Edward II giving armorial vestments made with Jacinths to his lover Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall.
Jacinth is also mentioned in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, where in Enoch's first journey through earth and Sheol, he encounters an enormous mountain of jacinth, or jacinth-like in appearance:
Two gold necklaces inlaid with jacinths and amethysts are given to Ganelon as a gift for his wife in The Song of Roland (stanza 50).
Jacinth was also used by e.e. cummings in the poem "You Are Tired (I Think)" (last stanza).
In Dungeons and Dragons, jacinths are often referred to as an orange gemstone, and used to fulfill that function in "prismatic" magic items, where the color red is represented by rubies.