Once upon a time, there was a beautiful goddess named Diana. And, to the point of the story, she was very selective as
will as being chaste.
And then there was the randy Bacchus. He was not very selective, not at all. And he certainly was not chaste, not at
all. And he so wanted to be with Dianne.
But Diana did not want to be anywhere near Bacchus. In fact, she rebuffed him time after time. The more he tried; the
more she rebuffed. It seemed he would never succeed with Dianne.
Bacchus was not used to being turned away like that. He was hurt and angry, so much so that he drank more cups than usual
of his favorite red wine, a gift the grape had given him.
He wanted
revenge. He drank and pondered. He drank and mulled. He became really angry.
Finally, after quite a bit of drinking and pondering and mulling, he came up with a cunning plan. He would command his
fierce tigers to savagely devour the first maiden whom he met. He roared at the idea. That would show the chaste and cold
Diana!
Well, wouldn't you know it, at that moment along came the lovely maiden Amethyst, strolling down the path
in all of her innocence. Bacchus, with his savage drunken roar, released his snarling tigers. As they snarled, bared their
teeth and lunged upon the helpless Amethyst, she had only the briefest of moments to plead to Diana for mercy and protection
from the tigers. Diana,you see, was goddess of the hunt.
Unfortunately, there was only
the smallest and most delicate of moments between the time that Diana heard Amethyst's plea and the horrible moment when the
cruel pets of Bacchus would begin to maul the maiden Amethyst. Diana had no time at all to use her hunting skills to stave
off the monsterous beasts who were, at that very moment, leaping upon Amethyst with fangs drawn.
Diana,
though, was not to be outdone by Bacchus. She immediately used her skills to change Amethyst into a pure, clear crystal just
as the tigers were in mid air. Now, of course, the seemingly unstoppable, powerful tigers were unable to turn away and chomped
on that crystal with dreadful power.
To say the least, the stunned animals must have lost a fang or two. Not to mention concussions and cystal phobia.
Why, to this day, some say that just the psychiatric bills for the treatment of Bacchus's pets were so high that he had to
sober up until the end of the following century just to work to pay of his debts to his tigers' psychiatrist.
But back to the story of the beautiful Amethyst. You see, as he beheld the turn of events, Bacchus gave
pause and soberly realized the stupidity of his misdirected rage. After all, it was Diana, not Amethyst, who had spurned
his drunken advances. He knew at that moment that the innocent Amythest had nothing to do with the bruising of his ego!
And
so it was that, in respectful sorrow, Bacchus approached the clear and glistening cyrstal, the most beautiful he had ever
seen. His head was bowed in remorse, his step slow. With sincerest humility, he begged Amethyst for forgiveness for such
rash and awful act.
You must keep in mind that such a request was most unusual and very difficult for him.
Then Bacchus, gently and with
great deliberation, annointed the brilliant and pure crystal with all the wine he had with him, down to the last drop. He
sobbed great tears of remorse and his cries sounded like thunder rolling through the valleys.
Opps! Please forgive me. I
almost forgot to tell you an important part of this story. The variety of red wine that Baccus sacrificed to the crystallized
Amethyst, this variety was rare, delicious and much sought after. It is held by many, in fact, that there no longer exists
such a fine red. Even Zeus himself affirms that fact!
Thus, it was that Amethyst had been transformed from a beautiful
maiden to the most remarkable of clear cystals, and yet again into the beautiful purplish gemstone that we know and love
as the gemstone Amethyst.
Furthermore it is said that one should drink wine only from an amethystine vessel to prevent lossing his
or her wits. As well, a host would do well to serve wine to guests in amethystine vessels - unless, of course, he or she
has planned an evening of debauchery. Of course if such an evening is ever planned, it would be best to avoid such amesthystine
vessels all together.
But that is another story for another time.
LINK - Main Amethyst page.
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