Amber Myths and (perhaps) Truths

Guest Article from www.diamonds-gemstones-jewelry.com

Amber is a product left by nature and treasured by people as far back as the Neolithic Period.  This petrified resin is said to have seeped from trees 30 to 60 million years ago and was treasured for its beauty and mystical values.

Over the ages, different cultures have associated amber with a variety of meanings:

During the Neolithic Period people would be buried in ancient burial mounds with amber to symbolically protect the dead in afterlife. Mythology says amber was sacred to the Greek God, Apollo because he saw it as congealed sunlight. The Vikings viewed amber as tears. Freya, the Norse Goddess of love, beauty & fertility, was said to have a penchant for beautiful jewels.  One day, as she walked, she noticed four dwarfs making a necklace as bright as the sun.  The dwarfs would not sell the necklace, but would trade for one night of “marriage” each.  Freya, overcome by the necklace’s beauty, agreed – forgetting about her husband Odur and her two daughters.  When Odur was convinced of her infidelity he took the amber necklace and fled, never to be seen again.  Amber is said to be Freya’s tears as she wanders the world eternally looking for her lost love. Greek mythology says the death of Phaeton (who drove his Father’s chariot to pull sun across the sky and was thusly killed by Zeus’ thunderbolt for getting too close to Earth) made tears of amber cascade down the cheeks of Phateon’s sisters. Some cultures thought amber was made from linx’s urine or was, perhaps, tears from birds at Jesus’ death. First Century Romans used to hold balls of amber to keep themselves cool in the summer.  Recorded history states amber was worth more than slaves. Old superstition says if the amber’s hue changed color it meant that the giver’s love would wane. Over many centuries people used amber to cure ailments such as: fevers, hemorrhoids, jaundice, goiters, depression, deafness, blindness, disabilities, poisoning, throat & belly ailments. In Lithuania, The Fairest Goddess, Jurate, was a mermaid who lived in an amber palace.  Jurate fell in love with a fisherman and took him to her amber palace.  God of Thunder and Father God, Purkunas, was angry she had fallen in love with a mortal and was already promised to the God of Water, so he sent a thunderbolt, which destroyed the palace and the fisherman.  Washed up amber from the Baltic is said to be Jurate’s tears of pure love as she grieves. Also, because amber is slightly warm to the touch and sometimes contains insects it was seen to possess life like an immortality talisman. It is said that in 1717 the Prussian Emperor Frederick I gave Peter the Great an Amber Room (carved wall panels).  Peter the Great is said to have installed them in a palace in St. Petersburg, until a 1941 siege by the Nazis.  It has subsequently vanished! Currently, amber is said to be good for opening chakras.

There are many other myths and stories about amber.  Scientifically, we know amber is a fossilized resin from ancient trees, which sometimes includes DNA from insects etc.  Which do you believe…the amber myths or the amber truths?

This article was written by the editor@diamonds-gemstones-jewelry.com .