[Rockhounds] Chabazite poem

[jbacko]

jbacko wrote:
> Juergen Wachsmuth wrote:
>> Hello,
>> this is an interesting story. I do not think Mindat has all the facts 
>> here.
>> The greek word is chalazios (= hail), in the poem Lithika it is used as
>> chalazie. But in the 18th century there was a wrong reading of the word,
>> chabazios, and therefore Bosc d`Antic 1780 (or 1792) created the name
>> chabazie. Later it was changed to Chabasie (Hauy 1801), Chabasit and
>> chabazite.
>> In 1871 a new edition of Lithika, a greek poem written in the 4th 
>> century
>> A.D.,  by Tyrwhitt corrected the error. Nevertheless the b in the 
>> mineral
>> chabazite stayed.
>>
>> Please let us know if you find out more.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jürgen
>> Ulm - Germany
>>   
> >From what I have found:
>
> The "Tyrwhitt" mentioned above was probably Thomas Tyrwhitt, an 
> English scholar who in 1781 published the "Orphic" hymns from the 
> Argonautica which included "De Lapidus". (He is known primarily as the 
> one who re-introduced Chaucer to the world).
>
> The Argonautica is the epic poem about the voyage of Jason and the 
> Argonauts, attributed to Apollonius Rhodius, one of the directors of 
> the Hellenistic library in Alexandria ca. 4th century B.C.E. Orpheus 
> was supposed to have been one of the Argonauts and used his powers to 
> get the crew through some dangers. The "hymns" included one on stones.
>
> Some scholars attribute a "lithika" which may be  the original source 
> to Posidippus, also from the Hellenistic culture and about the same 
> age as Apollonius.
>
>
> The papyri have been translated and the "lithika" can be read at 
> zeus.chs.org/chs/lithika_-_en.
>
>
> Hope this is of some use.
>
>
> john
>
On looking further at some old library cards and book sellers' 
catalogues, I am convinced that the Orphic hymns from the Argonautica 
are the probable source of the poem.

Well...maybe.

Correction: The "de lapidus" above should be "de lapidibus" which in 
greek is "peri lithon" and in English "on stones".  there have been 
numerous publications of the works including a modern translation of the 
Argonautica available online. I don't believe that the de lapidibus has 
been translated into English; it is available  (as a rare book, I'm 
sure) in latin and greek hardcopy. there may be a German translation, 
though it is unlikely as the  German commentaries on the works are by 
classical scholars, who can read latin and greek anyway.


john