Bonner, SMA, 70.
Bonner, SMA – PDF, 70.definite characteristics of this type, do not mention the moon over the lizard's head; but I think that a broad lambda, placed in that position in my memoranda, must have been a misunderstanding of a badly cut downward-pointing crescent. Reverse Μιχαηλ Ουριηρ, i.e. Μιχαηλ Ουριηλ, with the common confusion of ρ and λ in the latter word.
Cabinet des Médailles (Chabouillet 2245), mottled jasper. Crescent and two globes above; inscription Ιαω Σαβαωθ Αδωνε Eλεουε, the last words for Adonai Elohim. Reverse Ουριηλ Ουριηλ Σουριηλ κανθε σουλε.
Berlin, yellow and green ja8per. Normal type, but the reverse inscription is ευλαμω. Toelken, Class I, 152 (Panofka, op. cit., Pl. 3, 10).
Athens, Portolacca Collection (Imhoof-Blumer and Keller, Tier- und Pflanzenbilder, Pl. 22, 41). The four dim letters reported by the editor are πηρα; and although Keller thought otherwise, there is certainly a crescent moon, not a slug, over the lizard's head. No reverse inscription reported. Sardonyx.
Berlin. Agate-onyx. Climbing lizard, encircled by the inscription LVMINA RESTITVTA. No crescent. Reverse plain. Toelken, Class VIII, 328; Panofka, op. cit., P1. 3, 9.
Unknown location. Montfaucon, II, 2, Pl. 176, 5, from Capello, Prodromus Iconicus, No. 142, lizard and moon; if any letters were on the obverse Capello did not read or note them. Rever8e, Σουριηλ.
A similar stone was reported by Gori, Thesaurus Gemmarum Astriferarum, II, 256, No. 41; but the description of the obver8e is probably incomplete — it mentions only the lizard — and the reverse inscription is evidently garbled by the engraver or wrongly copied by the editor. It probably contained the words κανθε σουλε. See Drexler, Woch. Klass. Philol., 1886, 1212; Philol., 58, 613.
At the cost of some tedious details this list has been presented here because it affords an excellent example of the fidelity with which a certain magical prescription, to be explained presently, was carried out. The designs and inscriptions are practically identical in several cases, and we note a marked similarity in the materials used, chiefly jasper, with a preference for mottled pieces. The differences are more often to be found in the inscriptions than elsewhere.
Amulets of the kind described have been interpreted through the efforts of several scholars, especially Panofka5 and Drexler.6 The complete evidence used by these writers must be sought in their articles; the following is a summary. From passages in Pliny and Aelian7 Panofka elicited the following magical procedure: A green lizard was blinded and shut up in a new earthenware jar for nine days. Enclosed with it were ring stones carved with the design of a lizard. At the end of the nine days the lizard would be found to have recovered its vision, and was then to be freed.8 The ring stones were to be used as remedies for diseases of the eye. To this evidence Drexler added a passage from the Cyranides, in which the same process is described with some additional details.9 The lizard was to be blinded with two iron pins, one thrust into the left eye, the other into the right. These pins were to be used as settings for the ring stones. The writer further prescribes the
5 Panofka, “Gemmen mit Inschriften,” Abh. Berl. Akad., 1851, pp. 474–476, Pl. 3, 9–11.
6 Drexler, Philol., 58, 610–616.
7 Pliny N. H. 29, 129–130; Aelian N. A. 5, 47.
8 Compare the inscription lumina restituta on the Berlin gem listed above.
9 Mély-Ruelle, II, 61.
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