Aetites

For the mushroom, see Mycena aetites.
Eagle stone amulet, seventeenth century, from the Bavarian and Austrian amulet collection of W. L. Hildburgh, originally gifted to the Wellcome Museum.

In the magical tradition of Europe and the Near East (see: Magic in the Greco-Roman world), the aetites (singular in Latin) or aetite (anglicized) is a stone used to promote childbirth. It is also called an eagle-stone,[1] aquiline, or aquilaeus. The stone is said to prevent spontaneous abortion and premature delivery, while shortening labor and birth for a full-term birth.[2]

From Theophrastus onwards, the belief is also recorded that the stone had the ability to "give birth" to other stones, based on the crystals found within. This fed into the belief that at least some minerals could be gendered into male and female forms.[3]

  1. ^ The eagle-stone is defined as "the common name of the aetite" by Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English (London, 1886), p. 414 online.
  2. ^ Sarah Iles Johnston (3 May 1999). Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. University of California Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-520-21707-2. OCLC 1000963626.
  3. ^ Harris, 47-48