Artemis, Dionysus, and the legend of the Amethyst crystal.

Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and drunkenness, became enraged. A mere mortal human had just insulted him… the nerve!
 
In his egotistical God-complex manner, Dionysus decided then and there to get back at these stupid disrespectful humans. He swore that he would kill the next mortal to cross his path.  
 
So he created several tigers, and carefully set up a trap in which they would do the dirty work for him. Dionysus was so blinded with rage; he couldn’t drop down into his heart and surrender his ego to see past the fact that a poor innocent soul would be on the receiving end of this torturous scheme.
 
The next person to walk past was a stunningly beautiful young woman gracefully on her way to pay honor to Artemis, the goddess of chastity, virginity, the hunt, the moon, and the natural environment. 

The tigers attacked.
 
Noticing this twisted nightmare unfolding, Artemis had no time time to spare. The young woman’s life would have to end one way or another.
 
In a moment of panic, Artemis quickly turned this blameless victim into a statue of pure crystalline quartz. This would protect her from being torn apart by the tigers, but unfortunately end her human life.  
 
When Dionysus came to see what he had done, the reality of his arrogance finally sunk in.  He was overcome with emotions of guilt and remorse.  He began to cry tears of wine… He wept and sobbed and wept until his tears flowed into a small stream surrounding the exquisite crystal statue which began to soak up the wine from the ground, slowly turning the clear quartz statue into a deep violet hue.  The young woman’s name was Amethystas.  And so began the myth of the Amethyst.
 
All amethyst is said to have originated from the statue of Amethystas.  As for the association with Dionysus, amethyst was evermore said to protect the wearer from drunkenness.  In ancient Greece, wine goblets were carved out of Amethyst to protect royalty from getting too drunk and making fools of themselves in the same way Dionysus had, legends before them.

R. Minerva

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