Aetites

Lore & Background

The aetites is described in ancient sources such as Theophrastus, who recorded the belief that the stone could 'give birth' to other stones due to crystals found within, contributing to the idea that some minerals had male and female forms. Pedanius Dioscorides recommended fastening the stone to the left arm to protect the fetus, moving it to the hip area during birth to ease delivery, and also prescribed it for epilepsy and, mixed with meat, to betray a thief. Pliny the Elder described four types in his Natural History, noting that attached to pregnant women or cattle in the skins of sacrificed animals, the stones prevented abortion, but must be removed at parturition to avoid uterine prolapse; he also claimed eagles could not propagate without them. The fourth-century Cyranides stated that wearing the stone as an amulet could prevent miscarriage caused by female demons such as Gello.

Reader's Guide

The aetites appears in Jewish medical practice, where the Talmud refers to a 'preserving stone' worn as an amulet even on Shabbat to prevent miscarriage, though medieval sources linking it to the eagle-stone are uncertain. Rabbis in medieval France and Germany, and a 16th-century Polish talmudist, described the stone as hollow with a smaller stone inside, representing a fetus in the womb. In medicine up to 1700, the aetite is mentioned by Ruberto Bernardi in 1364, by Marsilio Ficino who attributed its power to Venus and the Moon, and by Isabella d'Este in 1494 who expressed confidence in it. It appears in a 1636 Spanish work on natural magic by Hernando Castrillo, and in Alvaro Alonso Barba's 1640 metallurgy work, which advised tying it to the left arm to prevent abortion and to the right for the opposite effect. The 1660 book Occult Physick described it as white and round like a tennis ball with a shaking stone inside, claiming it delivered women in extremity, treated stones, fevers, plague, and scrofula. J.L. Bausch's 1665 book cautioned that promises of its powers exceeded nature and medicine, while Thomas Browne affirmed its obstetrical use but doubted the eagle story. The stones were expensive; in Scotland, Anna Balfour bequeathed hers in a will, and English women borrowed and shared them as pregnancy amulets.

Did You Know?

• Pliny the Elder claimed that eagles cannot propagate without the aetites, which he said is found in their nests.
• The 1660 book Occult Physick said the aetite is 'white and round like a Tennis-ball, and hath a stone that shaketh within it.'
• Jewish women used a 'preserving stone' as an amulet even during Shabbat to prevent miscarriage, though its identification with the eagle-stone is uncertain.

Gallery