Editing Adamant

{{short description|Mythological hardest substance}}
{{For|other uses of adamant and similar terms|Adamant (disambiguation)}}
{{Wiktionary}}
'''Adamant''' in [[classical mythology]] is an archaic form of [[diamond]]. In fact, the English word ''diamond'' is ultimately derived from ''adamas'', via [[Late Latin]] {{lang|la|diamas}} and [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|diamant}}. In ancient Greek {{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἀδάμας|ἀδάμας]]}} ({{Transliteration|grc|adamas}}), genitive {{lang|grc|ἀδάμαντος}} ({{Transliteration|grc|adamantos}}), literally 'unconquerable, untameable'. In those days, the qualities of hard metal (probably [[steel]]) were attributed to it, and ''adamant'' became an independent concept as a result.

In the Middle Ages adamant also became confused with the magnetic rock [[lodestone]], and a [[folk etymology]] connected it with the Latin {{lang|la|adamare}}, 'to love or be attached to'.<ref>[http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&word=adamant&resource=Webster%27s&quicksearch=on Webster's dictionary definition of ''adamant''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620084555/http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&word=adamant&resource=Webster%27s&quicksearch=on |date=June 20, 2010 }}, 1828 and 1913 editions</ref> Another connection was the belief that adamant (the diamond definition) could block the effects of a magnet. This was addressed in chapter III of ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]'', for instance.

Since the contemporary word ''diamond'' is now used for the hardest gemstone, the increasingly archaic noun ''adamant'' has been reduced to mostly [[poetry|poetic]] or [[anachronistic]] use. In that capacity, the name, and various derivatives of it, are frequently used in modern media to refer to a variety of fictional substances.

==In mythology==
* Adamant is used as a translation in the [[King James Bible]] in [[Ezekiel]] 3:9 for the word [[wikt:שמיר|שמיר]] (Shamir), the original word in the [[Hebrew Bible]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bible Gateway passage: Ezekiel 3:9 - King James Version |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%203%3A9&version=KJV |access-date=2022-06-04 |website=Bible Gateway |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ezekiel 3 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre |url=https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1203.htm |access-date=2022-11-17 |website=mechon-mamre.org}}</ref>
* In [[Greek mythology]], [[Cronus]] castrated his father [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] using an adamant [[sickle]] given to him by his mother [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hesiod|title=Hesiod's Theogony|year=1987|publisher=Focus Information Group|location=Cambridge, Ma|isbn=9780941051002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hesiodstheogony00hesi/page/37 37–38 at lines 161–181]|author2=Richard S. Calwell|quote=Quick she [Gaia] made the element of grey adamant, made a great sickle...|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hesiodstheogony00hesi/page/37}}</ref> An adamantine sickle or sword was also used by the hero [[Perseus]] to decapitate the Gorgon [[Medusa]] while she slept.
* Three Phrygian Dactyls, in the service of the Great Mother as Adraste ({{lang|grc|Ἀδράστη}}), are usually named '''[[Acmon (Dactyl)|Acmon]]''' (the [[anvil]]), '''Damnameneus''' (the [[hammer]]), and '''Celmis''' ([[casting]]). Of Celmis, [[Ovid]] (in ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' iv) made a story that when Rhea was offended at this childhood companion of [[Zeus]], she asked Zeus to turn him to diamond-hard [[adamant]], like a tempered blade. Zeus obliged.<ref>Pierre Grimal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', ''s.v.'' "Kelmis"</ref>
* In the Greek tragedy ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' (translated by G. M. Cookson), [[Hephaestus]] is to bind [[Prometheus]] "to the jagged rocks in adamantine bonds infrangible".
* In [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', the gate of [[Tartarus]] is framed with pillars of solid adamant, "that no might of man, nay, not even the sons of heaven, could uproot in war"<ref>Virgil, ''Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid: Books 1-6'', trans. H. Rushton Fairclough, rev. G. P. Goold, Loeb Classical Library 63 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916), p. 571.</ref>
* In [[John Milton]]'s epic poem ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', adamant or adamantine is mentioned eight times. First in Book 1, [[Satan]] is hurled "to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire" (lines 47–48). Three times in Book 2 the gates of hell are described as being made of adamantine (lines 436, 646 and 853). In Book 6, Satan "Came towring [''sic''], armd [''sic''] in Adamant and Gold" (line 110), his shield is described as "of tenfold adamant" (line 255), and the armor worn by the fallen angels is described as "adamantine" (line 542). Finally in book 10 the metaphorical "Pinns [''sic''] of Adamant and Chains" (lines 318–319) bind the world to Satan, and thus to sin and death.<ref>John Milton, ''Paradise Lost'', Book one, two, six, and ten (1667). (see [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20 text from Project Gutenberg])</ref>
* In some versions of the [[Alexander Romance]], [[Alexander the Great]] builds walls of Adamantine, the [[Gates of Alexander]], to keep the giants [[Gog and Magog]] from pillaging the peaceful southern lands.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}}
* In The [[Hypostasis of the Archons]], [[Gnostic]] scripture from the [[Nag Hammadi Library]] refers to the Adamantine Land, an incorruptible place 'above' from whence the spirit came to dwell within man so that he became Adam, he who moves upon the ground with a living soul.<ref>The Hypostasis of the Archons. (Translated by Bentley Laton and the Coptic Gnostic Library Project [http://gnosis.org/naghamm/hypostas.html])</ref>

==In popular culture== 
<!-- Sorted by first publication/release date -->
* In ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'' by [[Dante]], completed 1320, the angel at purgatory's gate sits on adamant.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Bang |first1=Mary Jo |title=Bang's Purgatorio |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/poems/bang-purgatorio |magazine=The New Yorker |date=23 December 2019 |language=en-us}}</ref>
* In the Early Modern epic poem ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'', published 1590, Sir Artegal's sword [[Chrysaor (sword)|Chrysaor]] is made of adamant.
* In the [[Holy Sonnets|Holy Sonnet]] I, published 1620, [[John Donne]] states in line 14, "And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart".
* In ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' by [[Jonathan Swift]], the base of the fictitious flying island of [[Gulliver's Travels#Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan|Laputa]] (Part III of Gulliver's Travels) is constructed of adamant.
* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Nenya, one of the [[Three Rings|Three Rings of Power]], is set with a gem of adamant; the fortress of [[Barad-dûr]] is also partly built from "adamant". The crown of Gondor is described as having "seven gems of adamant".
* In the [[tabletop roleplaying game]] ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', Adamantine is an exotic metal of great strength. 
* In ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' by [[Philip Pullman]], in the third book, ''[[The Amber Spyglass]]'' (2000), Lord Asriel's tower is made of adamant.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pullman |first=Philip |date=2000 |chapter=The Adamant Tower |title=The Amber Spyglass |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A Knopf |isbn=0-679-87926-9 |page=57}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Adamant (1811 ship)]]
* [[Adamant Mountain]], in Canada
* [[Adam Ant]], musician
* [[wikt:adamant|adamant]], a noun defined at [[Wiktionary]]
* [[Adamant, Vermont]], a village in [[Washington County, Vermont]], US
* [[Adamantane]], a bulky [[hydrocarbon]]
* [[Adamantine spar]], a real mineral
* [[wikt:adamantine|adamantine]], an adjective defined at [[Wiktionary]]
* [[Aggregated diamond nanorods]], ultrahard, nanocrystalline form of diamond
* [[Unobtainium]], a name given to exotic, fictional materials used in [[science fiction]]
* [[Adamantina]], a Brazilian municipality in the state of [[São Paulo]].
* [[Adamantium]], a fictional metal alloy in the [[Marvel Universe]]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Fictional metals]]
[[Category:Mythological substances]]
[[Category:Superhard materials]]
[[Category:Objects in Greek mythology]]