Jacinth

Jacinth /dʒɒˈsɪnθ/ is an orange-red transparent variety of zircon used as a gemstone. Jacinth is also a flower of a reddish blue or deep purple (hyacinth).

It has been supposed to designate the same stone as the ligure (Hebrew leshem) mentioned in Exodus 28:19 as the first stone of the third row in the high priest's breast-plate, the Hoshen. or choshen. In Revelation 9:17 the word is simply descriptive of colour.

Use in literature

Jacinths are mentioned as decorating the city of Iram in Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights.

Alfred Lord Tennyson's vision of Excalibur in his epic poem "The Passing of Arthur," from the Idylls of the King, describes its hilt as studded with jacinths:

J.R.R. Tolkien used jacinths to describe the deep-blue wall of space in his poem, The Happy Mariners:

Oscar Wilde's novel Dorian Gray, speaks of Edward II giving armorial vestments made with Jacinths to his lover Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall.

Jacinth is also mentioned in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, where in Enoch's first journey through earth and Sheol, he encounters an enormous mountain of jacinth, or jacinth-like in appearance:

Jacinth (horse)

Jacinth (1970–1992) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. In a racing career which lasted from May 1972 until August 1973 she won five of her seven races and finished second in the other two. In 1972 she was rated the best two-year-old of either sex in Britain on the strength of a five length win in the Cheveley Park Stakes. In the following season she was beaten when odds-on favourite for the classic 1000 Guineas but went on to win the Coronation Stakes, Falmouth Stakes and Goodwood Mile. She was retired to stud and had some success as a dam of winners. She died in 1992.

Background

Jacinth was a big, powerful, good-looking bay mare with a white sock on her left hind leg bred by the stud of the British bookmaker William Hill. She was sired by Red God a successful racehorse in Europe and North America who had a lasting influence on Thoroughbred racing as the sire of the stallion Blushing Groom. Jacinth's dam Jaffa, was a successful racehorse over long distances and a granddaughter of Daring Miss, whose other descendants included Humble Duty and the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches winner Danseuse du Soir.