Adamant

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Adamant , Adamas , Adamantit , Adamantium and similar words denote fictional , very hard metals , minerals , crystals or (semi) precious stones . Just like diamond and adamantane , the word "adamant" can be derived from the Greek ἀδάμας (adámas), which means roughly "invincible".

In ancient times, adamant was mainly related to metals, in the Middle Ages it was called a mineral. Today the term adamant is mainly used in entertainment literature as well as in computer , pen & paper role-playing games and comics as a synonym for particularly robust metals.

Hard iron alloys and iron with a low carbon content were so rare, especially in ancient times, that they were regarded as particularly valuable. It was later discovered that gemstones are just as hard, and this term applied to the hardest gemstones. Mainly diamonds and sapphires as well as iron, iron alloys with magnetite or iron steel were referred to as adamant. However , it was not always possible to distinguish between diamonds and sapphires exactly, so both the diamond and the sapphire were referred to as Adamas .

Examples

  • In Greek mythology, Kronos emasculated his father Uranos with a “toothed sickle of gray adamant” - unlike iron , this material could also injure gods.
  • With Hesiod it says of the shield of Heracles : "On the mighty head he put the helmet, the well-made, ornate one from Adamas."
  • As early as 300 BC AD Adamant was used by Theophrastus of Eresus as the name for magnetite .
  • In the first half of the third century adamant was mentioned in the pearl song of the Gnostic hymns according to Judas Thomas ( Acts of Thomas ). ("Kai hôplisan me tô (i) adamanti" - "They girded me with adamant / the 'diamond' that cuts iron.")
  • The German-Jewish writer Werner Kraft (1896–1991) called a very short poem Adamant  : "I am weak / I do not give in."
  • In JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , adamant is often read as a gemstone; the crown of Gondor, for example, is set with many adamant stones. On the ring of Galadriel, one of the three great rings of the Elves named Nenya , there was also an adamant. In addition, the tower of Barad-dûr was also made of this mineral.
  • In Marvel - and especially in the X-Men universe is Adamantium extremely difficult to work and indestructible after hardening alloy , with as part of a secret military project called Weapon X (English Weapon X ) u. a. the skeleton of the characters Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike was encased.
  • Several British ships were named Adamant , one being a ship of the line built in 1780, a merchant ship built in 1811 and the submarine supply ship (A164) in the 1940s.

Other fictional elements

Trivia

  • The British singer Stuart Leslie Goddard gave himself the stage name Adam Ant , a play on "Ant" (Engl .: ant ) and Adamant.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Volkert Haas : History of the Hittite religion. ISBN 90-04-09799-6 ; (Page 151)
  2. Hesiod : The Shield of Heracles, verses 136-137
  3. Werner Kraft: Coped with the present. Old and new poems . Darmstadt: Bläschke 1973, p. 40. ISBN 3-87561-181-0

Web links

Wiktionary: Adamant  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations