PARIUS LAPIS, or Parium Marmor, a white Marble of much Esteem, which was called Parium, because it was got in the Isle of Paros, one of the Cyclades in the Archipelago. It is said in the Chronicles1, that David had prepared a vast Quantity of Parian Marble for the building of the Temple; and in Esther2, that the Pavement of the Place where King Abasuerus made the famous Feast for his Nobles, was paved with Emeralds and Parian Marble. ‘Tis well known that the Marble of Paros was of an excellent Whiteness, and that the greatest Part of the most beautiful Works of Antiquity were made of this Marble. Josephus says3, that the Temple of Jerusalem was built with great Stones of white Marble; so that at a Distance this vast Pile of Building appeared like a Mountain of Snow. The Seventy had probably the same Notion, when they rendered the Hebrew Word Sis, or Sais, or Shish, by Parian Marble; and St. Jerome has followed them in this. But we must own, that the Stone of Sis or Shish is intirely unknown to us. We cannot tell whether it is a Marble or a precious Stone. David mentions it in the Enumeration that he makes, of the precious Stones he had collected for the Works of the Temple; though we do not perceive the Use that Solomon employed it to; unless he made Use of it to adorn the Vessels of the Temple, or perhaps for some Ornaments of the High Priest.
As to the Passage in the Book of Esther, we read there Shish, or Sis, as in the Book of Kings; and the Septuagint and St. Jerome have in like manner rendered it by the Marble of Paros; but other Interpreters render it by plain Marble. I should rather think it to be a sort of precious Stone unknown to us, than a kind of Marble. The Ancients sometimes made Pavements, wherein were set very valuable Stones. Eò deliciarum pervenimus, ut nisi gemmas calcare nolimus, says Seneca4. And Apuleius thus describes the Pavement of the Apartments of Psyche: Pavimenta ipsa lapide pretioso cæsim diminuto, in varia pictura genera discriminabantur.
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