Amethyst is a valued quartz ranging from a light lilac to a deep, intense royal purple, and from brownish to vivid colors. Because of its wine-like color, early Greek legends associated amethyst with Bacchus, the god of wine. Amethystos means “not drunk” in ancient Greek and was believed to prevent intoxication and kept its wearer clear-headed. Amethyst was once considered equal in value to ruby, emerald and sapphire before large deposits were discovered in Brazil. Amethyst has a hardness of 7 on Moh’s Hardness scale. Amethyst is the birthstone for February and the gemstone for the 6th and 17th wedding anniversaries.