# Parian marble - Page: https://taslar.bumba.tr/en/stones/parian-marble/ - Turkish: Paros mermeri - Also known as: Lychnites (finest statuary grade), Marmor Parium - Kind: Rock - Classification: Rocks › Metamorphic rocks › Non-foliated - Hardness (Mohs): 3–4 - Specific gravity: 2.6–2.8 g/cm³ - Colours: snow white, warm white, pale greyish white - Composition: Nearly pure calcite marble (over 99% calcite), with traces of apatite, quartz and white mica. - Texture: A sugary texture of bright, interlocking calcite crystals of uneven size. Generally medium-grained (largest grains 1.3–1.8 mm, rarely 2.3 mm); the finest variety, lychnites, is fine-grained and lets light penetrate several centimetres. - Value ladder: 4/9 step, Fine dimension stone and ore The translucent snow-white marble of the Aegean island of Paros: the stone of the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and Praxiteles' Hermes. Parian marble is a pure white, semi-translucent marble quarried on Paros, one of Greece's Cycladic islands. Its finest variety was called “lychnites” in antiquity; because this marble lets light penetrate several centimetres, it gives statues a lifelike glow like skin. From the Archaic period to Roman times it was one of the stones Greek sculptors prized most. The Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and Praxiteles' Hermes were carved from it. ## How does it form? Like other marbles, Parian marble formed by the metamorphism of **limestone**: layers of calcium carbonate laid down in the sea were buried deep during mountain building and recrystallised under heat and pressure without melting, erasing the original sedimentary structures and fossils and producing a pure white rock of interlocking calcite crystals. The bedrock of Paros consists largely of metamorphic rocks, mainly marbles and slates, and the famous Parian marble occurs on the island in large deposits. Because the marble is almost pure calcite and its crystals are bright and clean-faced, it is exceptionally translucent. Its grains are generally of medium size, but the most prized variety, lychnites, is fine-grained. ## What is it used for? - **Sculpture:** the Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Milos), the Winged Victory of Samothrace (about 220–190 BC), Praxiteles' Hermes, the Nike of Paionios, the Medici Venus and the korai of the Athenian Acropolis are made of Parian marble. In Roman times it was still used for works such as the statue of Antinous from the reign of Hadrian (117–138). - **Architecture:** coarser-grained marble from the open pits was used in buildings. Thanks to its translucency, it was also used for the roof tiles of some temples to let natural light inside. - **Trade:** Parian marble was shipped to the great cities of the Mediterranean, above all Rome, where many statues made of it have been found. - **Imitations:** its fame led to an unglazed porcelain made in 19th-century England to imitate it being called “Parian”. ## The quarries The ancient quarries lie in the Marpissa hills in the middle of the island, near the village of Marathi, on the banks of the Skarpathiotis ravine. The most famous are the underground **Quarry of the Nymphs** and **Quarry of Pan**, where lychnites was mined. According to the Roman writer Pliny, the stone was called “lychnites” because it was mined by lamplight (Greek lychnos) in underground galleries; others think the name refers to the marble being pure enough to let light through. There are also open pits at Lakkoi, Spilies and Thapsana. Used since prehistoric times, the quarries were worked intensively from the 6th century BC, abandoned for a long time after the fall of Rome and reopened in the 19th century. The area was declared an archaeological site in 1974. ## Para marble in Ottoman sources Paros came under Ottoman rule in 1537–1538 with the campaign of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha; Ottoman sources call the island Para or Bara. The famous Ottoman admiral and cartographer **Piri Reis** wrote that plenty of marble was quarried from a high mountain in the middle of the island. The Turkish encyclopedia TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi refers to the stone as “Para mermeri” (Para marble). ## How to recognise it - It is snow white or warm white, with almost no veins or spots. A broken surface shows bright, sugary calcite crystals. - Its most striking feature is translucency: in the finest lychnites, light penetrates about 3.5 cm, against about 2.5 cm for Carrara marble and about 1.5 cm for Pentelic marble. - A steel knife scratches it, and it fizzes when dilute acid is dropped on it. - Whether an ancient work is made of Parian marble cannot be told for certain by eye. Scientists measure grain size, accompanying minerals and carbon–oxygen isotope ratios to tell Parian marble from Pentelic, Thasian, Carrara and Marmara Island (Proconnesian) marble. ## What determines its value? The value of Parian marble depends on its pure, even white colour, fine grain, translucency and the ability to extract large, spotless blocks. In antiquity the most precious variety was lychnites, laboriously mined in underground galleries and used only for sculpture; coarser-grained marble from the open pits went into buildings. Today the stone's value lies largely in its historical and archaeological importance, and the ancient quarries are protected. This information is educational, not buying, selling or investment advice. Value varies enormously with quality and treatment. ## Myths and misconceptions - Myth: The white porcelain figurines called “Parian” are made of Parian marble. Fact: Parian ware is an unglazed biscuit porcelain developed in England in 1842. It is not marble; it takes its name from being made to imitate Parian marble. - Myth: All white Greek statues are made of Parian marble. Fact: In antiquity Pentelic marble from near Athens and the marbles of Thasos and Naxos were also widely used, and they are hard to tell from Parian marble by eye. Even in Oxford's famous Corsi collection, a sample labelled “Parium/lychnites” turned out to be dolomite marble from Thasos. ## Did you know? - The underground gallery of the Quarry of the Nymphs is 190 metres long and 50–120 metres wide. To the left of the entrance is a relief dedicated to the Nymphs in the 4th century BC by a man named Adamas from Thrace. - The famous Parian Chronicle, set up in 264/263 BC and listing events with their dates from 1582 BC to 299 BC, is inscribed on a slab of Parian marble. Its larger piece was sold in Smyrna (İzmir) in the early 17th century to an agent of an English earl, and it is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. - Names carved by European travellers who visited from 1776 onwards can still be read on the walls of the Quarry of Pan. ## Where is it found? - Ancient marble quarries of Marathi, Paros, Greece (Type locality): In the Marpissa range, on the banks of the Skarpathiotis ravine: the underground Quarries of the Nymphs and of Pan, where lychnites was mined, and the open pits at Lakkoi, Spilies and Thapsana. An archaeological site since 1974. ## Sources - [Parian marble](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parian_marble), Wikipedia - [The ancient quarries of Paros](https://cyclades.culture.gov.gr/en/location/the-ancient-quarries-of-paros/), Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades - [Paros](https://cyclades.culture.gov.gr/en/location/paros/), Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades - [The Legendary Marble of the Island of Paros that Shaped Art History](https://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/?p=19663), Greek News Agenda (Secretariat General for Communication and Media), 2025 - [Ancient marble quarries – Marathi](https://religiousgreece.gr/en/attractions/ancient-marble-quarries-marathi), Religious Greece - [Marble from the Isle of Paros in Ancient Greece: A tour of the ancient quarries (R. Sturm)](https://depositsmag.com/2018/05/31/marble-from-the-isle-of-paros-in-ancient-greece-a-tour-of-the-ancient-quarries/), Deposits Magazine, 2018 - [Archaeometric investigations on the sarcophagus no. 1993/74 in the Diachronic Museum of Larissa: I. Characterization and provenance of the marble (V. Melfos), Periodico di Mineralogia 89](https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/periodico_di_mineralogia/article/download/16949/16275/33568), Sapienza Università di Roma, 2020 - [Place: Paros](https://artofmaking.ac.uk/explore/places/12), The Art of Making in Antiquity (King's College London) - [Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones, no. 1: Marmo Greco duro (Thasian marble)](https://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/stones/view/1), Oxford University Museum of Natural History - [Parian Chronicle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parian_Chronicle), Wikipedia - [Para (ada) (F. Emecen)](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/para--ada), TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi - [Carrara Marble (A. J. M. Barron), Mercian Geologist 19(3), 188–194](https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/524277/1/Mercian%202018%20v19%20p188%20Carrara%20Marble,%20Barron%20HR.pdf), East Midlands Geological Society, 2018 Source: https://taslar.bumba.tr/en/stones/parian-marble/ · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0