Brewer's: Gold

By the ancient alchemists, gold represented the sun, and silver the moon. In heraldry, gold is expressed by dots.

All he touches turns to gold.

It is said of Midas that whatever he touched turned to gold. (See Rainbow.)

“In manu illius plumbum aurum flebat.” —Petronius.

Gold

All that glitters is not gold. (Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, ii. 7.)

“All thing which that schineth as the gold is nought gold.”

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, 12,890.

Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum Nec pulchrum pomum quodlibet esse bonum.

Alanus de Insulis: Parabolæ.

He has got the gold of Tolosa. His ill gains will never prosper. Cæpio, the Roman consul, in his march to Gallia Narbonensis, stole from Tolosa (Toulouse) the gold and silver consecrated by the Cimbrian Druids to their gods. When he encountered the Cimbrians both he and Mallius, his brother-consul, were defeated, and 112,000 of their men were left upon the field (B.C. 106).

The gold of Nibelungen.

Brought ill-luck to every one who possessed it. (Icelandic Edda.) (See Fatal Gifts.) Mannheim gold. A sort of pinchbeck, made of copper and zinc, invented at Mannheim, in Germany. Mosaic gold is “aurum musivum, ” a bi-sulphuret of tin used by the ancients in tesselating. (French, mosaique.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Gold Purse of Spain

Golconda