Coral Saber. Germany, circa 1560. The coral saber is a pure art collection piece with no particular practical function; it was certainly never actually used as a weapon.

The blade is formed by human art, the handle by the power of nature, so that here the work of man and nature are ideally combined. The key to the object’s meaning is provided by the material coral and its mythical connection with the figure of Jupiter’s son Perseus. In the fourth book of the Metamorphoses (740 f.), Ovid reported on the miraculous transformation of leaves and stems that had grown in water and were used by Perseus as a base for the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa.

Through contact with the Gorgon’s head and through its magical powers, the aquatic plants turned into corals. Parts of these were sown by nymphs and in this way developed into coral seeds. These retained their peculiarity, which only allowed them to gain their hardness and turn into stone when they were lifted above the water surface and exposed to the air.

The sword of Perseus, like the sword presented here, had a curved blade (Metamorphoses 4,727), which can be interpreted as an allusion to the creation myth.