ALABASTER, in Antiquity, a term used for a vase wherein odoriferous liquors were anciently put. The reason of the denomination is, that vessels for this purpose were frequently made of the alabaster stone, which Pliny and other ancients represent as peculiarly proper for this purpose. Several critics will have the box mentioned in the Gospels as made of alabaster to have been of glass: And though the texts say that the woman broke it, yet the pieces seem miraculously to have been united, since we are told the entire box was purchased by the emperor Constantine, and preserved as a relic of great price. Others will have it, that the name alabaster denotes the form rather than the matter of this box: In this view they define alabaster by a box without a handle, deriving the word from the privative α-, and λαβε, ansa, handle.
ALABASTER is also said to have been used for an ancient liquid measure, containing ten ounces of wine, or nine of oil. In this sense, the alabaster was equal to half the sextary.