Beads were anciently used to reckon time, and a circle, being a line
without termination, was the natural emblem of its perpetual continuity;
whence we often find circles of beads upon the heads of deities, and
enclosing the sacred symbols upon coins and other monuments. Perforated
beads are also frequently found in tombs, both in the northern and
southern parts of Europe and Asia, whence are fragments of the chaplets
of consecration buried with the deceased. The simple diadem, or fillet,
worn round the head as a mark of sovereignty, had a similar meaning, and
was originally confined to the statues of deities and deified
personages, as we find it upon the most ancient coins. Chryses, the
priest of Apollo, in the “Iliad,” brings the diadem, or sacred fillet,
of the god upon his sceptre, as the most imposing and invocable emblem
of sanctity; but no mention is made of its being worn by kings in either
of the Homeric poems, nor of any other ensign of temporal power and
command, except the royal staff or sceptre.