250 Mr. J. Phillips on Ancient Metallurgy and Mining 



valent? what is stannum, obtained from mixed ores of silver 

 and lead ? what is galena, elsewhere called rnolybdajna ? 

 (cap. 18.) We need not ask what is plumbum nigrum, for 

 by that is clearly designated lead. 



That KaaaLTepo<i or KarTCTepo^ was tin, appears to be ge- 

 nerally allowed. The mineralogist and miner who know the 

 mode of occurrence and character of tin ore, will have no 

 doubt that plumbum album of Pliny is tin, and that author 

 twice positively and expressly identifies this with Kaaalrepo^. 



The uses to which Homer puts Kaa-acrepo^ in the thoraca 

 and shields of Agamemnon, Achilles, and Asteropasus, and in 

 the greaves of Achilles, are such as imply easy fusibility and 

 ductility, and indicate that the metal was highly valued and 

 almost precious*. 



Virgil puis no tin into the arms of ^neas — perhaps the 

 metal was then of too vulgar use — employed too much by tin- 

 kers — to be fit for a heroic shield. Electrum is substituted, 

 and iron is the staple article in the Vulcanian workshop, as 

 brass was in that of "H<f>AIST02, 1000 years before. 



The picture of the great artist — the Tubal Cain of the west, 

 the cunning worker in metal, who melted, alloyed, inlaid, 

 carved, and polished his work — whose multiplied bellows 

 breathed at the will of the god softly or fiercely — whose brass 

 was hardened to wound, or tempered to bend, — is perfect, and 

 might be paralleled on a small scale till a few hundred years in 

 the famous smiths of Wales, who made their own iron, and 

 were by the laws of that country, as renesved by Howell Dda, 

 allowed to sit next the sacred priest. 



* The following are the principal passages in the Iliad where Kaaairepos 

 is mentioned : — 



Xf. 25. In the thorax of Agamemnon were ten plates (ot/iot) neXavos 

 Kvdvoio, twelve of gold and twenty of Kaa-alrepos, 



XI. 34. In the shield of Agamemnon were twenty white bosses (o/x^aXot) 

 of tin, and in the middle one of Kvavos. 



XVIII. 474. For the shield of Achilles "H-I-AISTOS throws into his cru- 

 cibles brass, unconquered Ka(r(riTfpo<:, honoured gold, and silver. 



XVIII. 564. He pours the tin round the border. 



XX. 270, In this shield were five [ilates; the two exterior ones brass; 

 within these, two of Kaa-a-irepos ; and in the middle of all, one of gold. 



XVHI. 612. The greaves of Achilles are made of soft Kaa-a-irepos. 



XXII. 503. The chariot of Diomedes was adorned with gold, and Kao-crt- 

 repos. 



XXIII. 561. In the brazen thorax of Asteropaeus the ornament was of 

 glittering Kaa-airepos- 



What is here called Kvavos, and is apparently a much-valued substance, 

 is difficult to say. From its colour, lapis lazuli, turquois, and carbonate of 

 copper have been suggested. As it is only mentioned in connexion with 

 the arms of Agamemnon, which were the gift of Cinyras king of Cyprus, 

 the latter mineral may be thought to have the best title, especially if, as at 

 Chessy, it occurs blue in Cyprus. 



