81 



Virgil puts no tin into the Arms of JEneas — 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*AI2T02, 1000 years before. 



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

 cunning worker in metal, who melted, alloyed, inlayed, 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 renewed by Howell Dda, 

 allowed to sit next the sacred priest. 



Why Pliny treats as a fable the story of the Cassiterides 

 yielding tin, is somewhat difficult to say. He classes the 

 Cassiterides with Hispania, Book iv. Cap. xxii. (ex adverso sunt 

 insulae, — Cassiterides dictre Grsecis, a fertilitate plumbi), and 

 speaks of Mictis (on the authority of Timaeus the historian) as 

 six days sail from Britain, and as yielding candidum plumbum, 

 iv. Cap. 16. If the Cassiterides are the Ocrynian Promontory 

 and the Scilly Isles, from which, as recorded by Strabo, the 



XT. 25. In the Thorax of Agamemnon were 10 plates (o»/*o<) jufXavo; xuavow, 

 12 of gold and 20 of ycaa-inrefov. 



XI. 34. In the Shield of Agamemnon were 20 white bosses (o/A^aXo<) of Tin, 

 and in the middle one of y-vavoq. 



XVIII. 474. For the Shield of AchDles 'H*AI2T02 throws mto his crucibles 

 Brass, unconquered xao-o-iTtpoj', honoured gold, and silyer. 



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



XX. 270. In this Shield were 5 plates ; the two exterior ones brass ; within 

 these 2 of yiaa-a-iTepoy , and in the middle of all, 1 of gold. 



XVIII. 012. The greaves of Achilles are made of soft y.aa-(riTfpov. 



XXII. 503. The Chariot of Diomedes was adorned with gold, and Ka(ro-«T€pov. 



XXIII. 561. In the brazen thorax of Asteropseus the ornament was of glittering 



What is here called xvavo?, and is apparently a much valued substance, is difScnlt 

 to say. From its colour, Lapis Lazuli, Turquois, and Carbonate of Copper have 

 been suggested. As it is only mentioned in connection with the arms of Agamem- 

 non, 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. 



