BOOK IX. 403 



mentioned proprietors buy it in with the copper ; if there be no silver, copper 

 is made direct. If such copper ore contains some minerals which do not 

 easily melt, as pyrites or cadmia metallica fossilis*^, or stone from which iron 

 is melted, then crude pyrites which easily fuse are added to it, together 

 with slag. From this charge, when smelted, they make cakes ; and from 



And puf&ng loud the roaring bellows blew. 



4> * * « * * 



In moulds prepared, the glowing ore (metal ?) he pours. 



****** 



" Vouchsafe, oh Thetis ! at our board to share 

 The genial rites and hospitable fare ; 

 While I the labours of the forge forego, 

 And bid the roaring bellows cease to blow." 

 Then from his anvil the lame artist rose ; 

 Wide with distorted legs oblique he goes. 

 And stills the bellows, and (in order laid) 

 Locks in their chests his instruments of trade ; 

 Then with a sponge, the sooty workman dress'd 

 His brawny arms embrown'd and hairy breast. 



Thus having said, the father of the fires 



To the black labours of his forge retires. 



Soon as he bade them blow the bellows turn'd 



Their iron mouths ; and where the furnace bum'd 



Resounding breathed : at once the blast expires, 



And twenty forges catch at once the fires ; 



Just as the God directs, now loud, now low, 



They raise a tempest, or they gently blow ; 



In hissing flames huge silver bars are roU'd, 



And stubborn brass (copper ?) and tin, and solid gold ; 



Before, deep fixed, the eternal anvils stand. 



The ponderous hammer loads his better hand ; 



His left with tongs turns the vex'd metal round. 



And thick, strong strokes, the doubling vaults rebound 



Then first he formed the immense and solid shield ; 



Even if we place the siege of Troy at any of the various dates from 1350 to iioo B.C., 

 it does not follow that the epic received its final form for many centuries later, probably 

 900-800 B.C. ; and the experience of the race in metallurgy at a much later period than 

 Troy may have been drawn upon to fiU in details. It is possible to fill a volume with indirect 

 allusion to metallurgical facts and to the origins of the art, from Greek mythology, from Greek 

 poetry, from the works of the grammarians, and from the Bible. But they are of no more 

 technical value than the metaphors from our own tongue. Greek hterature in general is 

 singularly lacking in metallurgical description of technical value, and it is not until Dios- 

 corides (ist Century a.d.) that anything of much importance can be adduced. Aristotle, how- 

 ever, does make an interesting reference to what may be brass (see note on p. 410), and there 

 can be no doubt that if we had the lost work of Aristotle's successor, Theophrastus (372-288 

 B.C.), on metals we should be in possession of the first adequate work on metallurgy. As it 

 is, we find the green and blue copper minerals from Cyprus mentioned in his " Stones." 

 And this is the first mention of any particular copper ore. He also mentions (xix.) 

 pyrites " which melt," but whether it was a copper variety cannot be determined. Theo- 

 phrastus further describes the making of verdigris (see note 4, p. 440). From Dioscorides 

 we get a good deal of light on copper treatment, but as his objective was to describe medicinal 

 preparations, the information is very indirect. He states (v, 100) that " pyrites is a stone 

 from which copper is made." He mentions chalcitis (copper sulphide, see note on, p. 573) ; 

 while his misy, sory, melanteria, caeruleum, and chrysocolla were all oxidation copper or iron 

 minerals. (See notes on p. 573.) In giving a method of securing pompholyx (zinc oxide), 

 " the soot flies up when the copper refiners sprinkle powdered cadmia over the molten metal " 

 (see note 26, p. 394) ; he indirectly gives us the first definite indication of making brass, and 

 further gives some details as to the furnaces there employed, which embraced bellows and dust 

 chambers. In describing the making of flowers of copper (see note 26, p. 538) he states that 

 in refining copper, when the " molten metal flows through its tube into a receptacle, the work- 



*^Cadmia metallica fossilis (see note on p. 112). This was undoubtedly the complex 

 cobalt-arsenic-zinc minerals found in Saxony. In the German translation, however, this is 

 given as Kalmey, calamine, which is unlikely from the association with pyrites. 



