CHAP. II. 



GREECE. 67 



manner so similar, that the introduction of casual 

 remarks on them can scarcely be deemed a use- 

 less or a wholly uninstructive deviation from our 

 chief purpose. 



It may be convenient to divide the account 

 of the Grecian mining into three distinct periods. 

 In the first of them, the chief mines were in the 

 islands of the Mediterranean sea, and the opera- 

 tions in them were carried on principally by 

 Phoenician workmen. In the second period, the 

 mines were discovered and worked in the Grecian 

 continental territory, and chiefly in Attica. In 

 the last term, new and productive mines were 

 worked in the dominions of Philip, king of Ma- 

 cedon, which ultimately, with the mines of the 

 other Greeks, fell into the hands of the Roman 

 republic. 



In the first period, the writings of Homer are 

 our chief and almost exclusive guides. His 

 works, after making due allowance for poetic 

 exaggeration, give, however, but little inform- 

 ation as to the first discovery of metals, or of the 

 use of them at the time he wrote. When Helias, 

 or the sun, is represented as the discoverer of 

 gold, and Ericthonius as that of silver, we are 

 justified, without giving credit to the tales, in 

 ascribing to these metals a very high antiquity. 

 The same is the case with copper, the knowledge 

 of which, according to tradition, was communi- 

 cated immediately by their gods. The discovery 



