Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 97 



king." x The Trojan reins were ornamented with 

 ivory ftuds (" Iliad," v. 583). In the " Odyffey " 

 more ufe is made of it. Athene makes Penelope 

 " whiter than new-fawn ivory " (xviii. 196). Her 

 chair was deftly wrought with ivory and filver 

 (xix. 56), and the key of her chamber had an 

 ivory handle (xxi. 7). We hear, too, of a bronze 

 fword with filver handle and fheath of frefh-fawn 

 ivory (viii. 404) ; while in the palace of Menelaus 

 at Sparta were bronze, gold, amber and ivory, like 

 the halls of Olympus (iv. 73). Perhaps the moft 

 celebrated alluiion to this fubftance, however, 

 occurs in Penelope's account of the twin gate of 

 dreams, " the one of which has been fafhioned of 

 horn, and the other of ivory. The dreams which 

 pafs through the fawn ivory are deceptive, bring- 

 ing words which have no fulfilment, but thofe 

 which proceed through the polifhed horn bring 

 true iflues, whenever a mortal fees them" (xix. 

 564). 2 Virgil often touches on ivory in much the 

 fame connection as the above. " India mittit 

 ebur," he tells us (" Georg.," i. 57) ; and at Caefar's 

 death, among the dread portents, " Maeftum illa- 

 chrymat templis ebur " (" Georg.," i. 480). He 

 fpeaks, too, of " dona auro gravia fectoque 

 elephanto " (" ^Eneid," iii. 464). The Affyrians 

 carried on a great traffic in ivory with the Eaft, 



1 Compare Virgil, " ^Eneid," xii. 68 : 



" Indum fanguineo veluti violaverit oftro 

 Si quis ebur." 



2 Homer here indulges in a play on words. The ivory is 

 gXg^ag ; the word for " deceptive " is g?.^a//?ovra/. Virgil imi- 

 tates the whole paflage at the end of the fixth "^Eneid," (893). 



H 



