precious.* 



98 Mr. J. Phillips on Ancient Metallurgy and Mining 



This chapter is a text on which a 38th book of Natural History 

 might be written, embracing the history or fable of the m&&<m4qi$b$, 

 the ancient arts of metallurgy, and the eager trade in metals which 

 allured the Phoenician sailors on the Atlantic, and led the Roman 

 armies to Britain. 



What is y-aaaitegog, for which plumbum album is the equiva- 

 lent ? what is stannum, obtained from mixed ores of silver and 

 lead? what is galena, elsewhere called molybdasna? (cap. 18.) 

 We need not ask what is plumbum nigrum, for by that is clearly 

 designated lead. 



That xu<jcrLrF(x)g or KajttYtfpg was tin, appears to be generally 

 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 xaaairtoog. 



The uses to which Homer puts xaacrdFoog in the thoraca and 

 shields of Agamemnon, Achilles, and Asteropaeus, and in the 

 greaves of Achilles, are such as imply easy fusibility and ductil- 

 ity, and indicate that the metal was highly valued and almost 



its no tin into the arms of iEneas — perhaps the metal 

 was then of too vulgar use — employed too much by tinkers — 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 

 7r<MI2TO.S ', 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 



* The following are the principal passages in the Iliad where nao-vir^os is men- 

 tioned : — 



XI. 25. In the thorax of Agamemnon were ten plates (il/toi) n'i\avos xvavoic, twelve 

 of gold and twenty of %*&<rlT9fo$. 



XI. 34. In the shield of Agamemnon were twenty white bosses (5y.q}a\o\) of tin, 

 and in the middle one of xoavo*. 



XV III. 474. For the si M of Achilles "H4AKT02 throws into his crucibles 



brass, nnconquered lafrff'ttfos, honored gold, and silver. 



XVIII. 504. He poors the tin round the border. 



XX. 270. In tliis shield w T ere five plates; the two exterior ones brass; within 

 th< 5, two of Kaaa-lr^oi ; and in the middle of nil, one of gold. 



XYHI. 612. The greaves of Achillea arc made of soft *cmt<t17i?os. 



XXII. 5<»3. The chariot <>f Komedes was adorned with eolcL and xaao-^tfos. 



_. f 



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



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

 to say. From its color, lapis lazuli, turquois, and carbonate of copper have been 

 suggested. As it is only mentioned in connexion with the arms of Agamemnon, 

 which was 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. 



o 



