Br. "Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 265 



The Pre-Homeric Meteoric Irons. 1 



Von Haidinger, in April, 1870, in a letter addressed to Fr. von 

 Hauer, directed attention to a communication which he had received 

 from Sir John Herschel, supplementing a short notice on the above 

 subject, 2 which was sent to von Haidinger six years previously by 

 Prof. Miller, of Cambridge. 



Herschel points out that the Trojan irons do not constitute the only 

 instance in the writings of Homer where that metal is mentioned in 

 a manner to provoke the assumption that all the iron used at that 

 time by the Greeks was of meteoric origin. The mass of iron which 

 Achilles offered as a prize at the funeral games of Patroclus, 

 and which had been carried off as treasure from the palace of 

 Eetion, is described as aokov avro^owvov (crude, self-fused) ; while 

 to show the scarcity of iron in those times, it is stated that this 

 block of metal, though of such a size that a strong man could hurl 

 it some distance, would prove a sufficient supply of iron for five 

 years to the winner, and render unnecessary a journey to the city 

 for the purchase of that metal. Again, among the prizes for the 

 archers we find, in addition to ten two-edged axes and ten hatchets 

 of bronze, loevra aiSrjpov as material for arrow-heads. This is not 

 " crude, self-molten " (meteoric ?) iron, but forged metal, converted 

 probably on the surface by cementation into steel. It is far from 

 improbable that in early times, before the art of forging iron was 

 known, many metallic masses of meteoric origin lay strewn over the 

 then known surface of our planet, which, as their adaptation to the 

 useful arts became known, were collected and turned to use, as was 

 the case with gold. Von Haidinger further called attention to the 

 statement in Sir John Herschel's letter that the latter had noticed 

 these references to the early use of iron before he perused the former's 

 first report published in 1864. Herschel remarks, moreover, that 



1 W. von Haidinger. Mitt. Anthrop. Gesell. Wien, i. no. 3, 63. 



2 W. von Haidinger. Sitzungsber. Acad. Wiss. Wien, 1. 288. — In this paper, 

 Ein vorhomerischer Fall von zwei Meteoreisenmassen bet Troja, Miller called attention 

 to Iliad, xv. 19-32 : 



19. "AK/ioyas ?iko, Svw 



31 fivSpovs 8'eVi Tpoiy 



32. KdfiftaXov o<ppa ire\oiro not &vcrofJ.£voi<n irvdiaQai. 



Miller remarking that these lines were enclosed in brackets, and given as doubtful, 

 applied to Babington, who wrote : Iliad, xv. 30. Memorat Eustathius post hunc 

 versum nonnullos adscripsisse hos versos. 



TIplv 8re 5}j rr&Tre'Aucra ttoSwv fivSpovs d'ev) Tpolrj 

 Kd/il3a\ow 6<ppa weXoiro Kal irrcrofievoiffi irvdiadai' 

 Adding as a commentary: Kal StucvvvTai, (paaiv, vnb ra>v irepiriyriTaii/ oi roiovrot fxvSpot. 

 [" lumps of this kind they say are pointed out by the Perigetae "]. Eustathius was 

 Archbishop of Thessalonica, and died in 1 198. Moreover, he says that the Periegetae 

 called them " anvils from above (fallen from heaven)." Von Haidinger points to 

 the incomplete character of the passage without lines 31 and 32 : — 



Dann dir erst lost' ich die Fiisse, die Klumpen aber nach Troja 

 "Warf ich hinab, noch spater Geschlechtern die That zu verkiinden. 

 He also alludes to the fact that two iron masses fell at Braunau, Bohemia, and two 

 at Cranbourne, near Melbourne, Australia. 



