‘ 
ad, 
IOS 
days of Homer, if not during the Trojan 
war, horfes were fhod with brafs. This 
inference appears to me highly queftion- 
able. Tt was ufual with the Greek poets, 
when they intended to convey an idea of 
firength or durability, to affix to the noun 
the epithet xaaneos. FEhus Stentor (il. 
Iib.v. 785.) is termed yaAxeoPwvos — 
Achilles (in lib. xviil. 222) is characte- 
rizéd as having yaAxsoy ome, WVocem 
aveam. ‘The mantfion of Jupiter €II. i. 
426.) is denominated yarnoBales dw, an 
expreffion, which, as Madame Dacier 
and Clarke juftly obferve, is fignificant 
merely of its (ability. The precifemean- 
ing, therefore, of the phrafe yadrxowed” 
axe, appearsto me too conteitable to 
furnifh any fatisfaCtory proof that the 
herfes of the Greeks or Trojats were fhod 
with brafs. For my part, Iam inclined 
to adopt the cpinion of Euftathius, He- 
fychius, and fome other eminent crities, 
who eonfider the epithet here employed as 
Equivalent to xpolepwovyes,, fignitying no- 
thing more than (odes ungulas habentes. 
For, had it been ufual during the ‘Frojan 
war, or in the age of Homer, to fhoe 
horfes with brafs, it appears to me ex- 
tremc!y improbable that’ a practice fo 
wfetul Mould have been relinguifhed, or 
that an ert fo fimple could have been lof. 
Wet there are aceumulated, though indi- 
reét, authorittes, to. prove, that-in later 
ages it was.entirely unknown (See Xeno- 
poon de Re Egquefiri, et de Magifier 
Eguitum; Appian de Bello Mithr. ; & 
Disd, Sicui. lib. xvii.). . 
Dr, Carey obferves, that brafs or cop- 
per Was in general ufe before the acci- 
dental difcevery of fron. Itis far more 
certain that it was generally ufed long 
afcer ; and I am inclined to believe that the 
difcevery of both-originated with one and 
the-{ame perfon. Jron was known in the 
time of the Trojan war. Homer informs 
ws, that the Greeks bartered it for wine (1). 
H. 422.) And when he imtroduces 
Achilles as recounting his riches, iron is 
particularly mentioned as corftituting 
part of his valuable property. It is like- 
wile certain, that the art of working it was 
then known. 
indeed dificult to afiign any fatisfattory 
reaion why the armour of the Greeks and 
‘Fsojins was entirely fabricated of brafs. 
au 
~ 
It was, perhaps, owing to the {carcity of 
iron ; for it appears that the value of the 
few articles then manufactured of this 
metal did not confit in their exquifite 
workmanfhip, add: that.it was mot the 
OAH OS crdypos only which was highly 
ciicemed. Inevidence of this, we are in- 
On the Antiquity of Forfe-Shoess 
This being the cafe, it is. - 
[May 1, 
formed (Ul. ¥. 827), that Achilles pro- 
pofed, as a prize worthy of difpute, an 
iron difcus, rough from the furnace. — 
It is generally believed, and the Arun- 
delian marbles ftate, that the ufe of brafs 
was known before the difcovery of iron. 
This hypothefis, I muft fay, appears to 
me, if not falfe, to be at leaft extremely 
doubtful. The authority of thefe re- 
cords, in regard to any chronological fact, 
is fo problematical, that they cannot juftly 
be regarded as corre€t. and decifive docu- 
ments.. Their evidence is, in this in- 
ftance, contradi&ted by the teftimony of 
facred hiftory, which afcribes the art of 
working iron, and that alfo of working 
brals, to thefame original, namely, Tu. 
bal-Cain, the fon of Lamech. The 
Greek and Roman poets, concurring with 
the facred hiforian in regard to the fact, 
though they affign a different author, ge- 
nerally reprefent Prometheus, the father 
of Deucalion, as the inventor of the art of 
working both iron and brafs. Their fa- 
bles, however, disfigured as they are 
with incongruities, deferve, perhaps, but 
little credit, One thing is certain, that 
they agree in reprefenting Prometheus 
(Providence or Forefight) as the father of 
the arts,* and that they affign him an ex- 
iftence antecedent to the flood, Orpheus, 
indeed, one of the beft of the ancient my- 
thologifts, addreffes him as the fame with — 
Saturn.+ Agreeably, therefore, to facred — 
hiftory, and alfo to the fables of the poets, 
to whatever credit they may be entitled, 
both the arts in queftion mult have been 
anterior to the deluge, and muft have 
{prung from one and the fame origin. — 
Stephanus, indeed, in his Thefaurus, 
affirms, on the authority of Hefiod,f that 
the ufe of brafs was known before iron 
i? 
\ -® Boayes de pul ravla SVAAUBInY abe, 
Nagas lex vec Bpclosot ex TIponfewge 
T Peace Tipo! Sepeve Mpopendev. 
t Hefiod, in defcribing the brazen-age, 
obferves, that, during that period, peras Pex 
Ecxe otonpos, On which a celebrated critic 
makes the followingremark: } 
*¢ Si conftarent fibi figmenta poetica, hane 
progeniem (zneam) occidiffe oporteret, ante 
tempora Promethei, qui ferri cudendi artem 
inveniffe a poetis magno confenfu dicitur.—— 
Verum non tantopere exculta erat ars menti- 
endi iis temporibus, ut mendacii partes cone 
fentire neceile eflet."—-CL ERICUS. 
This charge of anachronifm feems to me. 
not well founded. The poet, when he in- 
troduces the ftory of Prometheus, muft be 
underftood, as I conceive, to {peak prolep= - 
tically, ee 
wag 
