BOOK

IX.

403

mentioned proprietors buy it in with the copper ; if there be no silver, copperis made direct. If such copper ore contains some minerals which do noteasily melt, as pyrites or cadmia metallica fossilis i3 , or stone from which ironis melted, then crude pyrites which easily fuse are added to it, togetherwith slag. From this charge, when smelted, they make cakes ; and from

And puffing loud the roaring bellows blew.

******

In moulds prepared, the glowing ore (metal ?) he pours.******

“ Vouchsafe, oh Thetis ! at our board to shareThe genial rites and hospitable fare ;

While I the labours of the forge forego,

And bid the roaring bellows cease to blow.”

Then from his anvil the lame artist rose ;

Wide with distorted legs oblique he goes,

And stills the bellows, and (in order laid)

Locks in their chests his instruments of trade ;

Then with a sponge, the sooty workman dress’dHis brawny arms embrown’d and hairy breast.******

Thus having said, the father of the firesTo the black labours of his forge retires.

Soon as he bade them blow the bellows turn’dTheir iron mouths ; and where the furnace burn’dResounding breathed : at once the blast expires,

And twenty forges catch at once the fires ;

Just as the God directs, now loud, now low,

They raise a tempest, or they gently blow ;

In hissing flames huge silver bars are roll’d,

And stubborn brass (copper ?) and tin, and solid gold ;

Before, deep fixed, the eternal anvils stand.

The ponderous hammer loads his better hand ;

His left with tongs turns the vex’d metal round.

And thick, strong strokes, the doubling vaults reboundThen first he formed the immense and solid shield ;

Even if we place the siege of Troy at any of the various dates from 1350 to 1100 B.c.,it does not follow that the epic received its final form for many centuries later, probably900-800 b.c. ; and the experience of the race in metallurgy at a much later period thanTroy may have been drawn upon to fill in details. It is possible to fill a volume with indirectallusion to metallurgical facts and to the origins of the art, from Greek mythology, from Greekpoetry, from the works of the grammarians, and from the Bible. But they are of no moretechnical value than the metaphors from our own tongue. Greek literature in general issingularly lacking in metallurgical description of technical value, and it is not until Dios-corides (1st Century a.d.) that anything of much importance can be adduced. Aristotle, how-ever, does make an interesting reference to what may be brass (see note on p. 410), and therecan be no doubt that if we had the lost work of Aristotle’s successor, Theophrastus (372-288B -C.), on metals we should be in possession of the first adequate work on metallurgy. As itis, we find the green and blue copper minerals from Cyprus mentioned in his “ Stones.”And this is the first mention of any particular copper ore. He also mentions (xix.)pyrites “ which melt,” but whether it was a copper variety cannot be determined. Theo-phrastus further describes the making of verdigris (see note 4, p. 440). From Dioscorideswe get a good deal of light on copper treatment, but as his objective was to describe medicinalpreparations, the information is very indirect. He states (v, 100) that “ pyrites is a stonefrom which copper is made.” He mentions chalcitis (copper sulphide, see note on, p. 573) ;while his misy, sory, melanteria, caeruleum, and chrysocolla were all oxidation copper or ironminerals. (See notes on p. 573.) In giving a method of securing pompholyx (zinc oxide),the soot flies up when the copper refiners sprinkle powdered cadmia over the molten metal ”(see note 26, p. 394) ; he indirectly gives us the first definite indication of making brass, andfurther gives some details as to the furnaces there employed, which embraced bellows and dustchambers. In describing the making of flowers of copper (see note 26, p. 538) he states thatin refining copper, when the “ molten metal flows through its tube into a receptacle, the work-

* 3 Cadmia metallica fossilis (see note on p. 112). This was undoubtedly the complexcobalt-arsenic-zinc minerals found in Saxony. In the German translation, however, this isgiven as Kalmey, calamine, which is unlikely from the association with pyrites.