240

Blacksmith’s Bellows of Ancient Greece.

[Book III

Arts, which contains some illustrations of the Eneid, executed in the 4thand 5th centuries, Vulcan’s f’orge is represented and the bellows blowerbehind it, apparently with the same kind of Instrument as here shown.

No. 105. Lantern Bellows from Agrtcola

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That Vulcän’s bellows were not permanent fixtures as those of oursmiths are, but were similar to those figured above, appears from theirhaving been laid aside when not in use, in common with other implementsof the forge ; a practice usual at the present time in various parts ofthe east: and we may add that like modern blacksmiths of Asia , he sat atWork. Thus, when his wife Charis informed him of the arrival of Thetis at their dwelling, he replied :—

Haste, then, and hospitably spread the boardFör her regale, while with my best despatch '

I lay my bellows and my tools aside.

He spake, and vast in bulk and hot with toil,

Rose limping from his anvil-stock,

Upborne with pain on legs tortuous and weak:

First, from the forge dislodg’d he thrust apartHis bellows, and his tools collecting all,

Bestowed them careful in a silver ehest.

And when he subsequently returned to make the armor which Thetis required for her son, he

.to his bellows quick repaired,

Which turning to thefire, he bade them move.— II. xvm.— Cowper.

A singulär cireumstance is related by Herodot -us, which shows that thesame mode of obtaining a continuous blast, viz. by two bellows, (and in allprobability by the same kind as those above figured) was employed byblacksmiths in ancient Greece. The Lacedemonians having been repeat-edly defeated by the Tegeans, sent an embassy to the Delphic Oracle , toascertain the means by which they could overcome them. The Pythianassured them of success if they recovered the body of Orestes , the son of Agamemnon , which had been buried several centuries somewhere mArcadia, the land of their enemies. Being unable to discover the tombthey sent a second time to inquire concerning the place of his interment,when they received the following answer-