[364]. Iliad, xviii. 592.
Still less Homeric is the comparatively late account of his localisation in the Lipari Islands:
Vulcani domus, et Vulcania nomine tellus.
And yet it is worth recalling, as evidence that the prime metallurgists of Northern and Southern Europe were offshoots from the same stem. Every one knows that, in the days of old, travellers’ horses were wont to be privily shod, ‘for a consideration,’ at a cromlech at Ashbury in Berkshire,[[365]] by a certain ‘Wayland Smith,’ who had no doubt his own reasons for eschewing public observation. It seems, however, from the testimony of Pytheas, a Massilian Greek of Alexander’s epoch, that the Liparine Hephæstus conducted himself in just the same kind of way.[[366]] He worked invisibly, but could be hired to do any given job. This shows a marked decline from his palmy Iliadic days, when his services might by exception be had for love, but never for money. From the position of a god, he had sunk to that of a mere mercenary troll or kobold.
[365]. Wright, Archæologia, vol. xxxii. p. 315.
[366]. Scholium to Apoll. Rhod. Argonautica, iv. 761.
Among the Achæans at the time of the siege of Troy, works in metal[[367]] of traditional repute were ascribed to Hephæstus no less freely than swords and cuirasses in the Middle Ages to Wieland or his French equivalent, Galand, or than fiddles in later days to Straduarius. A Wieland’s sword, first brandished by Alexander the Great, was said to have been transmitted successively to Ptolemy, Judas Maccabæus, and Vespasian; Charlemagne’s ‘Durandal’ and Taillefer’s ‘Durissima’ were from his master-hand, which armed as well the prowess of Julius Cæsar, and Godfrey of Bouillon. Part at least of the armour of Beowulf was also from the cavernous northern workshop which reproduced the forge on Mount Olympus, where the behest of Thetis was carried into execution; and to this day in Kurdistan King David is believed to labour, in a desolate sepulchre among the hills, at hauberks, greaves, and cuirasses.[[368]]
Never on earthly anvil
Did such rare armour gleam,
as that supplied by Hephæstus to Achilles, after his original outfit had been stript by Hector from the dead body of Patroclus. Only the shield, however, is described in detail. It was a world-picture—a succession of typical scenes of human life: