Hamilton and Wilkinson have already shown that many of the descriptions of combats we meet in the Iliad appear to have been derived from the battle pieces on the walls of the Theban palaces, which the poet himself pretty plainly intimates that he had visited. The same observation may be applied to most of Homer’s pictures of domestic life. We find the lady of the mansion superintending the labors of her servants, and using the distaff herself. Her spindle made of some precious material, richly ornamented, her beautiful work-basket, or rather vase, and the wool dyed of some bright hue to render it worthy of being touched by aristocratic fingers, remind us of the appropriate present which the Egyptian queen, Alcandra, made to the Spartan Helen; for the beauty of that frail fair one scarcely is less celebrated than her skill in embroidery and every species of ornamental work. After Polybus had given his presents to Menelaus, who stopped at Egypt on his return from Troy,
Alcandra, consort of his high command,
A golden distaff gave to Helen’s hand;
And that rich vase, with living sculpture wrought,
Which, heap’d with wool, the beauteous Phylo brought;
The silken fleece empurpled for the loom,
Rivall’d the hyacinth in vernal bloom.
Odyssey, iv.
In the hieroglyphics over persons employed with the spindle on the Egyptian monuments, it is remarkable that the word saht, which in Coptic signifies to twist, constantly occurs. The spindles were generally of wood, and in order to increase their impetus in turning, the circular head was occasionally of gypsum, or composition: some, however, were of a light plaited work, made of rushes, or palm leaves, stained of various colors, and furnished with a loop of the same materials, for securing the twine after it was wound[21]. Sir Gardner Wilkinson found one of these spindles at Thebes, with some of the linen thread upon it, and is now in the Berlin Museum.
[21] The ordinary distaff does not occur in these subjects, but we may conclude they had it. Homer mentions one of gold, given to Helen by “Alcandra the wife of Polybus,” who lived in Egyptian Thebes.—Od. iv. 131.