Next, a very large kettle with three vertical handles; it measures 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and, as is clear from the perforations in the rim of the bottom, the latter has been fastened with pins. This vessel is so large that it can only have served for heating water for the bath, and it would, therefore, have been called λέβης λοετροχόος; but the poet mentions only such large vessels for heating the water for the bath with three feet, and calls them, therefore, τρίπους λοετροχόος.[334] There was also a beautifully-fashioned copper basin of oval form; it has probably had two handles in the two places where the rim is broken away. Of the last described three vessels no other specimens were found.
No. 439. A large two-handled Vessel of Copper. Sepulchre IV. Size 1:4.
Most of these copper kettles, basins or cans, bear the most unmistakeable signs of having been for a long time used on the fire; whilst a few have the appearance of having never been on the fire.
The custom of placing a large number of copper kettles or large copper vases in the tombs belongs to a great antiquity. The museum of the Warwakeion at Athens possesses seven funeral urns of copper, with lids turning on hinges, which contained the ashes of the deceased. This small number shows how rarely copper vessels were used in Greece, even for this purpose; but that additional copper kettles should have been placed in a tomb merely in honour of the dead, is a thing unheard of in Greek tombs. But that such was the custom in a very remote antiquity is proved by these Mycenean sepulchres, and by the tomb of Corneto, as well as by the newly discovered tomb at Palestrina, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Copper vessels, as ornaments of the tombs, were found in the cemetery of Hallstatt, in Austria,[335] which belongs, however, to a much later period than the Mycenean tombs.
HOMERIC TRIPODS.
Of capital interest is the copper tripod (No. 440). It has three handles, of which two are horizontal and one vertical; to the right of the spectator is a small mouth. The tripod was used in the Homeric times for various purposes. In the Odyssey,[336] as well as in the Iliad,[337] we find it used for presents of honour. In the Iliad,[338] it is given as a prize in the games, and it also occurs as an ornament of the rooms,[339] and, further, for the heating of water and for cooking.[340] To indicate its use for these latter purposes, Homer[341] gives also the epithet ἐμπυριβήητης to the tripod.
There was further found in this tomb a mass of small thin round pieces of copper plate, having all around the rim perforations, which show that they have been used as ornaments, probably on horse-trappings; also, a copper vase-handle, plated with gold.
No. 440. A Copper Tripod. Sepulchre IV. Size 1:4.