To dye tresses auburn,[[770]] a colour much admired by the Greeks, they pounded a quantity of the leaves of eastern privet[[771]] in a mortar, and then steeping it in the juice of fuller’s-herb, applied the preparation to the hair. The same effect was produced by a decoction of lotus stems,[[772]] or of the herb lycion.[[773]] As black hair, however, obtained the preference of the majority, partly[[774]] perhaps because it better suited their complexions, the number of recipes for giving it that hue is very great. Among the most remarkable substances employed for this purpose we may mention the ampelitis,[[775]] a black earth imported from Seleucia, in Syria, and the sory,[[776]] a mineral found chiefly in Egypt. To these may be added decoctions of wood-blade,[[777]] myrtle, and myrtle-berries,[[778]] ivy,[[779]] and dwarf-elder berries,[[780]] sage,[[781]] mulberries,[[782]] and palm-spathæ,[[783]] as also cypress cones, boiled in vinegar.[[784]] There prevailed an opinion in Italy[[785]] that the birds which fed on the berries of the smilax or yew-tree became black, though we do not find, that the barbers had thought of introducing them among the hair dyes.
Another class of tradesmen who selected the Agora[[786]] or its neighbourhood, for their residence, was the goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, and lapidaries, who were possibly of more importance in the ancient than the modern world,[[787]] since a much greater quantity of the precious metals was then wrought up into plate, whether for the temples, chapels and sanctuaries of the gods,[[788]] or for private individuals.[[789]] How much or how little of the articles they produced could be seen at one time in their shops, it is now impossible to determine; but if their practice resembled that of the moderns, it would be difficult to imagine a greater blaze of magnificence[[790]] than must have met the eye upon entering their establishments,—where piles of gold and silver vessels[[791]] of all forms and dimensions, some burnished[[792]] and plain, others embossed with every variety of figure in high or low relief, others crusted with seed pearls,[[793]] or brilliants, or set with gems[[794]] of every shade and hue, from the ruby, the emerald, and the hyacinth, to the turquoise, the chrysoprase, the amethyst, the beryl, and the jasper, might be beheld rising to the ceiling.
Occasionally articles of plate of enormous size were manufactured,[[795]] such as cisterns,[[796]] or vases, or tripods, or salvers, or goblets of gold or silver, presented as offerings by whole cities or communities to some divinity. In these cases the workmanship was very frequently so elaborate and exquisite as to be still more costly than the materials. Entire landscapes, including innumerable figures and objects were sometimes represented on the swell of a vase or goblet: Bacchanalian processions, for example, with whole troops of satyrs and mænades moving along some wooded valley, or desert mountain, or rocky shore, at the heels of the Seileni and Dionysos, groups of nereids, nymphs, and tritons, sporting in the warm sunshine, on the unruffled expanse of ocean; and sacrifices, marriages, chariot-races, and chorusses of youths and virgins, moving through the mazes of the dance, around the altar of Apollo or Artemis. It is also to Hellenic goldsmiths that we are evidently to attribute those marvellous productions of art reckoned among the most boasted possessions of the Persian kings, such as that vine of gold,[[797]] with its vast grape clusters, imitated both in size and colour by the most precious gems, which formed a canopy over the royal couch, or that golden platane-tree[[798]] and other vine, which, rising from behind the throne, stretched its branches, tendrils, and leaves of gold aloft over the monarch as he sat in state to give audience to his people. Here the bunches of grapes in various stages of ripeness were represented by emeralds, Indian carbuncles, and other precious stones of the richest and most dazzling hues. These things we know were not the works of Persians, having been presented to Darius by Pythios, the Lydian, who, doubtless, caused them to be fashioned by Grecian artists. What may have been the exact dimensions of this platane-tree we know not; but, no doubt, Antiochos took an orator’s licence, when, in an assembly of the Arcadians, he described it as too diminutive to afford shelter to a grasshopper.[[799]]
We may here perhaps with propriety make mention of that multitude of golden statues[[800]] which thronged the temples of Greece. For it is not true, as Lucian pretends, that the Hellenic gods and goddesses were contented to shroud their beauty in marble, bronze, or ivory, while Mithras exhibited his rude visage, and Anubis his dog’s snout, in gold.[[801]] Even private individuals had statues erected to them of this precious metal; and there were not wanting those who, like Gorgias, at their own expense did the same honour to themselves.[[802]]
But the variety of articles thus composed of the precious metals was so great as almost to defy description.[[803]] There were candelabra,[[804]] thrones,[[805]] and chairs, shields,[[806]] basins and ewers,[[807]] flagons, censers, goblets in form of walnut-shells, ladles,[[808]] spoons, vinegar-saucers,[[809]] with almost every other article of the table. Crowns, likewise, for the heads of statues of princes, and successful generals, and other individuals whom the public desired to honour; with bread[[810]] and work baskets probably in filigree, clasps,[[811]] and spindles[[812]] for ladies, with armlets, anklets, bracelets, rings, necklaces of carbuncles,[[813]] earrings,[[814]] and circlets for the head. That these articles were usually formed with much taste and elegance we may infer from the fact, that artists of the greatest respectability were employed to make designs for them, while even the engravers of cups and goblets, as Mys, for example, sometimes acquired great celebrity.[[815]]
The ancients understood well the art of washing and plating articles formed of the inferior metals with gold and silver, as well as many ingenious devices for soldering, mixing, varying the colours, frosting the surface, and inlaying and flowering one metal with another. Statues in Attica were commonly lacquered with gold;[[816]] and, from the remotest antiquity, the art of gilding appears to have flourished in Greece, since we find mention of it in Homer, who speaks of gilding[[817]] the horns of victims offered up to the gods. The ancients, unquestionably, employed much thicker gold leaf in this process than the moderns; from which it has been inferred, that they were incapable of reducing it to greater tenuity. But, besides that, when the leaves were too thin, the quicksilver which they employed as a glue appeared through, and dimmed the splendour of the gold, they seem to have aimed at that very duration which causes us to admire the fragments of their gilding that still exist:—in the subterraneous chambers, for example, of the Villa Borghese on the Palatine hill, where the figures in gold scattered over a ground of celestial blue, look as fresh as if just laid on.[[818]] Metals of all kinds were likewise gilt—as copper, and silver, and bronze. In gilding marble the leaf was attached to the stone with white of egg, which was likewise employed, instead of quicksilver, by dishonest workmen, who could thus make use of a much thinner leaf.[[819]] The moderns in gilding marble substitute the juice of garlic and figs. The practice of gilding wood and leather was also common in antiquity, as we find mention of gilt wooden statues and beads,[[820]] and harness, and sandal-thongs. The walls and roofs of chambers were covered, moreover, with gilding, and this ornament was laid as well on wainscot as stucco.[[821]] The conjecture of a modern writer,[[822]] that the ancients were acquainted with the art of gilding in ormolu seems to be unfounded.
One of the minor, but most flourishing, branches of the goldsmiths’ trade seems to have been the making and setting of rings,[[823]] for which the Greeks indulged an extraordinary fondness. They accordingly had them of every form and material. Some persons, for example, wore a plain gold, or silver, or even iron, hoop; others a silver ring encircled by a narrow band of gold, or a gold ring with a band of silver, or an iron ring inlaid with gold.[[824]] Some persons were satisfied with a bronze ring, or one of gilt iron,[[825]] which they wore apparently in memory of Prometheus, who, to preserve Zeus’ word unbroken, was fabled to bear on his finger an iron ring set with a piece of Caucasian stone as a signet, so that, by a divine sort of quibble, he might for ever be said to be chained to Caucasus.[[826]] Others, again, delighted in rings of amber,[[827]] white or yellow, or ivory, or porcelain, at least these were fashionable in Egypt. Sometimes, they wore silver rings with signets of gold, or the contrary. Mention, too, is made of a ring formed entirely of carnelian, which, to preserve it, was encircled by a narrow hoop of silver, and set with a golden signet.[[828]]
Jugglers sold to persons of large faith rings[[829]] that would cure the colic;[[830]] and articles of this description with magic and talismanic virtues appear to have been at all times abundant and in great request.
Of signets[[831]] the most ancient would appear to have been small bits of wood, which, having been worm-eaten in a grotesque or fanciful manner,[[832]] were cut and polished, and used by some rough Thane for a crest, in memory of which practice precious stones were in after ages engraved so as to imitate exactly these rude materials.[[833]] In process of time nearly every variety of precious stone[[834]] came to be engraved for rings and seals.[[835]] Of these the most remarkable was the carbuncle, in colour like a ripe mulberry, which when held up in the sun glows like a flame or burning coal,[[836]] probably the reason why it was supposed to shine in the dark like a lamp.[[837]] Under this name many gems known at present by different appellations seem to have been included, as the ruby,[[838]] whose proper colour is a cochineal red of surpassing richness, admitting, however, occasionally, various intermixtures of blue, producing the rose-red ruby, the former of a full carmine, or rose colour, the latter tinged with a mixture of blue; the rubacelle whose glowing red is dashed with a cast of yellow; the true and the sorane garnet; the rock ruby of a violet red; the almandine and the hyacinth, now confounded with the amethyst. Next to the above was the carnelian[[839]] of a deep ensanguined hue, chiefly obtained from the island of Sardinia: the jasper of a dark green, with spots of many colours, the sapphire blue bespangled with gold.
Another gem held in high estimation by the ancients was the emerald,[[840]] the exquisite colour of which, generally the most intense green, was supposed to be more grateful to the eye than the sight of vernal woods or meadows. For this reason many persons selected it for seals in preference to all other stones.[[841]] Even the lapidaries employed in cutting it were believed to have their vision improved by its refreshing virtues. All emeralds, however, are not of one hue, but exhibit every possible shade of green, from the dusky tint of the olive leaf to the pale verdure of the acacia.[[842]] The Greek jewellers appear to have judged of the genuineness of this stone by plunging it into clear water: for if it were a true emerald it would, they thought, impart its colour to the whole of the surrounding element; if not, a small part only of it would be tinged.[[843]]