The Greek language itself bears witness to this fact, for the words significant of working in iron are not derived from the name of that metal, but from that of bronze, and the old forms of χαλκεύς and χαλκεύειν remained in use in connection with the smith and his work long after the blacksmith had to a great extent superseded the bronze-founder and the copper-smith in the fabrication of arms and cutlery.[31] An analogous transition in the meaning of words has been pointed out by Professor Max Müller. “The Mexicans called their own copper or bronze tepuztli, which is said to have meant originally hatchet. The same word is now used for iron, with which the Mexicans first became acquainted through their intercourse with the Spaniards. Tepuztli then became a general name for metal, and when copper had to be distinguished from iron, the former was called red, the latter black tepuztli.”[32] I am not certain whether Professor Max Müller still retains the views which he expressed in 1864. He then pointed out[33] that “what makes it likely that iron was not known previous to the separation of the Aryan nations is the fact that its names vary in every one of their languages.” But there is a “name for copper, which is shared in common by Latin and the Teutonic languages, æs, æris, Gothic ais, Old High German êr, Modern German Er-z, Anglo-Saxon âr, English ore. Like chalkós, which originally meant copper, but came to mean metal in general, bronze or brass, the Latin æs, too, changed from the former to the latter meaning; and we can watch the same transition in the corresponding words of the Teutonic languages.... It is all the more curious, therefore, that the Sanskrit ayas, which is the same word as aes and aiz, should in Sanskrit have assumed the almost exclusive meaning of iron. I suspect, however, that in Sanskrit, too, ayas meant originally the metal, i.e. copper, and that as iron took the place of copper, the meaning of ayas was changed and specified.... In German, too, the name for iron was derived from the older name of copper. The Gothic eisarn, iron, is considered by Grimm as a derivative form of aiz, and the same scholar concludes from this that ‘in Germany bronze must have been in use before iron.’”
But to return to Greece. It is, of course, somewhat doubtful how far the word χαλκὸς, as used by the earliest Greek authors, was intended to apply to unalloyed copper, or to that mixture of copper and tin which we now know as bronze. Mr. Gladstone,[34] who on all questions relating to Homer ought to be one of the best living authorities, regards the word as meaning copper: firstly, because it is always spoken of by Homer as a pure metal along with other pure metals; secondly, on account of the epithets ἐρυθρὸς, ἤνοψ, and νώροψ, which mean red, bright, and gleaming, being applied to it, and which Mr. Gladstone considers to be inapplicable to bronze; and thirdly, because Homer does not appear to have known anything at all of the fusion or alloying of metals. The second reason he considers further strengthened by the probability that Homer would not represent the walls of the palace of Alcinous as plated with bronze, nor introduce a heaven of bronze among the imposing imagery of battle (Il., xvii. 424). On the whole he concludes that χαλκὸς was copper hardened by some method, as some think by the agency of water, or else and more probably according to a very simple process, by cooling slowly in the air.[35]
I regret to say that these conclusions appear to me to be founded to some extent on false premises and on more than one misconception. The process of heating copper and then dipping it in water or allowing it slowly to cool, so far from being adapted for hardening that metal, is that which is usually adopted for annealing or softening it. While the plunging into cold water of steel at a red heat has the effect of rendering that metal intensely hard, on copper the reverse is the result; and, as Dr. Percy has observed,[36] it is immaterial whether the cooling after annealing—or restoring its malleability by means of heat—takes place slowly or rapidly. Indeed, one alloy of copper and tin is rendered most malleable by rapid cooling.
It has been stated[37] that bronze of the ancient composition may by cooling it slowly be rendered as hard as steel, and at the same time less brittle, but this statement seems to require confirmation.
According to some[38] the impossibility of hardening bronze like steel by dipping it into water had passed into a proverb so early as the days of Æschylus, but “χαλκοῦ βαφάς” has by others been regarded as referring to the impossibility of dyeing metal.[39] Some of the commentators on Hesiod and Homer speak, however, distinctly as to a process of hardening bronze by a dipping or βαφὴ, and Virgil[40] represents the Cyclopes as dipping the hissing bronze in water—
“Alii stridentia tingunt
Æra lacu”—
but the idea of bronze being hardened or tempered by this process appears to me to have been based on a false analogy between this metal and steel, or even iron. The French chemist, Geoffroy, thought he had succeeded in imitating the temper of an ancient bronze sword, but no details are given as to whether he added more than the usual proportion of tin to his copper, or whether he hardened the edge with a hammer.
With regard to the other reasons adduced by Mr. Gladstone, it is no doubt true that χαλκὸς is occasionally spoken of by Homer as a pure metal, mainly, however, it may be argued, in consequence of the same name being applied to both copper and bronze, if not, indeed, like the Latin “æs,” to copper, bronze, and brass. We find, moreover, that tin, for thus we must translate κασσίτερος, is mentioned by Homer; and as this metal appears in ancient times to have been mainly, though not exclusively, employed for the purpose of alloying copper, we must from this fact infer that the use of bronze was not unknown. In the celebrated description of the fashioning of the shield of Achilles by Vulcan—which may for the moment be assumed to be of the same age as the rest of the Iliad—we find the copper and tin mentioned in juxtaposition with each other; and if it had been intended to represent Hephaistos as engaged in mixing and melting bronze, the description could not have been more complete.[41]
Χαλκὸς δ̓ έν πυρὶ βάλλεν ἀτειρέα, κασσίτερόν τε.