3. Od. vii. 86. The walls of the palace of Alcinous were coated with χαλκὸς within, and round about them there was a cornice or fringe (θριγκὸς) of κύανος.
There is no doubt that, in later Greek at least, the word acquired other significations: such as lapis lazuli, the blue cornflower, the rockbird (also as being blue), and, lastly, a blue dye or lacquer[867]. But, moreover, it seems impossible to identify the κύανος of Homer with any metal in particular.
Some have asserted the κύανος of Homer to be steel[868]. But to this there seem to be conclusive objections. It appears very doubtful, whether the Greeks were acquainted with the process of making steel in masses by the immersion of iron in water. The English translation of Beckmann’s History of Inventions ascribes the knowledge of the process to Homer; but apparently in error[869]. There is no allusion whatever to it: for it is not at all implied by the elementary process of the manufacture of a tool in Od ix. 391-3. It was only by fire that iron could be made malleable at all: and no doubt it was known that by its immersion in water hardness was restored or increased (τὸ γὰρ αὖτε σιδήρου γε κράτος ἐστίν). But we have no trace either of the repetition of the process on the same piece of metal, or of its application to unmanufactured iron, or of a new denomination for iron when thus heated and cooled. On the contrary, in this passage the metal when fully hardened is still declared to be σίδηρος: and we have nowhere in Homer any trace of a relation between κύανος and σίδηρος, except the merely negative one, that neither of them is cast into the furnace for making the Shield of Achilles.
Again, the hardness of iron was such as apparently met all their wishes, and almost of itself constituted a difficulty. Hence it is used along with stones as a symbol of hardness; ἐπεὶ οὔ σφι λίθος χρὼς ἠὲ σίδηρος[870]. Again, we do not find it worked up with other metals; for example, on the buckler or shield of Agamemnon. As we have seen, it is not used by Vulcan in making the shield of Achilles. The god casts into the fire gold and silver, copper and tin; lead being apparently excluded as too soft, and iron as too hard for working in masses with the other metals. But the idea of hardness is never associated with κύανος; and, if it had been hard like steel, certainly it would not have been a suitable material for the intricate forms of dragons.
Again, the adjective κυάνεος means in colour what is blue and what is deep; and by no means corresponds with the ordinary colour of steel. All this, besides the strength of the negative evidence, seems inconsistent with the idea that κύανος can have been steel.
The Compiler of the Index to Eustathius makes κύανος (in voc.) simply a dark metal. But Millin argues that κύανος without an epithet is tin, and that with the epithet μέλας it is lead. He observes that Pliny[871] appears to call tin by the name of plumbum simply, and lead by the name of plumbum nigrum: so that the double use of κύανος and κασσίτερος for tin would be like that of plumbum and stannum for the same metal in Latin. This idea treats the substance as taking its name from the colour: and is so far sustained by the use of the German blei, which I presume is the same word as blau, for lead. But it would be singular that Homer should thus have double names for two metals, which of all classes of objects have perhaps been most commonly designated by single ones. And this hypothesis is not in accordance with the evident meaning of κυάνεος in Homer; since the word indicates a dark and deep hue very far from that of tin, which Homer describes as white. The after use of κύανος is equally adverse to the interpretation suggested.
The most probable interpretation for this difficult word appears to be that which is also in accordance with its subsequent use and description as a colour. From Linton’s ‘Ancient and Modern Colours,’ (p. 21,) it appears that there was a κύανος αὐτοφυὴς, which was a native blue carbonate of copper: and that, according to the express testimony of Dioscorides, this was obtained by the ancients from the copper-mines: κύανος δὲ γεννᾶται μὲν ἐν Κύπρῳ ἐκ τῶν χαλκουργῶν μετάλλων, v. 106. This interpretation would account for our finding κύανος in Homer: for the rarity of its use: for the dark colour and the affinity to πορφύρεος. Such a substance would make a good relief for the cornice in the palace of Alcinous, against the copper-plated walls: and would stand well in the rest of the passages where it appears to be placed in relief with other metals, Il. xviii. 564, xi. 39, and even on the buckler of Agamemnon, xi. 24. For on this buckler, though the serpents, called κυάνεοι, are evidently placed in contrast with the οἶμοι, and though among the οἶμοι there are ten of κύανος, yet, as they are combined with twelve of gold and twenty of tin, the general effect would be one such as we need not suppose Homer to have rejected. This blue carbonate is still found among other copper-ores, but less in our deep mines, than in the shallow ones worked by the ancients. I understand from a gentleman versed in metallurgy, that in its purest form it is crystalline, rarely massive or earthy, of a deep azure, brittle, easily powdered, and thus readily converted to use as a pigment.
I should therefore suppose that the κύανος is not a metal: that the οἶμοι on the buckler mean lines or bands coloured in pigment: and that the boss on the shield is probably a nodule of the substance in its native state. We can thus understand why κύανος is not used either with the gold, silver, χαλκὸς, and tin, in the forge of Vulcan, or with the gold, silver, iron, and χαλκὸς of the chariot of Juno[872]. We can also understand why, though κύανος is not used in the forge, yet the trench round the vineyard on the shield of Achilles is κυανεή[873]. This interpretation is also in conformity with the Homeric employment of the adjective κυάνεος.
I understand that there is, in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, a spoon or ladle, with a boss on the end of the handle, which is formed of this native blue carbonate of copper bored through for the purpose.
Of the four significations given to χαλκὸς in Homer (copper, brass, bronze, and iron[874]), I adhere to the first. It cannot be iron, (1) because it is never mentioned as hard in the same way with it, (2) because it is so much more common, (3) because these metals are expressly distinguished one from the other, as in Il. v. 723.