Even if we place the siege of Troy at any of the various dates from 1350 to 1100 b.c.,
it does not follow that the epic received its filial form for many centuries later, probably
900-800 B.c. ; and the experience of the race in metallurgy at a much later period than
Troy may have been drawn upon to fill in details. It is possible to fill a volume with indirect
allusion to metallurgical facts and to the origins of the art, from Greek mythology, from Greek
poetry, from the works of the grammarians, and from the Bible. But they are of no more
technical value than the metaphors from our own tongue. Greek literature in general is
singularly lacking in metallurgical description of technical value, and it is not until Dioscorides (ist Century a.D.) that anything of much importance can be adduced. Aristotle, however, does make an interesting reference to what may be brass (see note on p. 410), and there
can be no doubt that if we had the lost work of Aristotle's successor, Theophrastus (372-288
b.c.), on metals we should be in possession of the first adequate work on metallurgy. As it
is, we find the green and blue copper minerals from Cyprus mentioned in his " Stones."
And this is the first mention of any particular copper ore. He also mentions (xix.)
pyrites " which melt," but whether it was a copper variety cannot be determined. Theophrastus further describes the making of verdigris (see note 4, p. 440). From Dioscorides
we get a good deal of light on copper treatment, but as his objective was to describe medicinal
preparations, the information is very indirect. He states (v, 100) that " pyrites is a stone
from which copper is made." He mentions chalcitis (copper sulphide, see note on, p. 573) ;
while his misy, sory, mdanteria, caertdeutn, and chrysocoUa were all oxidation copper or iron
minerals. (See notes on p. 573.) In giving a method of securing pompholyx (zinc oxide),
" the soot flies up when the copper refiners sprinkle powdered cadmia over the molten metal "
(see note 26, p. 394) ; he indirectly gives us the first definite indication of making brass, and
farther gives some details as to the furnaces there employed, which embraced bellows and dust
chambers. In describing the making of flowers of copper (see note 26, p. 538) he states that
in refining copper, when the " molten metal flows through its tube into a receptacle, the work-
aCaimia metallica fossilis (see note on p. 112). This was undoubtedly the complex
cobalt-arsenic-zinc minerals found in Saxony. In the German translation, however, this is
given as Kalmey, calamine, which is unlikely from the association with pyrites.
