containing an orange-red pigment which was subsequently examined by Foster373 and identified as realgar. A sample of a yellow pigment found in a Greek grave dating from the fifth or fourtli century b.c. was identified by Rhousopoulos374 as pure orpiment. It is likely tJiat bodi orpiment and realgar were used as pigments long before the time of Theophrastus, although at present the evidence applies only to orpiment. This natural pigment has been found on Egyptian mural paintings and on various Egyptian objects dating from as early as the Eighteenth Dynasty, and a linen bag containing a small quantity of the mineral was discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamen.375 Since orpiment and realgar occur much less frequently than other pigments on Greek objects found in excavations, it is probable that they were not very much used as colors in Greek times.
Though they occur at various places in Europe, it seems almost certain from the statements of ancient authors that the only ancient sources of supply were in Asia Minor or even farther to the east. Strabo378 speaks of a realgar mine at Pompeiopolis in Paphlagonia, and Vitruvius377 mentions that orpiment was dug up in Pontus. Dioscorides378 also gives Pontus as a source of orpiment and mentions Mysia and Cappadocia in addition. Modern geological exploration has shown that orpiment and realgar occur at various places in Asia Minor.
51. red ochre. Though there can be no doubt that the word μίλτος usually designated what we now call red ochre, a mixture of red ferric oxide with clay, sand, and other impurities, this was probably a general term, like so many of the other Greek names for minerals, which included all the pigments that owe their color to die presence of red ferric oxide. That it was applied to an artificial red iron oxide pigment is clear from what Theophrastus says in sections 53 and 54. His remarks in section 53 about a light-colored
373 W. Foster, Journal of Chemical Education, X (1933), 276.
374 P. Diergart, Beitrage aus der Geschichte der Chemie dem Gedachtnis von Georg W. A. Kahlbaum (Leipzig and Vienna, 1909), p. 187.
375 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, p. 400.
376 XII, 3, 40. The word in the text is Pompeioupolis.
377 VII, 7, 5.
378 V, 120 (Wellmann ed., V, 104).
