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[87] It is impossible to say with certainty what the ‘coping of κύανος’ was. Curt. connects the word with Skt. s/jAnas, ‘dark smoke,’ which accords well with “μέλανος κυάνοιο” Il.11. 35.It has commonly been regarded as ‘blue steel,’ and Evans, L'âge du bronze, p. 14 f., supports this view. But such steel would soon rust, and would be quite unsuitable for mural decoration. The whole question is treated well by Helbig (Das Hom. Epos aus den Denkmälern erlaütert, p. 79 foll.), who shows from Theophrastus that there were two kinds of “κύανος”, the natural (“αὐτοφυής”) and the artificial (“σκευαστός”). The first is Lapis lazuli, or real ultramarine; too rare and costly for such a “θριγκός”, the second is a kind of glass or enamel coloured with cobalt or smalt. Plates so coloured have been discovered at Mycenae (Schliemann, Mykenae, p. 183); and we may suppose such plates or tiles to have formed a frieze to the wall here described.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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