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[365] ἄλλον, sc. other than what I have at home. The word ἐρυθρόν might seem to shew that “χαλκός” (which elsewhere is either “αἴθοψ ἦνοψ” or “νῶροψ”) is copper, not bronze. But Homeric colourwords are too vague for any such conclusions. We know from Schliemann's discoveries (see Schuchh. p. 269) that the pure metal and the alloy were both familiar in the Mykenaean age; but “χαλκός”, like es, has to stand for both. The different alloys, which in the objects discovered pass by gradual steps into pure copper, were all considered as varieties of the same metal. All metals, in fact, had to be classed as gold, silver, tin, iron or “χαλκός”. (Brass and bronze have only been distinguished in English since about 1735; see New English Dict.)

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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