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[202] τάλαντα. The same word is used in Homer for scales and weights; nor must we suppose here that “τάλαντον” is anything more than a definite weight: ‘rerum mutatione omnis fere tunc temporis mercatura constabat, ex pondere aestimabantur omnia, nec signatis nummis indigebant. Boum numero maius vel minus rei pretium definiebant: eadem ratione metalla aestimata sunt ( Il.2. 449; 6. 236), auri quoque talenta saepius collaudat H., de quibus in diversa abierunt viri docti. Quae quidem talenta nec signata nec proprie ita dictam monetam fuisse mea fert sententia. In auro argento aliisve metallis ponderandis proprius fuit talenti usus, qua voce generatim pretium sive pondus, quibuscunque tandem rebus, bobus potissimum aliave pecude solvendum seu adpendendum significarent’ Terpstra, Hom. Antt. 99 foll. We can form very little idea of the value of gold in Homeric times. In Il.6. 235, gold arms, as bartered against bronze, are represented by the value of 100 oxen against 9, which would make gold worth 11 1/9 times the value of bronze. In Il.23. 757 the lowest prize in a foot race is half a talent of gold. The chief tains of Phaeacia give Odysseus a cloak and shirt each, and one talent of gold, Od.8. 392; the reward given by Aegisthus to the sentinel was two talents, Od.4. 527; the two talents of gold in the law court represented on the shield of Achilles ( Il.18. 507) may have been either a prize or a deposit. Two talents are the fourth prize in the chariot races, Il.23. 269; and among the conciliatory offerings from Agamemnon to Achilles ten talents of gold are mentioned, Il.9. 122, and the same amount as part of the ransom given by Priam for Hector's body, Il.24. 232, and as a portion of the gifts of the Aegyptian Polybus to Menelaus. But no real approach can be made towards the valuation of the talent of gold in early times. The utmost we can say is that possibly, from a comparison of Il.23. 269, 750, 805, we may gather that the worth of an ox was two talents of gold. But this value must have varied infinitely according to the relative scarcity of oxen or gold; see Buchholz, Hom. Real. vol. 2. p. 300 foll.

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

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