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[24] This is the only detailed description of a breastplate in H. (23.560 ff. is perhaps comparable), and it is specially marked as foreign work. The passage is of course consistent with the late interpolation of breastplates into the Epic texts (see App. B). The technique is apparently inlaid metal work, like that of the shield of Achilles in “Σ”. The body is presumably of bronze, in which are inlaid gold, tin, and kyanos in parallel stripes (οἶμοι, lit. paths; the word does not recur in this sense). These stripes, we must suppose, are equally divided between the front and back plates. The numbers suggest the following arrangement (Helbig): gtkt gtktgtktgtktgtktg, where g = gold, t = tin, k = kyanos. This series repeated for the other plate gives the requisite number of stripes. Across these parallel lines curl three snakes ‘on either side.’ Reichel suggests that such “ἀποτρόπαια” were not likely to be put on the back; more probably there were three of them curving in parallel lines on right and left of the breastplate. This explains the comparison with rainbows. Platt (C. R. x. 378) adds a curious comparison with the ‘seven-headed Naga’ of Oriental worship, ‘where three heads on each side rise up round the central cobra's hood.’ It has been pointed out by Helbig and Reichel that neither the parallel stripes nor the decoration with snakes have any analogy in Mykenaean art; they recall rather the later ‘geometric’ period; snakes are actually found on vases of the geometric style from Cyprus. The mention of κύανος points to the same island. Lepsius has shewn that this word is used in two senses: (1) real lapis lazuli, ultramarine, a rare and expensive product; (2) an imitation of it in a glass paste, coloured with salts of copper, a product for which Cyprus, the home of copper in ancient days, was famous. Specimens of such a blue enamel have been found in a frieze at Tiryns (Schuchh. p. 117), the very “θριγκὸς κυάνοιο” of Od. 7.87. κασσίτερος, tin, though to us a humble metal, was very rare and costly in early days, and hence appears in the company of gold and kyanos. It is doubtful whether the pure metal is meant, or an alloy with silver, such as is sometimes produced in smelting silver ore. It appears again in the shield of Achilles (18.474, 565, 574), in greaves (18.613, 21.592), on the breastplate of Asteropaios (23.561), and in chariot decoration (23.503). μέλανος seems to be a general epithet of “κύανος”, in the sense ‘dark blue’ — the Homeric vocabulary for colours is very poor, and hardly distinguishes more than ‘red’ and ‘dark.’ Helbig's suggestion that the stripes were in black enamel and the snakes in blue is improbable (see the full discussions in Helbig H. E. ^{2} 382-4, Reichel p. 92). Notice the irregular hiatus in δέκα οἶμοι: it is hardly to be corrected (“δέκ᾽ ἔσαν οἶμοι” Brandreth).

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

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