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[247] 247 = 24.232. στ́ησας = weighing, as 22.350. This shews that the Homeric talent was a known and recognized weight of gold. But it is most probable that the talents were in the form of wedges or bars which required counting only, not weighing. Moreover, the stress laid on the weighing by Odysseus would seem to imply that ten talents formed a very large sum, whereas we know that it was but small. This may be an indication of a later period, when the talent had become large.

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