Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 1031

SANDRA BLAKELY

Emory University

Bronze appears in Herodotus’ Histories in a range of objects and an expanse of cultures appropriate for its ubiquity in the ancient world. The term “bronze” refers to copper alloys generally, which appear in archaeological contexts as early as the fifth millennium BCE; tin, arsenic, and antimony added both color and strength to the finished products. Alloys could have made Herodotus’ Egyptian drinking cups GOLD or SILVER in color (2.37.1); annealing and hammering would make bronze helmets, arrows, and spearheads even more resilient and deadly (1.215; 2.151.3; 7.63, 84). Herodotus’ bronzes include jewelry (4.168.1), cauldrons (1.47.1), a world MAP (5.49.1), weapons, statues (5.77.4; 9.81), and architecture (1.80.4); they are found among the Libyans (4.168.1), Egyptians (2.37.1), Assyrians (7.63), and Persians (7.84) as well as the Greeks (5.49.1; 4.179; 6.50). The ubiquity of bronze makes its exclusion from royal Scythian burials notable—the more so given their mastery of its technology (4.71.4, 81).

The semantic range of Herodotus’ bronzes, however, includes the exceptional. Bronze objects worthy of notice include the animal‐feeding trough of MARDONIUS (9.70.3) and the oversized bowls created by the Spartans (1.70), the Samians (4.152.4), and the SCYTHIANS (4.81), which TRAVEL great distances and communicate political alliance (1.70), PIETY and divine favor (4.152.4), or the size of the Scythian population (4.81.1–6). The wonder derives in part from the sheer size of the artifacts, which have analogy in the Vix Krater and the monumental kraters dedicated with griffin protomes which appeared in Greek sanctuaries some 200 years before Herodotus. Further impact comes from the associations and aesthetics of bronze itself, which participates in the heroic and military spheres, and reflects an “aesthetics of radiance” with Near Eastern roots. Homeric HEROES fight with gleaming bronzes and themselves shine, flash, and blaze in battle like the material that covers them—a poetic reality echoed in the Egyptian view of the Ionian and Carian MERCENARIES as “bronze men” (2.152.4). The bronze TRIPOD which Herodotus’ Argonauts offer TRITON suggests that Herodotus shared with HOMER a sense for the archaizing potential of bronze artifacts linked with legendary heroes (4.179.1). Bronze arms offered significant practical benefits as well: the helmets Herodotus notes on Assyrian (7.63), Persian (7.84), and Egyptian (2.151.3) heads were half the weight of their IRON counterparts, combining lightness, strength, and visual impact. These military associations for bronze translated into other spheres. The bronze vessel, conveniently at hand for CROESUS’ concoction of lamb and tortoise to test the ORACLES (1.47.2), has analogy in the kitchen gear included in the booty of war by late Assyrian kings: Shalamaneser III took 1,000 bronze casseroles from Neo‐Hittite Carchemish alone, and war reliefs from Sargon’s palace at Khorsabad show troops carrying off vessels as well as shields. Ebbinghaus (2014) has suggested that the protective associations of bronze armor may have translated into amuletic qualities for bronze jewelry, a type Herodotus knows among the ADYRMACHIDAE of LIBYA (4.168.1). The four‐horse CHARIOT at the Athenian ACROPOLIS (5.77.4) and the serpent column at DELPHI (9.81) show the Greeks translating the bronze of battle into the monumental bronzes of victory, which simultaneously warn and remind. The semantic density of Herodotus’ bronze encourages us to consider its communicative potential in tales in which it may otherwise seem incidental. Among these are the blacksmith of BARCA who used a bronze shield to locate Persian tunnels (4.200.2–3), and PSAMMETICHUS I’s use of a bronze helmet to make a LIBATION—a choice which confirmed his future as the sole king of EGYPT (2.151.3).

SEE ALSO: Bodily Adornment; Dedications; Heroic Age; Hoplite; Sculpture; thōmata; Vessels (drinking); Weapons and Armor