The Use of Bronze in Ancient Greece

 

   The Use of Bronze in Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, bronze (χαλκός) was used extensively by the military for spears, arrows, armour and helmets and by artists for casting large statues and smaller statuettes. The metal was also used for household goods like cooking vessels, tripods and mirrors. Bronze was strong and durable and non-corrosive and was easily cast, worked and hammered and was therefore ideal for purposes such as these. It was not considered as precious as gold or silver but was still highly regarded by the ancients and was a symbol of wealth and power and there are many references in the Iliad and the Odyssey of huge treasures of bronze being piled up along with gold and silver.

Various civilizations in ancient Greece started working with bronze prior to 3,000 BCE and what has come to be known as the Bronze Age spanned the years from 3,000 to 1,000 BCE. The Stone Age preceded it and the Iron Age followed. Major civilizations of the Bronze Age period included the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures. Homer’s focus was on the Mycenaeans, led by their chieftain King Agamemnon of Mycenae and his brother Menelaus of neighbouring Sparta. The two brothers were responsible for launching the attack on Troy and starting the Trojan War. Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BCE.

Bronze is a metal alloy that consists primarily of a mixture of copper and tin, with the latter metal accounting for 10%-12% of the total. Sometimes in modern times other ingredients are added to modify the properties of bronze, including aluminum, manganese, phosphorus and silicon. The alloy is known for its hardness, strength, low friction and resistance to corrosion, even in salt water. Bronze is made by melting the copper and then adding the tin and other ingredients at their specific proportions. The resulting mixture is then cast into molds or formed into various shapes like spearheads or metal sheets that can then be hammered or artistically engraved.

Mycenaean Greeks obtained much of their copper from the island of Cyprus, and in fact the word copper is derived from the ancient name of the island. Modern day Turkey, Iran and Palestine were also well-known sources of copper in ancient times. There is a reference in the Odyssey to Sidon that abounds in bronze. Tin was much more hard to come by and the very few known sources included the British Isles, southern Spain and central Europe. Phoenician traders were thought to be the major suppliers of tin to Bronze Age Greeks.

Homer was an Iron Age writer, but he set his stories of wars and heroes in Bronze Age Greece. Sometimes the bard struggled to keep anachronisms out of his works. For example, the use of bronze armour and weapons clearly dates the Iliad to the time of the Trojan War in the Bronze Age, but the references to cremation of dead heroes is certainly an Iron Age slip-up. Homer does mention iron in his works, but it is seen as more practical and utilitarian in nature and not as highly prized as bronze, the metal of gods and heroes and treasured as a spoil of war, filling palaces and tents with its lustre. Homer’s concentration on bronze was a deliberate attempt on his part to firmly position his epics in the period of what he viewed as heroic Mycenaean Bronze Age Greece.

Homer often refers to the bronze-armoured or bronze-clad Achaeans and Trojans and the sight of them in full gear must have been quite the display on the battlefield, with soldiers flashing gloriously in armour of gleaming bronze.

Like a devastating blaze consumes an immense forest at the top of a summit and the splendour of its glowing is seen from afar, so was the amazing sight of the shining bronze armour of those marching to war seen radiant in the heavens.

While Homer does highlight the lustre of the metal and often refers to bronze as flashing, gleaming, fiery, shining or blazing, he also variously describes it as sharp, finely-worked, well-beaten, sharp-edged, cold, loud-clanging, resounding and flesh-piercing. At times he even makes bronze come alive and describes it in human terms as being relentless, ruthless, pitiless, cruel or heartless.

Homer lists countless examples of weapons and armour crafted from bronze, including spears or lances tipped with bronze, arrowheads, swords, clubs, shields, helmets, cheek guards, greaves, axes and corselets fitted with bronze protective plates. Bronze was used by the ancient Greeks on land and sea and Homer references the bronze-armoured ships of the Achaeans as well as bronze-decorated chariots fitted with bronze-spoked wheels and bronze rims and axles, drawn by bronze-hoofed horses.

To highlight the value of bronze and its shining characteristics, Homer describes the palaces of both Zeus and Hephaestus as being constructed from bronze, complete with a bronze threshold, walls, doors and a bronze key with an ivory handle. Bronze was also well-used within the home and he tells us of bronze bowls, cauldrons, water pots, baskets, tripods and even a bronze cheese grater. In the Odyssey, Homer tells us of a goldsmith whose tools included a bronze anvil, hammer and a pair of well-wrought fire tongs.

Homer refers to a bronze or brazen sky several times in both epics, such as when he tells us, The Sun rose up in the bronze-hued heavens. This imagery conveyed the overwhelming brilliance and intense, dome-like quality of the sky during the day, much like the shining surface of bronze. The use of bronze in this context reflects the ancient Greek way of describing intensity and a gleaming quality, rather than a specific hue in the way that we understand color today. Their colour words described shade, intensity, light and contrast and not so much a particular colour. In a similar vein, Homer describes Stentor and Achilles as being bronze-voiced, or in other words, powerful speakers.

Homer used the word bronze to describe weapons and armour over 500 times in the Iliad, making it one of the most frequently used nouns in the epic. Because Homer's poems often use epithets to refer to objects, the consistent use of bronze as a modifier for things like spears, shields, and helmets is a hallmark of his style, and also reflects the historical period of the Bronze Age that is being depicted in the work. It is important to remember that Homer was writing in the Iron Age, and despite a couple of anachronistic missteps, he did an overall fine job of using his multiple references to bronze to position his story in time. Because of the nature of the tale, references to bronze in the Odyssey are fewer in number, likely in the region of 80, depending on the translation used. However, those references also help position the second epic as also occurring in the late Bronze Age. It is true genius that an author can use one simple word to accomplish so much.