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Book Eleven
B ideogram 162 j|, but the snakes better suit the fashion of the orientalizing
period. Catling, Arch. Horn, E 79, suggests that this corslet was parade
armour not fighting gear, but Homer knows no such distinction, cf. Glaukos'
golden armour (6.236) and Nestor's golden shield (8.192-3).
24 ueAavos Kudvoio: for the tint cf. UEiAavi TTOVTCO (24.79), DUt pieAas
denoted any dark colour, especially that of blood, alua ueAav etc. (11 x );
see R. Halleux, SMEA 9 (1969) 47-66. Kuavos (< Hitt. kuwanna- or a
related Anatolian dialect) denotes various decorative substances — the
natural mineral lapis lazuli, its imitation in glass paste, or the blue-black
alloy known as niello. See Edwards, vol. v 203 and F. Eckstein, Arch. Horn.
L 40—1. Niello, which was used on the daggers from the Shaft Graves at
Mycenae, is perhaps most likely in the decoration of a breastplate, see
D. H. F. Gray, JHS 74 (1954) 1-15, or E. Vermeule, Greece in the Bronze Age
(Chicago 1964) 98-9.
25 KOcaoTTEpoio: tin decorated the cuirass of Asteropaios (23.561); tin,
unalloyed, was used in Akhilleus' armour, 18.474, x 8.565, 18.574, 18.613,
and elsewhere, contrary to normal metallurgical practice. It is probably
adduced as a precious metal and a mark of luxury, like the gold.
26 Snakes, here depicted on the breastplate (also on the shield-strap as
if they had some special symbolism for Agamemnon), are more than ornamental,
cf. [Hesiod], Aspis 161-2 ev 5' ocpicov K£9aAal 5eivcov iaccv, ou TI
90CT6ICOV, I 5cb86Ka, Kai 9O(3EE