![]() ![]() The other passage is in the description of the palace of Menelaus, which is said to be ornamented with the brilliancy of copper (or bronze) and gold, and electrum, and silver, and ivory ( Od. In the former passage the necklace is brought by a Phoenician merchant. The word occurs three times in Homer in two cases where mention is made of a necklace of gold, bound, or held together, ἡλέκτροισιν, where the plural is almost alone sufficient to prove that the meaning is, with amber beads ( Od. XXXVII.2 s11: Buttmann's derivation from ἔλκω, to draw, is objectionable both on philological and historical grounds: the attractive power of amber, when rubbed, is said, and no doubt correctly, to have been discovered long after the mineral was first known.) I p237: this derivation was known to Pliny, Etymologically, the word is probably connected with ἡλέκτωρ, the sun, the root-meaning being brilliant. If, as we shall endeavour to show, those passages refer to amber, a simple explanation of the twofold used of the word suggests itself namely, that the word originally meant amber, and that it was afterwards applied to the mixed metal, because its pale yellow colour resembled that of amber. If we could determine which was first known to the Greeks, the mineral or the metal, the subject would be simplified but the only means we have of determining this question is the slight internal evidence of a few passages in Homer. In the former sense, it does not come within the scope of this work, except as a substance used in the arts, and also on account of the difficulty of deciding, with respect to several of the passages in which the word occurs, in which of the two senses it is used. ( ἤλεκτρος and ἤλεκτρον), is used by the ancient writers in two different senses, either for amber a or for a mixture of metals composed of gold and silver. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem presents itself here.Article by Philip Smith, B.A., of the University of LondonĪ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. The lectures will be held at the Israel Museum, Dorot Auditorium (near the Shrine of the Book).Ī complete list of the lecturer’s and all helpful information on this event are available on the website of the Israel Numismatic Society. The congress will include two days of lecture sessions and a guided tour of the new exhibition. Nineteen of the world’s leading scholars in the field have been invited to speak on electrum coinage and related topics ranging from “Preliminary Analysis of Electrum Coins and Natural Gold from Sardis” (Nick Cahill, Jill Hari, Bülent Önay, and Esra Documacı) to “Art, finance and politics: the remarkable case of the Cyzicene electrum coinage” (François de Callataÿ) and “Electrum in inscriptions and literary sources” (Selene Psoma). To celebrate this unique presentation a two-day international congress will be held. ![]() Reflecting a rich diversity of subjects, they trace the evolution of Greek art from the seventh through the fourth century BCE and draw us magnetically into a vibrant and fascinating iconographic world. Electrum coins are not only historically significant, but also astonishingly beautiful. ![]() The exhibition provides an intimate glimpse into the dawn of coinage, shedding light on the story of one of the most important innovations in human history. This exhibition is the first public display of an outstanding group of five hundred miniature masterpieces from two important collections of electrum coins. – The new coin exhibition “White Gold: Revealing the World’s Earliest Coins” will formally open on Jat the renewed exhibition space of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
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