Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/565

 538 Primitive Grefxe: Mvcenian Art. are in favour of the first hypothesis. There is, first of all, the situation assigned to the substance, between gold and silver, in Homer's enumeration. Amber, moreover, was never common in Greece. The poet only mentioas it as forming part of gold necklaces. It has not been traced at Tiryns, and in sepulchral furniture it solely appears in the shape of small insignificant beads. Of course there is always a remote possibility of amber having been inserted in bronze friezes ; but it is much more likely that we are confronted here by a decoration entirely com- posed of metal laminae, where the pale yellow of the electrum formed a kind of transition between the ruddy glitter of gold and the .shining white of silver. END OF VOL. 1.