The paper considers the perception of metals such as gold, silver, bronze and iron in Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, composed around late 8th or early 7th century BC. An analysis reveals that ...gold appears exclusively as an attribute of the gods. Only gods wear objects of gold and their works are golden, too; indeed, they are described as golden themselves. Arguably this metal not only serves as a metaphor for the quality of the immortal and unreachable gods, i.e. Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hera, Zeus and Apollo, but also appears in the ‘distant territories of the divine cosmos’ – golden is Triton’s palace, golden are the apples guarded by a horrible snake on the edge of the earth. Hesiod’s golden race, the first mortal race, excellent in all aspects, free of troubles and hard work, is, significantly, also closest to the gods. The silver race, created after the golden one, is inferior to the first just as silver is less precious than gold. Hardly ever mentioned in Hesiod’s poems, this metal is omitted from descriptions of jewellery or weapons. What is described as silver are river whirlpools, the colossal pillars of the underworld, and the feet of the nymph Thetis. A possible interpretation is that all these objects are untamed and unreachable, similar to gold but not divine anymore. After the silver race, the gods create the bronze race. This is a race of violent giants, fierce and strong, who are born from the ash tree. Bronze is therefore even farther from the divine: it is human. Moreover, it is the first alloy, and the manufacture of bronze objects demands much more knowledge and skill in comparison with gold and silver. Hesiod uses bronze as a synonym for all that is hard and strong in both poems – bronze is the material of the anvil, of the high walls, door, and doorstep which hold back the Titans in Tartarus, and of the arms carried by Memnon and Heracles. The only race not associated with metals is the race of heroes, exempted in this respect from the progressive devaluation. The fifth and last race is the iron race, to which the poet himself belongs. It is described as beset by the sorrow, hard work and cares sent by the gods. Made of iron are mostly tools and weapons; iron is the soul of Death, hard and heartless. With iron, the worst of all metals, the cycle of devaluation is complete. However, archaeological investigations present a somewhat different picture. In the early Iron Age, i.e. contemporary with the two Hesiodic poems, iron ultimately prevails in the territory of today’s Europe. Yet it is not used only to produce weapons and tools – this period reveals a rapid increase in iron jewellery as well. The abundance of the latter shows that iron was not only new but even fashionable, despite being unsuitable for the making of jewellery. In fact, it may have been prized more than gold itself in this period. Why, then, does the poet characterise the iron race as the worst, despite all the advantages brought by this metal? Simply because iron is the material supplying tools and weapons, which are used in labour and warfare respectively. In the golden age, by contrast, men lived in peace, leisure, and opulence like the immortal gods. Innovation and technological progress, such as the knowledge of iron and its techniques, are not perceived to contribute to tranquillity and prosperity; rather, they are associated with harrowing work and war.
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