,' bears witness to a time when iron had become the
almost universal fighting metal. But even in some of the Mycenaean
tombs iron appears in the shape of finger-rings; and in East Cretan
tombs of the latest Minoan period iron swords have been found. And
if, as is generally agreed, the Homeric poems represent the work
of several bards covering a considerable period of time, there is
nothing out of the way in the supposition that, while the earlier
writers represented bronze as the material for weapons, because
it was actually so in their time, the later ones, writing at a
period when iron was largely superseding, but had not altogether
superseded, the older metal, should, while clinging in general
to the old poetic word used by their predecessors, occasionally
introduce the name of the metal which was becoming prevalent in their
day. From this point of view the difficulty seems to disappear. The
Homeric age proper is one of bronze-using people; but, in the later
stages of the development of the poems, iron makes its appearance,
just as it had been gradually doing in the generally bronze-using
Mycenaean civilization.

The same remark applies to the differences of equipment between
the warriors of the Mycenaean and those of the Homeric period. The
Mycenaeans used the great hide-shield, either oblong or 8-shaped,
covering its bearer from head to foot, with a leather cap for the
head, and no defensive armour of metal. In the Iliad, on the other
hand, what is obviously contemplated in general is a metal helmet,
a metal cuirass, and a comparatively small round shield. But, again,
in later Mycenaean work, such as the famous Warrior Vase, there is
evidence of the use of the small round shield, while, moreover,
in some parts of the poem there are evidences of the use of the
true Mycenaean shield 'like a tower.' Periphetes of Mycenae is slain
by Hector owing to his having tripped over the lower edge of his
great shield, and his slayer himself bears a shield of no small
proportions. 'So saying, Hector of the glancing helm departed,
and the black hide beat on either side against his ankles and his
neck, even the rim that ran uttermost about his bossed shield.' So
that the poems represent a gradual development in the use of armour
which may not unfairly be compared with the similar development
traceable in the Mycenaean remains.

On the whole, then, our conclusion is something like this: The
civilization which Schliemann discovere