Of capital interest is the copper tripod (No. 440). It has three handles, of which two are horizontal and one vertical; to the right of the spectator is a small mouth. The tripod was used in the Homeric times for various purposes. In the Odyssey,[336] as well as in the Iliad,[337] we find it used for presents of honour. In the Iliad,[338] it is given as a prize in the games, and it also occurs as an ornament of the rooms,[339] and, further, for the heating of water and for cooking.[340] To indicate its use for these latter purposes, Homer[341] gives also the epithet ἐμπυριβήητης to the tripod. There was further found in this tomb a mass of small thin round pieces of copper plate, having all around the rim perforations, which show that they have been used as ornaments, probably on horse-trappings; also, a copper vase-handle, plated with gold. [Illustration: No. 440. A Copper Tripod. Sepulchre IV. Size 1:4.] I collected in this tomb, forty-six bronze swords more or less fragmentary, also four lances and three long knives, of which I shall describe the most remarkable. One of the lances is represented under No. 441; like all the Mycenean lances, it has a tube, in which the wooden lance-shaft was fixed, but, as an exception, there is here a ring on either side, by which the lance-head was attached to the shaft by means of a cord, to prevent its being lost. As I have already stated, all Homeric lances seem to have had a similar tube, in which the shaft was fixed; on the outside of the tube of the lance we see the broad flat head of the nail with which the shaft was fastened. [Sidenote: WEAPONS OF BRONZE.] [Illustration: No. 441. A Lance-head of Bronze. Sepulchre IV. Size 1:5, about. Nos. 442, 442_a_. Small one-edged Bronze Swords. Sepulchre IV. Size 3:16, about.] Among the swords, ten were short and one-edged, of which I represent two under No. 442 and 442_a_; they consist each of one solid piece of bronze, and measure, when entire, from 2 ft. to 2 ft. 3 in. in length. The handle is too thick to have been covered with wood, and must have been used as it is: the end of it forms a ring, by which the sword was suspended to the shoulder-belt (τελαμών) or to the girdle (ζωστήρ or ζώνη). As these short one-edged swords are, properly speaking, nothing else than long knives, they evidently represent the original meaning of the Homeric word, φάσγανον,[342] which is derived, by a euphonic transposition of the letters, from the same root as that of σφάγη and σφάζω (_slaughter_), and thus this weapon must primitively have been used chiefly for slaughtering animals, and, perhaps, also for killing in close fight; but the name gradually lost its original signification, and in Homer it is perfectly synonymous with ξίφος and ἄορ.