According to the Arundelian Marbles, iron was discovered B.C. 1432,[54] or 248 years before the taking of Troy, but though we have occasional mention of this metal and of steel in the Homeric poems, yet weapons and tools of bronze are far more commonly mentioned and described. Trees, for instance, are cut down and wood carved with tools of bronze; and the battle-axe of Menelaus[55] is of excellent bronze with an olive-wood handle, long and well polished. Before noticing further the early use of iron in Greece, it will be well to see what other authors than Homer say as to the origin and ancient use of bronze in that country. The name of the principal metal of which it is composed, copper, bears witness to one of the chief sources of its supply having been the island of Cyprus. It would appear that Tamassus in this island was in ancient times a noted mart for this metal, as it is according to Nitzsch and other critics the Temese[56] mentioned in Homer as being resorted to in order to exchange iron for χαλκὸς, which in this as well as some other passages seems to stand for copper and not bronze. The advantage arising from mixing a proportion of tin with the copper, and thus rendering it at the same time more fusible and harder, must have been known before the dawn of Grecian history. The accounts given by early Greek writers as to the first discoverer of the art of making bronze by an admixture of copper and tin vary considerably, and thus prove that even in the days when these notices were written the art was of ancient date. Theophrastus makes Delas, a Phrygian, whom Aristotle[57] regards as a Lydian, to have been the inventor of bronze. Pausanias[58] ascribes the honour of first casting statues in bronze to Rhœcus and Theodorus the Samians, who appear to have lived about 640 B.C. They are also said to have improved the accuracy of casting, but no doubt the process on a smaller scale was practised long before their time. Rhœcus and his colleague are also reported to have discovered the art of casting iron,[59] but no really ancient objects of cast iron have as yet been discovered. The invention of the metals gold, silver, and copper is also ascribed to the Idæan Dactyli,[60] or the Telchines, who made the sickle of Chronos[61] and the trident of Poseidon.[62]