Malleus

“A hammer, a mallet. In the hands of the farmer the mallet of wood served to break down the clods and to pulverize them. The butcher used it in slaying cattle, by striking the head, and we often read of it as used by the smith upon the anvil. When several men were employed at te same anvil it was a matter of necessity that they should strike in time, and Virgil, accordingly says of the Cyclopes, “inter se brachia tollunt in numerum.” The scene which he describes is represented in the annexed woodcut, taken from an ancient bas-relief, in which Vulcan, Brontes, and Steropes, are seen forging the metal, while the third Cyclops, Pyracmon, blows the bellows. Beside the anvil is seen the vessel of water in which the hot iron or bronze was immersed. But besides the employment of the hammer upon the anvil for making all ordinary utensils, the smith wrought with this instrument figures which were either small and fine, some of their parts being beaten as thin as paper, and being in very high relief, as in the bronzes of Siris, or of colossal proportions, being composed of seperate plates riveted together.” — Smith, 1873

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