Jack, I'm glad the drams have a lot of scruples! The following is forwarded by my mother (macedona@ma.ultranet.com), who is not an SI member and thus cannot contribute directly:
"The only pre-metallic unit of value in Homeric Greece was cattle, the ox in particular.
In the Iliad Talents of gold are mentioned. Achilles proposes as the first prize for a race a vessel of silver; for the second an ox, for the third a half Talent of gold. As the third prize might well be half the value of the second, this suggests that the Talent of gold and the ox would be of equal value.
The Babylonians first converted the value of the oxen into bronze, creating the unit of weight, the "Talent". It was about 60 lbs of bronze shaped into the configuration of an ox hide, rectangular with projections for "legs". It could be divided with relative ease; however, it was difficult to transport due to its weight, so early civilizations (6th-7th cent. B.C.) developed a gold version of the Talent. It weighed only 9 grams (equivalent to the later Greek silver didrachm) but its value was equal to the 60 lb chunk of bronze.
A writer on Talents at Alexandria about 100 A.D. says the Homeric Talent was the same weight as the later "daric", i.e., 130 grains (8.42 grams) of gold."
Interesting, hmm? |
