The bronze articles of the toilet recovered by recent researches in Cyprus and elsewhere are remarkable.  The handle of a mirror found in Cyprus, and now in the Museum of New York, possesses considerable merit.  It consists mainly of a female figure, naked, and standing upon a frog.[876] In her hands she holds a pair of cymbals, which she is in the act of striking together.  A ribbon, passed over her left shoulder, is carried through a ring, from which hangs a seal.  On her arms and shoulders appear to have stood two lions, which formed side supports to the mirror that was attached to the figure’s head.  If the face of the cymbal-player cannot boast of much beauty, and her figure is thought to “lack distinction,” still it is granted that the tout ensemble of the work was not without originality, and may have possessed a certain amount of elegance.[877] The frog is particularly well modelled.

Some candlesticks found in the Treasury of Curium,[878] and a tripod from the same place, seem to deserve a short notice.  The candlesticks stand upon a sort of short pillar as a base, above which is the blossom of a flower inverted, a favourite Phoenician ornament.[879] From this rises the lamp-stand, composed of three leaves, which curl outwards, and support between them a ring into which the bottom of the lamp fitted.  The tripod[880] is more elaborate.  The legs, which are fluted, bulge considerably at the top, after which they bend inwards, and form a curve like one half of a Cupid’s bow.  To retain them in place, they are joined together by a sort of cross-bar, about half-way in their length; while, to keep them steady, they are made to rest on large flat feet.  The circular hoop which they support is of some width, and is ornamented along its entire course with a zig-zag.  From the hoop depend, half-way in the spaces between the legs, three rings, from each of which there hangs a curious pendant.

Besides copper and bronze, the Phoenicians seem to have worked in lead and iron, but only to a small extent.  Iron ore might have been obtained in some parts of their own country, but appears to have been principally derived from abroad, especially from Spain.[881] It was worked up chiefly, so far as we know, into arms offensive and defensive.  The sword of Alexander, which he received as a gift from the king of Citium,[882] was doubtless in this metal, which is the material of a sword found at Amathus, and of numerous arrowheads.[883] We are also told that Cyprus furnished the iron breast-plates worn by Demetrius Poliorcetes;[884] and in pre-Homeric times it was a Phoenician—­Cinyras—­who gave to Agamemnon his breast-plate of steel, gold, and tin.[885] That more remains of iron arms and implements have not been found on Phoenician sites is probably owing to the rapid oxydisation of the metal, which consequently decays and disappears.  The Hiram who was sent to assist Solomon in building and furnishing the Temple of Jerusalem was, we must remember, “skilful to work,” not only “in gold, and silver, and bronze,” but also “in iron."[886]