delight, and he was thought to owe his gifts to 
     supernatural beings around whom many legends grew. 
     There were creatures called Dactyls, smelters of bronze; 
     Curetes and Corybantes, armorers; Cabeiroi, who were 
     skilful smiths; Telchines, gifted workers in gold, silver and 
     bronze who made weapons for gods and the earliest 
     statues; and lastly the mighty Cyclopes forging the bolts 
     of Zeus. All these are vague giants, goblins and godlings—
     patron saints of the workshop and the forge whom you 
     might do well to appease and some of whose names just 
     meant “Fingers”, “Hammer”, “Tongs”, and “Anvil”. Then, 
     by the time that the Homeric epic began to take form, 
     one of these beings seems to have grown in stature until 
     he attained Olympian rank.

     Embossing, and chasing, and engraving “on gold, silver,