Map

object

Electrum

Colors & materials · Objects

A gold-silver alloy of ancient coin and work, pale and variable. Not gold, not silver, and not amber (elektron) under a confused English name.

Roman religion

  • Electrum appears in Roman religion.

    Pliny’s Natural History treats electrum among gold–silver alloys of coin and ornament. A named electrum alloy in that encyclopedia, not amber as the fossil resin already walked and not brass as copper-zinc.

    from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

    appears in · sourced · documented

Hellenic religion

  • Electrum appears in Hellenic religion.

    Pausanias at Olympia distinguishes native Eridanus amber from the other “amber,” an alloy of gold and silver, and later lists electrum among metals corroded by Styx water. A named electrum alloy in that periegesis, not amber as the fossil resin already walked and not gold or silver alone.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    appears in · sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

  • Electrum appears in Egyptian religion.

    The Book of the Dead’s solar and divine-body speech seats electrum (djm), the pale gold–silver alloy, among the shining metals of gods and barque gear. A named electrum in that funerary corpus, not amber as Greek elektron and not gold as the flesh-metal already walked.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    appears in · sourced · documented

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