Talk:Electrum

:I'm not clear this is exactly "wrong & misquoting". Surely you are wrong to claim that "The "pale yellow color of certain varieties" refers to varieties of the metal, not of the amber"? That's not what the sentence says, plus pretty much all "varieties" of the metal could be described as having a "pale yellow color", but only some amber. Is that how you spell Odyssey in German? Interesting. You now have a ref for Homer's use of the word. Hurrah! That in 1875 there was discussion as to which substance Homer meant is also interesting, but one would like a ref less than 150 years old. [[User:Johnbod|Johnbod]] ([[User talk:Johnbod|talk]]) 00:50, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

:I'm not clear this is exactly "wrong & misquoting". Surely you are wrong to claim that "The "pale yellow color of certain varieties" refers to varieties of the metal, not of the amber"? That's not what the sentence says, plus pretty much all "varieties" of the metal could be described as having a "pale yellow color", but only some amber. Is that how you spell Odyssey in German? Interesting. You now have a ref for Homer's use of the word. Hurrah! That in 1875 there was discussion as to which substance Homer meant is also interesting, but one would like a ref less than 150 years old. [[User:Johnbod|Johnbod]] ([[User talk:Johnbod|talk]]) 00:50, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

After a deletion removed much, I've edited it to

After a deletion removed much including the old 1911 Brittanica ref<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Electrum, Electron |volume=9 |page=252}}</ref> for the passage quoted above, I've edited it to

:The name ''electrum'' is the [[Latin]]ized form of the [[ancient Greek]] word ἤλεκτρον (''ḗlektron''), meaning amber or an alloy of [[gold]] and [[silver]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ἤλεκτρον |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=h)/lektron |access-date=2025-07-09 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

:The name ''electrum'' is the [[Latin]]ized form of the [[ancient Greek]] word ἤλεκτρον (''ḗlektron''), meaning amber or an alloy of [[gold]] and [[silver]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ἤλεκτρον |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=h)/lektron |access-date=2025-07-09 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

The discussion in Liddell & Scott (7th edn, 1883) is old but constructive; it cites the uses in the Odyssey (4.73, 15.460, 18.296) and in Hesiod and more, pointing out that until Pausanias and Pliny "we have nothing to tell us what it was". There may well be later scholarship and any archaeological finds that match the Homeric description of a gold necklace set with ἤλεκτρον might be illuminating, but if L&S are halfway right, this may be one of those frustrating unprovables that scholars nowadays leave well alone as fruitless and done to death more than 100 years ago. [[User:NebY|NebY]] ([[User talk:NebY|talk]]) 14:04, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

The discussion in Liddell & Scott (7th edn, 1883) is old but constructive; it cites the uses in the Odyssey (4.73, 15.460, 18.296) and in Hesiod and more, pointing out that until Pausanias and Pliny "we have nothing to tell us what it was". There may well be later scholarship and any archaeological finds that match the Homeric description of a gold necklace set with ἤλεκτρον might be illuminating, but if L&S are halfway right, this may be one of those frustrating unprovables that scholars nowadays leave well alone as fruitless and done to death more than 100 years ago. [[User:NebY|NebY]] ([[User talk:NebY|talk]]) 14:04, 9 July 2025 (UTC)