Incus

Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on p634 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

 

INCUS (a[kmwn, an anvil. The representations of Vulcan and the Cyclopes on various works of art, show that the ancient anvil was formed like that of modern times. When the smith wanted to make use of it, he placed it on a large block of wood (ajkmovqeton, Hom. Il. xviii.410, 476, Od. viii.274; positis incudibus, Virg. Aen. vii.629; viii.451); and when he made the link of a chain, or any other object which was round or hollow, he beat it upon a point projecting from one side of the anvil. The annexed woodcut, representing Vulcan forging a thunderbolt for Jupiter, illustrates these circumstances; it is taken from a gem in the Royal Cabinet at Paris. It appears that in the "brazen age," not only the things made upon the anvil, but the anvil itself, with the hammer and the tongs, were made of bronze. (Hom. Od. iii.433, 434; Apollon. Rhod. iv.761, 762.) [MALLEUS.]