Iron is mentioned in the following passages of Homer (ὅστις ποτ᾿ ἐστίν, εἰ τόδ᾿ αὐτῷ φίλον κεκλημένῳ, τοῦτό νιν προσεννέπω), and in these passages only:—

Δ 123, 485, 510; Ε 723; Ζ 48; Η 141, 144, 473; Θ 15; Ι 366; Κ 379; Λ 133; Ρ 424; Σ 34; Υ 372; Χ 357; Ψ 30, 177, 261, 834, 851; Ω 205, 521; a 184, 204; δ 293; ε 191; ι 393; μ 280; ξ 324; ο 329; π 294; ρ 565; τ 13, 211, 494, 587; φ 3, 10, 61, 81, 97, 114, 127, 328; ψ 172; ω 168, 177.

These passages form a basis for discussing two interesting and important points in the Homeric question: (1) whether Homer's acquaintance with iron differs so much in different books that we must believe those books to belong to different ages; and (2) whether iron plays such different parts in Homer and in Mycenae that we cannot believe the Homeric age to be coincident with the Mycenaean period.