The Collaborative International Dictionary
Orichalch \Or"i*chalch\, n. [L. orichalcum, Gr. ?; 'o`ros, mountain + chalko`s brass: cf. F. orichalque.] A metallic substance, resembling gold in color, but inferior in value; a mixed metal of the ancients, resembling brass; -- called also aurichalcum, orichalcum, etc.
Wiktionary
n. A valuable yellow metal known to the ancient Greeks and Romans; now sometimes interpreted as referring to a natural alloy of gold and copper, and sometimes treated as a mythical substance.
Wikipedia
Orichalcum or aurichalcum is a metal mentioned in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis in the Critias of Plato. Within the dialogue, Critias (460 – 403 BC) claims that orichalcum had been considered second only to gold in value and had been found and mined in many parts of Atlantis in ancient times, but that by Critias' own time orichalcum was known only by name.
Orichalcum may have been one type of bronze or brass, or possibly some other metal alloy. In 2015, metal ingots were found in an ancient shipwreck in Gela ( Sicily), which were made of an alloy primarily consisting of copper, zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead, iron.
In numismatics, orichalcum is the golden-colored bronze alloy used by the Roman Empire for their sestertius and dupondius coins.
Usage examples of "orichalcum".
The ship, also made of orichalcum, absorbed the energy of the sun, attained a degree of intelligence, and took on a semblance of independent lif e.
But, with the chart from the casket of orichalcum as their guide, they sailed deeper and deeper into the unknown.
Sigurd wondered for an instant whether these plates were made of the rumored Atlantean metal, orichalcum, but he had too many other things of more urgency to spend much time with this surmise.
These were inscribed by the first men on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the people were gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately, thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even number.
These were inscribed by the first then on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the Temple of Poseidon, whither the people were gathered together.
A young girl whose soul was placed by magical union into a replica of herself made of the unusually propertied ruddy-golden metal, orichalcum, which only the Adantideans knew and used.
I stood as an orichalcum statue in the swan-ship that floated above my drowned Atlantis, but those years were not like these.
Age had seen to that, and the sea air, but the couch was still comfortable as a bed of feathers, made from that wondrous orichalcum which could be either down-soft or diamond-hard.
Vimana was built by human hands, of crass metal, but by the presence of my orichalcum body within it, the particles of its substance have been transmuted.
Charis leaned against a column, gazing out across the rooftops of the city, watching the sunlight glimmer on beaten sheets of red-gold orichalcum and listening to the sighing hum of the Aeolian harp in the random fingerings of the wind.
She pressed her back against the cool stone and saw seven robed Magi standing in a circle around a tripod holding a large orichalcum caldron.
Mage, whom Charis decided must be the High Mage of the temple, then went to the altar and removed an orichalcum ewer and approached the king, who had taken his place before the altar.
Everywhere Charis looked she saw the reddish gleam of expensive orichalcum shimmering in the sun.
The hem was worked in orichalcum thread as was the collar and bands which secured the cloak.
Temple of the Sun, one above another, the pillars of each made from a different metal: bronze for the lowest court, brass for the one above it, gold for the next, and orichalcum for the highest.