Magnes, a herdsman in Greece around 2500 BCE, discovered that lodestones found near Mount Ida were naturally magnetic due to their high magnetite content. He encountered difficulty each time he climbed the mountain to tend his sheep because the magnetic lodestones strongly attracted the iron hobnails in his boots. In honor of Magnes' discovery, the Greeks named the magnetic material "magnes", which is the origin of the word "magnet".