Notes on Homeric Armour

Walter Leaf

doi:10.2307/623375

Notes on Homeric Armour

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013

Walter Leaf

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It is unfortunate that Dr. Buchholz's great book on the Homeric Realien should have had no more adequate guides in the difficult and interesting questions relating to archaic Greek armour than the now rather unsatisfactory work of Rüstow and Köchly, Die Geschichte des Griechischen Kriegswesens (Aarau, 1852). That treatise was written some thirty years ago, when archaeology was comparatively young. In discussing heroic arms the authors make no distinction of archaic and late monuments, while of course they were ignorant of the revolution in our ideas of primitive Greece brought about by recent discoveries, of which those of Dr. Schliemann at Mykenai occupy the chief place. Some valuable hints have been given by Dr. Autenrieth in his Homeric Dictionary, and will also be found scattered through the notes of Ameis and Hentze in their edition of the Iliad; but no important monograph on the question has appeared, so far as I am aware, and we must not perhaps complain if Dr. Buchholz has had to take an antiquated treatise for his text, relegating to notes the scattered suggestions which he has found elsewhere. Dr. W. Helbig's promised work, Das Homerische Epos aus den Denkmälern erläutert, will doubtless leave little to be desired when it appears; meanwhile the following somewhat disconnected suggestions may possibly be of help in clearing up various disputed points.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 4 , November 1883 , pp. 281 - 304

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/623375 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1883

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^{page 281 note 1} In the Archaeol. Zeitung for 1880, p. 194, is a brief abstract of a paper by Dr. Helbig on Homeric armour, but the full text has, I believe, not been published.

^{page 282 note 1} Λ 36, see Helbig, , ‘Sopra lo scudo d' Achille,’ Annali, 1882, pp. 221–44Google Scholar.

^{page 282 note 2} Λ 526:

Cf. E 182,

^{page 282 note 3} i. 171. (I set this passage out at length for future reference.)

^{page 282 note 4} 387–90, 432–34, 465–70, 491–98, etc.

^{page 282 note 5} So Ameis-Hentze take the phrase 239: and this seems the most adequate of the suggested interpretations.

^{page 283 note 1} Z 117.

^{page 283 note 2} O 645.

^{page 283 note 3} 219, etc. The scutum is called θυρεός by Polybios and other writers who dealt with Roman history.

^{page 284 note 1} See Milchhöfer, , Die Anfänge der Kunst in Griechenland, pp. 34, 92Google Scholar.

^{page 284 note 2} Discovered under the rust after the publication of Schliemann's book, and first published by Kumanudis, Ἀθήναιον ix.

^{page 284 note 3} See Wilkinson, , Anc. Egyp. xi. p. 198Google Scholar. The rounded top does not indicate a difference of type; see Schl. 335.

^{page 285 note 1} Λ 32.

Whatever the κύκλοι were, they imply a round shield.

^{page 285 note 2} It occurs only in the line

^{page 287 note 1} De Epith. Homer. in εις desinentibus, p. 18.

^{page 287 note 2} ‘Sopra lo scudo d' Achille,’ Annali, 1882, pp. 221–44.

^{page 288 note 1} In Buchholz, p. 363.

^{page 288 note 2} κύκλοι. Hence the epithet εῠκυκλος. So also N 407, probably means ‘made in circles.’ The phrase used of the Gorgoneion on Agamemnon's shield (Λ 36) seems inconsistent with the supposition that the κύκγοι mentioned three lines above were concentric circles on the face.

^{page 288 note 3} Die Kunst bei Homer, p. 8.

^{page 288 note 4} Panath. i. p. 159 (ap. Brunn). To support Brunn's view he should surely have said ἐπιβεβηκότων. No doubt the pictures were arranged in concentric rings, only they were not formed in this way.

^{page 289 note 1} Similar inlaid work must be implied by the οἷμοι of kyanos, gold and tin on the breastplate of Agamemnon (Л 24–25): while the in that of Asteropaios (Ψ 561) reminds us of the metallic ‘Schmelze’ which is described by Köhler as having given a bright lustre to the surface of these inlaid weapons.

^{page 289 note 2} The reality of this tradition is confirmed by Strabo's quotation from Anakreon (xiv. 661), (Bgk. fr, 91).

^{page 290 note 1} The Egyptians however are represented as having shields with both baldrick and handle. They commonly carry the shield slung at their backs; of this there is no indication in Homer, except possibly in Л 545, when Aias turned to retreat, The baldrick appears also to pass over the left shoulder, not over the right.—Wilkinson, i. pp. 199, 200. The immense shield on p. 202 appears to be the same which is found in Assyrian representations of sieges; it covers two men, one of whom holds it while his companion, an archer, shoots by his side. I have not come across any representation on Greek monuments of the τελαμών as worn by warriors in action. Charioteers on vases occasionally have a shield slung behind them.

^{page 291 note 1} For the significance of the horned helmet as connecting the Shardana with the Sardinians, see Robiou, F. in the Gaz. Archéol., 1881, pp. 133–144Google Scholar.

^{page 291 note 2} This is taken from Zannoni, , Gli Scavi della Certosa di Bologna, Pl. XXXV., 62Google Scholar. It has an obyious significance when taken in connection with the preceding note. Like No. 12 it fills a vacant space in the field between two combatants. The long appendag seems to represent the strap by which the helmet was fastened under the chin, as in Γ 371.

^{page 293 note 1} To such a form as this we most naturally apply, as Dr. Helbig has remarked, the phrase

^{page 293 note 2} There were, however, three on the helmet of the Athene Parthenos of Pheidias, if the supposed copy is accurate in this respect. Of course they appear there in a highly ornate and unpractical form. See Murray, , Hist. Gk. Sculp. ii. p. 119, 120Google Scholar.

^{page 294 note 1} Cf. Alkaios, ap. Strabo, xiv. 661, (fr. 22, Bgk).

^{page 294 note 2} The boar's teeth which adorn the cap in K 263 are doubtless a relic of this, as indeed is suggested by Rüstow and Köchly.

^{page 295 note 1} Reference may be made to M. Léon Heuzey's paper on the curious and important helmet-shaped Corinthian aryballoi (Gaz. Arch., 1880, pp. 145–164), where some remarks as to the development of the helmet will be found. It may be observed that some of the aryballoi in question present a φάλος over the forehead, much conventionalised, but apparently independent of the crest.

^{page 296 note 1} I assume that this helmet had four plumes, though only three are depicted.

^{page 296 note 2} Δ 459 Z 9: and compare N 614.

^{page 299 note 1} Cf. Autenrieth, Dict., s.v.

^{page 300 note 1} The sarissa of the Macedonian phalanx, which was 14 or 16 cubits long, was held in both hands by soldiers who had not to carry a shield. For a discussion of the question see Grote's History, Appendix to Chap, xcii.

^{page 302 note 1} For the technical means by which elastic bronze was manufactured in the ancient world, see a paper by A. de Rochas in the Revue Scientifique, 1883, p. 375.

^{page 303 note 1} Mr. F. Pollock, however, tells me that Highland broadswords sometimes have a decided median ridge, at all events near the hilt. Curiously enough, too, it appears from Livy xxii. 46, that the short form was preferred for thrusting, the long for cutting: ‘Gallis Hispanisque scuta eiusdem formae fere erant, dispares ac dissimiles gladii, Gallis praelongi ac sine mucronibus, Hispano, punctim magis quam caesim assueto petere hostem, brevitate habiles et cum mucronibus.’

^{page 304 note 1} Die Militärmedicin Homers, von Dr.Fröhlich, H., Stuttgart, 1879Google Scholar.

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