#ancient greek armour

[the-good-spartan]

Spartan Armour (This ain't it).

Some time ago, I was chatting with a friend, and I jokingly said that, if I was in the ancient world and stumbled across Brasidas dressed like this, first, I would think he was hot, but second, that he was an absolute loony - and he asked me why.

Since then, I've been meaning to do a post about it, and this morning I'm in the mood for assembling my thoughts - so here I go.

I'd like to be kind, but this armour is wrong in nearly every way. Evidence suggests that Spartans at this period wore only a simple helmet (crested for lokhagoi, at the transverse for the polemarkhos or war-king), breast- and back-plate, and greaves - Like this set, photographed by me (as I peered into them, wondering whose was the body it once protected?)

To quote Xenophon, our nearest-in-time source for the period of the Peloponnesian War:

'Now as their equipment for battle... they should have a red cloak and a bronze shield on the reckoning that the former presents the greatest contract with any female dress, as well as the most warlike appearance; the latter certainly can be polished very quickly and is very slow to tarnish.' [On Spartan Society, 11].

Cartledge adds to this our knowing there was a place called 'The Iron House' in Sparta as a basis to suggest that the armour and weaponry were provided by the state. I find this an appealing idea, though it is only speculation.

Anyway - to break down Brasidas' armour specifically:

I can 100% guarantee no Spartan was running around in golden armour of any kind - so let's assume this is polished bronze. Even then, Lakedaimon was a relatively poor country with a cultural distaste for luxury. They definitely did not do ostentation or conspicuous wealth. This whole set is way, way too flashy, even if the items themselves existed. However.

There was no such thing as bracers (arm armour): these were used much later, and to my knowledge, exclusively by archers. These weren't even a thing by the Roman period, so almost definitely didn't exist in Ancient Sparta - or Greece, more generally.

Even the use of a pteruges (the ‘skirt’) is contentious. Unlike bracers, they were in use in the Roman period, but there's no evidence that they were earlier. Brasidas' elaborate pteruges is way too much - even by the Roman period, the pteruges was a relatively simple series of 5 or 6 leather strips with simple studs. This pteruges looks like a wrestling/boxing champions belt - it's really crazy.

Brasidas would've been wearing a simple muscled cuirass as above; whatever his upper body is dressed in here didn't exist and is my favourite of these bizarre conceits.

It looks a little like lorica hamata, ie. Roman (at least the maile section does), though if it was like lorica hamata, it would slip over the head like a T-shirt, more or less, making the straps unnecessary. I am also dubious about how tightly the maile fits to his body - this would be very uncomfortable. I am not even certain that they used maile in Ancient Greece - I don't recall seeing anything about this, so let's leave a pin in this as being 'to the best of my knowledge.'

The upper solid section is so weird. It has elements that suggest it's leather (ie. it flexes) but in the game, it looks like metal, and the straps are certainly intended to be metal (to judge by very different textures used on obviously leather armour elsewhere in the game). This would be impossible to fight in.

Basically, all these elements did never, and could never, fit together to create practical armour.

The greaves are the right shape at the front, if I'm being generous, but the way they wrap around his calves like leg-warmers above his sandal is pretty wild. You can see in the second image below that this hoplite is wearing some kind of high sock - if I'm reading the statuette correctly - but it's a separate article to the greave.

His chiton is correct though. They wore 'em short - it's hot in Greece, particularly in Lakedaimon during high summer, and when you're wrapped in metal, you don't want to cover up any more than absolutely necessary. Check out how short these Spartans chitons are!

I totally get that they wanted to make Brasidas stand out - and he does. It's aesthetically pleasing, no doubt about it. But in reality, this is 100% pure fantasy armour.

If you look at some of the other NPCs in the game, all of the correct components are there to see - though seldom assembled together.

Tangentially to all that - I just have to mention the poor little guys who are just wearing a skirt, greaves and helmet.... What in the hell was that decision about? No one in their right mind, Spartan or otherwise, was going into battle in nothing but a perizoma and strip of fabric to protect their torso.

[gemsofgreece]

hoplite general

by cloning-souls on DeviantArt

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Despite the fact that the Wardrobe Department got the details right(ish) on Aidan’s ancient-Greek armour,

he looked absolutely ridiculous every time he wore it.

[greekmythcomix]

Somehow I missed this - last month the University of Thessaly tested the Mycenaean Dendra armour for combat by putting it on Greek Marines in an “11-hour simulated Bronze Age combat protocol”!

Not only did it prove battle-worthy, we now have THIS IMAGE🤯

Article: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/dendra-armor-12959.html

Study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0301494

[aj-artjunkyard]

Apollo’s at his best when his speech patterns are “21yo college frat boy meets ye olde theatrical actor”. He responds with things like “But hark! Behold!” and “you should’ve been there, man. It totally rocked” in the same breath and kicks the fight or flight reflexes of every demigod in a mile radius into survival mode

[cvmcicle]

redraw...

i just spent 10 minutes figuring out how to use a hyperlink on tumblr help me

[barbucomedie]

Alabastron (Perfume Bottle) from Athens, Greece dated around 470 BCE on display in the British Museum in London, England

This bottle shows an armed Amazon wearing armour and trousers. The Amazons were a group of warrior women whom the Greeks believed to live North of the Black Sea. Unlike Greek women, they are often represented as wearing trousers, a long sleeved top, and a cuirass like the one here. The Amazon on this bottle also carries a shield with an attached patterned cloth and a quiver.

Photographs taken by myself 2020

[harvey-dormer]

Athena! More from my Gods and Mythologies illustrations.

harveydormer.com/links

[artschoolglasses]

Bronze helmet of Corinthian type, Greek, late 6th Century BCE

From the Met Museum

[illustratus]

Perseus and Andromeda by Peter Paul Rubens

[awesome-shoes-with-wings]

Amphitrite, Goddess of the Seas. The gentle guide of sailors, the keeper of deep secrets, the protector of the depths.

Baker of surprisingly delicious deep-sea cookies.

[the-good-spartan]

Just by the way… I want y’all to remember that the Spartans are attested wearing felt helmets.

[katrina37973]

The sun beats down on the weary men, dust-stained and sweat trailing down their arms and legs. They have been training with him for well over a few hours. He was the best of the myrmidons, second only to the son of Pelides himself. Trained by Chiron in the arts of healing and weaponry, his skills were leagues beyond that of mortal men. He chose not to fight on the battlefield but would not let his skills and swords rust away, and so, he trained those young soldiers. Kept them in shape, taught them to survive and was loved by everyone, soldiers and kings and bondswomen alike. The kings loved their advisor, peer to the gods in counsel. The soldiers loved their healer, sure-handed Chironides. The bondswomen loved the man who treated them with kindness and gave them a bitter hope for a better future, whatever that may look like. It was the son of Menoitious, Patroclus, gentle Patroclus who later would end the war. Just not in the way he, nor the others, nor Achilles could have predicted. The Fates were cruel and the gods are moon-glow and wild tides. Mortals were that of fire and that, the gods envied.

Links to inspirations:

"The gods... are moon-glow and wild-tides" is a direct quote from this lovely fanfic, 'all things soft and beautiful and bright' by searchingforserendipity. The other writing is by myself and inspiration taken from Song of Achilles and the Iliad as well as other fanfics I've read, though I can't remember exactly where 'sure-handed Chironides' came from. I think it was from Song of Achilles but if anyone could confirm, I would greatly appreciate that! I am planning on adding a full background of him training with other soldiers on the beaches of Ilion(Troy), so stay tuned for that piece! (Wish me luck, background were never my strongest suit.)

Anyway, I'm very proud of it! I love the little scratches I put on his pteruges (strip like defences on the upper arms or hanging from the waist). I planned to put more such dents on the armour and greaves but in the end decided against it.

Hope you enjoy it and the little writing I did!

Love, Kat.

[jd2kewl]

“High intensity 'white light' brings out the assorted colours and patterns of the bronze patina (oxidisation) this remarkable panoply: 7th Century BC Corinthian Helmet and 5th Century BC muscled cuirass and matching greaves.”

[englishlotusflower]

Trying to design period accurate costumes for Antigone for my Drama A level.

WHY DOES EVERY REFERENCE BOOK TREAT ANCIENT GREECE LIKE ONE COHESIVE WHOLE!?!?!!?!?!?!

Like, I know there's got to be a difference between what they would have worn in the Mycenaean age and what Sophocles-era classical greeks would have worn and Hellenistic Greeks would have worn and so on and so forth. Human beings won't be wearing the same thing without variation for over a thousand years. I know that from my other forays into fashion history.

Yet, nothing I can find is telling me about this difference, and I'll get the marks whether I can communicate the singularity of 400BCE fashions or not, but I want to KNOW so that the costumes can be RIGHT, rather than just tossing off the popular Greek silhouette.

The examiner probably won't care if there are archaic elements in there, but I would really rather do it right than counting on the examiner not being an expert in Classical Greek fashion history.

So, um, if anyone knows about the identifying features of what would have been worn by Athenian or Theban Greeks in the early 400s BCE, please please please help a very lost and confused child.

[m4gp13]

Okay in tlo it said the banners for the Titan army were black and purple (even tho it definitely should have been black and gold 🙄) which implies that the colours of the army itself were black and purple which is fine until you read hoo and find out the Romans fought the Titan army and their whole thing is the colour purple.

The titans had to have known they would be fighting Romans and they had to have known the Romans were really into purple so like

they knew about this beforehand. And they incorporated purple into their colour scheme anyway. I can't believe the titans. They broke their silence for the first time in thousands of years and immediately stole the Romans' brand.