05-24-2007, 08:00 PM
To further clarify a couple of points:
1.- Agree with Stephanos that most images of cavalrymen in Archaic to Hellenistic art show horsemen carrying straight-bladed swords.
But this does not mean that the VERY long machairai known from the archaeological record, more than 80 cm. to 100 cm. in lenght (Dodona, Prodromi) were not used, and designed for cavalrymen. It only shows that machaira-like swords were rare in comparison. And yes, there are some images of cavalrymen with kopides, such as in a Clazomenian sarcophagus from c. 520 (Greenhalgh), which by the way matches ion date with most known real examples of machairai, which are almost all to be dated to the 6th century BC. A 1 m long pure sabre is not likely to have been designed for infantrymen.
2.- Also agree that the shorter kopis of late classical art -remember that almost no real examples are known- could conceivably be used in the thight enviroment of close infanty battle. And perhaps it was... some times and by a minority of the infantrymen.
But it is curious that it could not reallistically be used ithere in the way it is almost always shown by pottery (i.e., a long slashing motion starting from over the shoulder). So there is a bit of a contradiction between the way in which shorter, later kopides COULD be used and the way thery are depicted in Red Figure. which IMHO means kopides were not common among hoplites an phalangites. And again, this is why it is so rare in archaeology, so alien in iconography.
Cheers
1.- Agree with Stephanos that most images of cavalrymen in Archaic to Hellenistic art show horsemen carrying straight-bladed swords.
But this does not mean that the VERY long machairai known from the archaeological record, more than 80 cm. to 100 cm. in lenght (Dodona, Prodromi) were not used, and designed for cavalrymen. It only shows that machaira-like swords were rare in comparison. And yes, there are some images of cavalrymen with kopides, such as in a Clazomenian sarcophagus from c. 520 (Greenhalgh), which by the way matches ion date with most known real examples of machairai, which are almost all to be dated to the 6th century BC. A 1 m long pure sabre is not likely to have been designed for infantrymen.
2.- Also agree that the shorter kopis of late classical art -remember that almost no real examples are known- could conceivably be used in the thight enviroment of close infanty battle. And perhaps it was... some times and by a minority of the infantrymen.
But it is curious that it could not reallistically be used ithere in the way it is almost always shown by pottery (i.e., a long slashing motion starting from over the shoulder). So there is a bit of a contradiction between the way in which shorter, later kopides COULD be used and the way thery are depicted in Red Figure. which IMHO means kopides were not common among hoplites an phalangites. And again, this is why it is so rare in archaeology, so alien in iconography.
Cheers
