09-13-2007, 11:03 AM
Hr hr, never looked at it from this point of view. I've just received a big piece of leather and suddenly I think, Paul is right... :wink:
Honestly, if the "hollow shield" is a typically Homerian phrase and not much used elsewhere, that would be an argument to consider. But why should Alkaios have talked about "neo lino" when we know that the term linothorax was used by Homer? Was it used by Homer for a new form of armour? It is more probable that the material was new for the guys in the beginning of the 6th c. BC, knowing only armour of bronze and leather for actual use.
The aspis came in use in the 7th c BC like Giannis said, at least we see it on some vases together with the first stages of a kind of hoplite warfare.
I don't know much about Xenophons book about horsemanship (will try to buy it after I have read the Hellenika). Are not some parts of the mentioned armour taken from foreign countries? Do we have archeological finds (vases, armour parts) that show actual use in Greece? Just for interest, it has not much to do with linen or leather, I think.
Honestly, if the "hollow shield" is a typically Homerian phrase and not much used elsewhere, that would be an argument to consider. But why should Alkaios have talked about "neo lino" when we know that the term linothorax was used by Homer? Was it used by Homer for a new form of armour? It is more probable that the material was new for the guys in the beginning of the 6th c. BC, knowing only armour of bronze and leather for actual use.
The aspis came in use in the 7th c BC like Giannis said, at least we see it on some vases together with the first stages of a kind of hoplite warfare.
I don't know much about Xenophons book about horsemanship (will try to buy it after I have read the Hellenika). Are not some parts of the mentioned armour taken from foreign countries? Do we have archeological finds (vases, armour parts) that show actual use in Greece? Just for interest, it has not much to do with linen or leather, I think.
Wolfgang Zeiler
