The Balustrade of Athena Polias Nikephoros in Pergamon

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

You don't know how was the end of the original sculpture we were talking about.It could have been bird(or anything else) headed,but it doesn't survive.Also,even that one is not completely centered,as is none of these two either.But especially the first one with the lion head is very close to the center.And in any case we see that even in a kopis the guard can extend to the the opposite side,too,the grips started becoming more centered some times.This was my original claim,anyway,and not that the sculpture with the "mysterious" sword must be a kopis and nothing else.
To tell you the truth,I suspect that these last photos do not show only the hilt,but the hilt "stuck" in the scabard base.You can see the line separating both hilts from the scabard guard,and you can distinguish it from the decoration.This probably makes only the first lion headed hilt centered and he second one just a common shaped kopis hilt.If this is not the case,then the vertical lines were made there to imitate the real guard.
In reply to the Lyson and Kallikles tomb argument,not all kopis that have been found have animal headed pommels.The fact that one of this swords does not have animal headed pommel does not necessarily mean that it is a xiphos. One of them is definitely a xiphos as it has symmetrical guard the other one does not have a symmetrical guard(guard is only the black part,and this makes it unlikely it is a xiphos. And even if it is,it is not a so important thing to argue about,is it?Since I posted the last two photos,I supported that almost centered hilts did exist for a kopis.
And I repeat,I'm not saying that any thing of these I said proves that the original sickle like sword it a kopis.Just that its hilt from itself cannot rule out the posibility.
Khaire
Giannis