11-26-2012, 02:07 AM
I've finished reading the book now. Thanks for confirming that the underarm approach does work better. His description did make sense but especially without a properly weighted spear to test it with or some confirmation from a reenactor, I wasn't 100% convinced. Watching one of the you tube videos of the 2011 Marathon battle re-enactment, I did notice that at least a couple of the participants were using an underarm position and seemed to be able to hold there spears up longer than many of the others. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN-OFSQ8rqA>.
Out of curiosity, what did you think of his conclusions about how othismos can be interpreted both as a general push/advance as well as more specifically as the literal push of shields and the behavior of the the phalanx battles based on his conclusions about how an individual hoplite thought. These seemed more speculative to me but still seemed consistent with his conclusions about how the individual fought.
Chris
Out of curiosity, what did you think of his conclusions about how othismos can be interpreted both as a general push/advance as well as more specifically as the literal push of shields and the behavior of the the phalanx battles based on his conclusions about how an individual hoplite thought. These seemed more speculative to me but still seemed consistent with his conclusions about how the individual fought.
Chris
