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Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas
Quote:At any rate, it would be possible that all a spola is is a pair of skins worn as a garment hanging from the shoulder, but I can make the opposite argument and say "that's how it started" but as the tube-and yoke came into being, it got the name "spola." for fairly obvious reasons.

Here is the LJ entry for Spola and Stole, which appear to be the same word in different dialects. Has this been discussed before? because Stole is a very interesting word. See the following...

stol-ê , hê, Aeol. spola (q.v.): ( [stellô] ):--

A. equipment, fitting out, stratou A.Supp.764 .

2. armament, Id.Pers.1018 (lyr.).

II. equipment in clothes, raiment, ib.192; schêma Hellados s. S.Ph.224, cf. E.Heracl.130; hippada stolên enestalmenoi Hdt.1.80 ; s. hippikê Ar.Ec.846 ; Skuthikê Hdt.4.78 ; Thrêikia E.Rh.313 ; Mêdikê X.Cyr.8.1.40 ; gunaikeia Ar.Th.851 , cf. 92; toxikê Pl.Lg.833b ; stolên echein ên am boulêtai SIG1003.14 (Priene, ii B.C.): metaph. of birds, s. pterôn Ach.Tat.1.15 .

2. garment, robe, S.OC1357,1597, PCair.Zen.54.32 (pl.), 263.4,8 (iii B.C.), BGU1860.4 (i B.C.), etc.; s. thêros, of the lion's skin which Heracles wore, E.HF465; en s. peripatein in full dress, M.Ant.1.7 (v.l. -liôi ap.Suid.), cf. Ev.Marc.12.38.

3. act of dressing, meta tên s. Orib.Syn.5.21.

Red emphasis is mine...

Indeed there is support, ancient and modern for this, and I too subscribe to the idea that the word originated with the word for 'skin' garment, then 'leather', and finally a 'leather' Tube-and-Yoke, which is what Xenophon seems to say. One should note that the skin of the Nemean Lion, worn by Herakles, was also his 'armour' which made him invulnerable, because the pelt was completely weapon-proof.

This has been posted before, but is worth repeating. Pollux' Onomastikon is NOT the only ancient lexicon which refers to 'spolas'. There is also this:

Hesychios lexicon (sigma 1542)

spolas: khitoniskos bathus skutinos; ho bursinos thorax

"little thick leathern chiton; the leathern thorax"
(skutinos= animal skin generally; bursinos = dressed leather, or alum tawed - the root is connected to shoemaking)

....which goes to show that the word referred originally to "skin/leather garment", and later came to mean "leather T-and-Y corselet/body armour".

Connected to this is the fact that 'stolas'/'spolas' are Attic/Doric dialects of the same word ( originally from the root 'stello' = garment). Interestingly, Xenophon, writing in Attic dialect, uses the Doric form 'spolas' when referring to Greek body armour, implying perhaps that the Doric form of the word was used to specifically refer to body armour as opposed to the more general Attic form 'stolas' for "leather garment"?

Apparently there are many examples for the use of a general term from one dialect for a specific item in another.

P.S.: trivia point: in modern English ( doubtless derived from the Greek) 'stole' means:
1. a garment of (usually) fur/animal skin worn over the shoulders ( like the 'Tube' of a 'Tube-and-Yoke')
2. a narrow cloth strip worn over the shoulders by priests/clergy during a service.
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Re: Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas - by Paullus Scipio - 03-12-2009, 11:50 PM

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