Greek half-kneeling archers

[Alanus]

Martin,

I really wonder how historically accurate that drawing is, ei stringing the bow with a bent-legged stance. For one thing, the archer would lose his balance; and secondly, no archer in his right mind would stick one end of his bow in the dirt and then lean heavily enough upon it to string it. It takes a lot of pressure to string a war-bow. This would be an excellent method of damaging the tip of the weapon. We have a lot of various-accurate illustrations of bow-stringing methods (Scythian, Mongol, Korean), and none of these show the archer with one bow-end jabbed into the ground.

Just something to ponder.