[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

I'm sure they are all throwing their spears, simultaneously! They are also not fighting in a phalanx, it is three sets of single combat! We should surely dismiss the depiction...
[/URL]

By the way this is the battle over the body of Patroclus, who fell in the heat of battle, and a fierce close combat broke over his body.
Notice the man deep on the right side, he is drawing his sword, possibly he opted for throwing his spear or it broke. It is not necessary that all the others will do the same.

This now is the Siphnian treasure, it shows dozens of hoplites, the hoplites are the Titans, typically shown as a phalanx in iconography. There is not one underhand grip by them.





But lets not forget the Nereid monument, constructed 120 years later, and shows hundreds of soldiers, among which some rare footage of phalanx fighting.