Hoplite Shield Designs

[hoplite14gr]

Well the 12 main Greek gods and the hundreds of minor onew are an more modern concept to provide a skeleton for study.
Each god used to have a "luminus" and a "dark" side. The cults evolved.
Initially there was the belief that all cults were of Eastern Origin but more recent studies question that.
The female goddess who represented the "mother nature" was evolving from the late neolithic age.
Bronze age seals depict a spear holding female form among two lions.
Perhaps this was the goddess from which the other cults evolved.
The change of "characteristics" and the "cults mingling" probably took place around 900 B.C.
Is is interesting Athena in the Doric dialect is "ATHANA" - ATHANATOS = Immortal.
In Ephesos there were coins with the deer of Artemis but are rare - (emblem of elite hoplites??????)

Kind regards