05-09-2007, 05:04 PM
Team,
The generic noun for a piece of armour which covers the trunk in Classical Greek is thôrax in the Attic dialect, thorrax in the Aeolic dialect and thôrêx in the Epic and Ionic dialects of Greek. While Homer’s language is somewhat artificial and poetic he uses this term frequently and makes the distinction between different types of thorakes.
In the Illiad he makes these distinctions
thôrax chalkeos a bronze thorax Il.23.560
thôrax panaiolos a gleaming thorax Il.11.374
thôrax poludaidalos a richly wrought thorax Il. 4.136
linothôrax a linen thorax Il.2.529,
linothôrax a linen thorax Il.2. 830;
Using the Perseus Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Greek-English Lexicon and searching for the word thôrax we find that it appears 197 times in their holdings of Greek texts (46 times in poetry and in 151 times in prose.) There are 25 Greek texts where the word appears regularly in conjunction with the word lineos. Some of these no doubt are classical:
Herodotus Histories 2:182:
Moreover, Amasis dedicated offerings in Hellas. He gave to Cyrene a gilt image of Athena and a painted picture of himself; to Athena of Lindus, two stone images and a marvellous linen thoreka (thôrêka lineon);
Herodotus Histories 3:47:
The Lacedaemonians then equipped and sent an army to Samos, returning a favor, as the Samians say, because they first sent a fleet to help the Lacedaemonians against Messenia; but the Lacedaemonians say that they sent this army less to aid the Samians in their need than to avenge the robbery of the bowl which they had been carrying to Croesus and the thorekos which Amasis King of Egypt had sent them as a gift. [2] This thoreka had been stolen by the Samians in the year before they took the bowl; it was of linen, decked with gold and cotton embroidery, and embroidered with many figures; [3] but what makes it worthy of wonder is that each thread of the thorekos, fine as each is, is made up of three hundred and sixty strands, each plainly seen. It is the exact counterpart of that one which Amasis dedicated to Athena in Lindus.
Aristophanes in his play Peace at line 1224 uses thorax like this
dekamnoun thôrêkos kutos a thorax worth ten mina Ar.Pax1224
Enter an armorer, followed by other personages who represent the various specialized trades which have profited by the war, a crest-maker, a seller of thorakes (Thôrakopôlês), a trumpet-maker, a helmet-maker, a polisher of lances; each carries a sample of his products.
Thôrakopôlês
Good gods, what am I going to do with this fine ten-mina thôrêkos, which is so splendidly made?
Again we find in Aristophanes, Acharnians line 1133 ; the word thoraka.
In Pausanias, Description of Greece (Phôkika, Lokrôn Ozolôn) we find this description:
In the picture is an altar, to which a small boy clings in terror. On the altar lies a bronze corselet (thôrax …chalkous) . At the present day corselets ( thôrakôn ) of this form are rare, but they used to be worn in days of old. They were made of two bronze pieces, one fitting the chest and the parts about the belly, the other intended to protect the back.
Perhaps the most telling quote is Alcaeus the poet’s use of the word
thorrakes neô linô thorakes of new linen Alc. 8. (Fr. 140)
Lets add the new evidence of the fragment from Sophocles, Epigoni which
includes the lines:
Speaker B: "And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep."
Xenophon in the Anabasis mentions the spolas ( spolas = Aeolic for Attic stolê) and thorax together when equipping a unit of slingers and cavalry. The implication here is that the spolas is a type of protective garment for slingers.
... in the course of that night a company of two hundred slingers was organized, while on the following day horses and horsemen to the number of fifty were examined and accepted, and jerkins (spolades) and cuirasses (thôrakes) were provided for them;
From this dip sample of the literature we have learned that there are both bronze and linen thorakes described. Where are the mentions of leather ones? Of the 80 or more words that are used for leather or leathern none seem to be ever used in conjunction with thorakes.
The generic noun for a piece of armour which covers the trunk in Classical Greek is thôrax in the Attic dialect, thorrax in the Aeolic dialect and thôrêx in the Epic and Ionic dialects of Greek. While Homer’s language is somewhat artificial and poetic he uses this term frequently and makes the distinction between different types of thorakes.
In the Illiad he makes these distinctions
thôrax chalkeos a bronze thorax Il.23.560
thôrax panaiolos a gleaming thorax Il.11.374
thôrax poludaidalos a richly wrought thorax Il. 4.136
linothôrax a linen thorax Il.2.529,
linothôrax a linen thorax Il.2. 830;
Using the Perseus Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Greek-English Lexicon and searching for the word thôrax we find that it appears 197 times in their holdings of Greek texts (46 times in poetry and in 151 times in prose.) There are 25 Greek texts where the word appears regularly in conjunction with the word lineos. Some of these no doubt are classical:
Herodotus Histories 2:182:
Moreover, Amasis dedicated offerings in Hellas. He gave to Cyrene a gilt image of Athena and a painted picture of himself; to Athena of Lindus, two stone images and a marvellous linen thoreka (thôrêka lineon);
Herodotus Histories 3:47:
The Lacedaemonians then equipped and sent an army to Samos, returning a favor, as the Samians say, because they first sent a fleet to help the Lacedaemonians against Messenia; but the Lacedaemonians say that they sent this army less to aid the Samians in their need than to avenge the robbery of the bowl which they had been carrying to Croesus and the thorekos which Amasis King of Egypt had sent them as a gift. [2] This thoreka had been stolen by the Samians in the year before they took the bowl; it was of linen, decked with gold and cotton embroidery, and embroidered with many figures; [3] but what makes it worthy of wonder is that each thread of the thorekos, fine as each is, is made up of three hundred and sixty strands, each plainly seen. It is the exact counterpart of that one which Amasis dedicated to Athena in Lindus.
Aristophanes in his play Peace at line 1224 uses thorax like this
dekamnoun thôrêkos kutos a thorax worth ten mina Ar.Pax1224
Enter an armorer, followed by other personages who represent the various specialized trades which have profited by the war, a crest-maker, a seller of thorakes (Thôrakopôlês), a trumpet-maker, a helmet-maker, a polisher of lances; each carries a sample of his products.
Thôrakopôlês
Good gods, what am I going to do with this fine ten-mina thôrêkos, which is so splendidly made?
Again we find in Aristophanes, Acharnians line 1133 ; the word thoraka.
In Pausanias, Description of Greece (Phôkika, Lokrôn Ozolôn) we find this description:
In the picture is an altar, to which a small boy clings in terror. On the altar lies a bronze corselet (thôrax …chalkous) . At the present day corselets ( thôrakôn ) of this form are rare, but they used to be worn in days of old. They were made of two bronze pieces, one fitting the chest and the parts about the belly, the other intended to protect the back.
Perhaps the most telling quote is Alcaeus the poet’s use of the word
thorrakes neô linô thorakes of new linen Alc. 8. (Fr. 140)
Lets add the new evidence of the fragment from Sophocles, Epigoni which
includes the lines:
Speaker B: "And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep."
Xenophon in the Anabasis mentions the spolas ( spolas = Aeolic for Attic stolê) and thorax together when equipping a unit of slingers and cavalry. The implication here is that the spolas is a type of protective garment for slingers.
... in the course of that night a company of two hundred slingers was organized, while on the following day horses and horsemen to the number of fifty were examined and accepted, and jerkins (spolades) and cuirasses (thôrakes) were provided for them;
From this dip sample of the literature we have learned that there are both bronze and linen thorakes described. Where are the mentions of leather ones? Of the 80 or more words that are used for leather or leathern none seem to be ever used in conjunction with thorakes.
Peter Raftos
