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Quote:No other helmet style that I've come across in any culture or era, or weapon unless quite deliberate, even remotely looks phallic. The corinthian does...look at it from the side as well as front, then look at a penis from the side and front. It's too coinicidental I think to be simply chance. They could have easily made that ridge on the corinthian style of helmet a different shape, but it's not. Short of doing a line drawing of a penis side by side with a corinthian, I don't know how else to make my point...errrr...you know what i mean. lol
But I would like to know then just how much the greeks put into phallic symbols and the like...especially concerning warfare. If you think about it, the penis is the ultimate symbol of manhood. Warfare could be considered the ulitmate test of this manhood. Doesn't seem like a far stretch to me to put the 2 together.
Or maybe it's just coincidence that the shape of a helmet that follows the shape of the head and continues down to protect the face is shaped like the head of a penis?
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Quote:In all honesty I wouldn't know how to start such a paper anyway!
It's a good thing I'm getting old and exercising more restraint than before, or I'd give you some tips...
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Well Matt, you are not the only one to notice this! Perhaps we Canadians are a little weird? :lol: :lol:
I have often erased drawings I made of corinthians from memory, thinking, "damn. I must have some sort of phallic obsession" :? lol:
It is the only one that this feature is so distinct in, and it must not have escaped the people who made them! Just look at some of the ancient art on vases to see how little sexual references bothered them! Today we are total prudes who think we are going to save our selves from something if we ignor the reality of things........ok, maybe I am being to political here, but I agree with you, anyway!
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Quote:Well Matt, you are not the only one to notice this! Perhaps we Canadians are a little weird? :lol: :lol:
I have often erased drawings I made of corinthians from memory, thinking, "damn. I must have some sort of phallic obsession" :? lol:
It is the only one that this feature is so distinct in, and it must not have escaped the people who made them! Just look at some of the ancient art on vases to see how little sexual references bothered them! Today we are total prudes who think we are going to save our selves from something if we ignor the reality of things........ok, maybe I am being to political here, but I agree with you, anyway!
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
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Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Quote:"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
-Sigmund Freud
Tell that to Monica Lewinsky...BAHAHAHAHA!
In anycase, it's an interesting observation...maybe someone will chime in about phallic symbols and warfare in greek culture...you have to admit though, it's a wierd design for that ridge of the helmet.
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Quote:MeinPanzer:3l7wavi5 Wrote:"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
-Sigmund Freud
Tell that to Monica Lewinsky...BAHAHAHAHA!
In anycase, it's an interesting observation...maybe someone will chime in about phallic symbols and warfare in greek culture...you have to admit though, it's a wierd design for that ridge of the helmet.
I really don't think so. It is a helmet in one of its most basic forms- the ancient Greeks wished to move beyond simple bowl-shaped helmets towards a helmet that protected the face but perhaps they did not yet have the widespread expertise to produce numerous helmets with articulated cheekpieces, so they followed the shape of the cranium and extended the bowl down along the bridge of the nose and to the sides of the face. It seems very natural to me; the existence of helmets beaten from a single sheet of metal which look like the glans is more a side effect of the shape of the protrusions on the human head and the necessity to protect them than any overt intentions on the part of the smiths who created it.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Yes I agree to a certain extent with what you say Ruben, but there were many forms they could have followed. The Greeks did not think twice about using sexual inuendo and symbolism.... And remember the probs caused for Alcibiadis when some one knocked the phallus's off the statues in Athens befor the Syracuse expedition.....
I think there was some intent on the part of the makers
As in, Run you Bastards, or I am going to F#$^ you with the Biggest one you have ever Been f@#^ed with in your miserable life...... :lol:
Hope that is not too overboard for the forum?
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I disagree Ruben, that entire ridge line doesn't conform with any shape of the skull that I know of. Any protrusions on the human head are accounted for...look at the face of the corinthian. My face, aside from my nose runs basically along the same plane...my forehead isn't 1 inch wider than say my cheek bones are, and any padding worn on the head will create the room needed for the ears. No, this is a stylistic choice.
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Could the ridge be a reinforcement of the shape?
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Possibly, but why midway down the helmet. If there was a need for reinforcing, you'd need it along the top for over-hand blows. Though the smoothness of the helmet itself probably lends a lot to deflecting shots.
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Because they are driven from very thin metal and this would protect against sideways blows? Just offering another solution. 
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Doesn't the ridge effectively add distance between the helmet and the wearer's head from the forehead upwards? It may have been packed with padding for all we know, which would still make it wearable and not too tight.
I know I could do so with my Corinthian helm. The phallic aspect may be a happy accident?
Since I saw that Alexander made a comment about the beard being excellent for grabbing the enemy by, I suspect the main point of the extended cheeks is to stop exactly that, and not so much to protect the face.
Does the Chalcidian tie in with Greeks losing their beards?
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True, but then why not just increase the size all together? That would seem easier than creating that ridge line...or adding something to the helmet to increase it's defensive properites.
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Quote:Does the Chalcidian tie in with Greeks losing their beards?
Nope. The Corinthian and the "Chalcidic" are synchronous in time.
So for aperiod is the "Illyric".
The point though with th Corinthians is that some have the phallic design and some are totaly rounded.
And yes Peter Raftos offered evidence for the padding.
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Quote:True, but then why not just increase the size all together? That would seem easier than creating that ridge line...
With the eyeholes being further forward, visibility would be greatly reduced? Lifted up onto the top of the head the helmet would slide down or fall off? (I can raise my corinthian up on top of my head. A bit wobbly, but it stays there)
Quote:Nope. The Corinthian and the "Chalcidic" are synchronous in time.
So for aperiod is the "Illyric"....And yes Peter Raftos offered evidence for the padding.
Thanks Stefanos.
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