Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

238 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
Homer’s day, was highly ritualistic. Although mass engagements
occasionally take place, it is the individual encounters between
heroes such as Achilles and Hektor that account for most of the
action and that ultimately determine the outcome of the war. The
plot of The Iliad rests upon the premise that the prowess of a single
warrior like Achilles is such that his withdrawal from the battlefield
causes a complete reversal in the fortunes of the two sides. Likewise,
the death of Hektor at the end of the poem portends the destruction
of Troy, because Hektor was Troy’s most valiant defender.
Heroes only did battle with warriors of comparable rank and
fighting ability. They were seemingly oblivious to the possibility
of being struck by a stray arrow or a rock hurled by one of the
mob. Although usually conveyed to the battlefield in chariots, they
fought almost exclusively on foot. Their chariots remained parked
while the encounter was taking place, ready to provide a means
of escape if their owners were forced to retreat or when they went
in search of a new opponent. Having found a suitable opponent,
heroes revealed their identity and issued a challenge. Ritual insults
often preceded the exchange of blows. On rare occasions, combatants
might decline to fight with one another should they discover
that there existed a long-standing tie of friendship (xenia) between
their two families, because these ties were thought to override ethic
divisions. This happens in the case of the Greek Diomedes and the
Trojan Glaukos in The Iliad Book 6: after learning of each other’s
pedigree, the two men actually exchange armor with each other “so
that everyone will realize that our families have provided hospitality
for one another in days of yore” (230f.).
The armor described in the Homeric poems was made of bronze,
as is consistent with the Bronze Age context of the Trojan War. It comprised
greaves (leg guards), a corselet, and a helmet with a crest of
horsehair. There was also a special kind of helmet worn by a few
warriors made of ox hide, to which were attached plates made of
boar’s tusk. Shields were made of ox hide stretched over a wooden
frame. The most common type of shield was small and round. Ajax,
however, who was the tallest of the Greek warriors, had a rectangular
shield with a rising curve on its top edge. Heroes fought mainly with
a pair of throwing spears or a single thrusting spear, though, at close
quarters, they also used the sword, frequently described as “silverstudded.”
The bow and arrow were chiefly limited to the common
soldiery and to a handful of heroes, including Paris and Odysseus.
The vanquished warrior, if not killed outright, typically offered
the victor a ransom in order to spare his life. If the victor rejected
his appeal, he might follow up the killing with an attempt to strip