THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

'
:* Then
THE HOMERIC AGE. 317
when we see this transition style at Tiryns bearing on it men
with round shields, we are led to conclude that the form of
shield is Achean and not Mycenean. If the tradition of the
Achean conquest
is true, it would have been strange if no trace
of the Achean domination, brief though it was, had come to
light.
But in the warrior vase and the painted stele from
Mycenae, and the fragment from Tiryns with figures clad in
true Homeric fashion,, we have complete confirmation of the
literary evidence. Here we see the Mycenean craftsman working
under the influence of his new masters. Later on we shall
find the conquered Illyrians adopting the arms and dress of the
Celts who conquered them, and we need not feel any difficulty
in believing that the native Argives gradually adopted the
accoutrements and dress of the warrior race who had entered
in, although they retained their own language
and customs
with but slight modifications, as did also the Illyrians subject
to the Celts. But the ancient fashion of armature would
probably long be retained by the less wealth}- Argives, as it
certainly was by the Arcadians and Messenians (p. 824).
A drastic method of harmonizing the culture of Mycenae
and Homer is
employed by ]3r Reichel', who was followed in
this country by Dr Leaf-, Prof Piatt', Prof Bury^ Mr A. J.
Evans", Mr J. L. Myres, and others. This method is simple, and
has good ancient precedent, for it was that pi'acti.sed on hapless
travellers by
Pn^crustcs the mbbcr. The miscreant laid his
captive on a bed to which he fitted all alike, either by lopping
off with an a.xe the superfluous jjortifjus of a large man, or in
the case of a small nne by racking and sti'etching him. Dr
Reichel made a Procrustean l)e(l
of the Bronze Age of Mycenae,
placed Homer on it, and finding that tliere were many parts
which hung over the e.xtreunties of the eoueh pi'oceeded to lr>p
them off" as vigorously as Proci'iistes himself E\erv passage in
'
Vchcr IIoiii. Will} I'll (lrt'.i4).
As tla-sti l)aKes are beiiiK piintctl off, I Icani
witli dct'i) regret thf t-iirly deiith of tliis hiilli;uit iiicliaei)lo),'ist.
-
(7a>-.v. lliv., is'.t.-,, p. r,r, sq,!. ; Leaf and 15aytit'lil, Ilia>l, Hks i. xii.. \\'[).;
Leaf, Iliad, Vol. i., -.'iid ed. ll'.KMl), -S-pp.
*
Class. Her., is'.ltl, pp. :?7i; ^
>7,/.
77/,' Sati,,ii.il /,','r., Is'.Mi, pp. XW It.
.\ddifss to Aiithinp. Section of lirit. .Vss.. isitC. M. 'SLxii and rcrrot and
Chipicz (Vol. VII. pp. _'.")S -;i| aNo follow licicliel.
318 THE HOMERIC AGE.
the poems, which contained a reference to any kind of armour
which has not been found in the graves of Mycenae, was
ruthlessly hacked off as a late interpolation.
The Breastplate. As no bronze breastplate had been
found in the tombs, so whenever the word thorex occurred, the
line was usually denounced as a late addition.
Yet, as the word
often appears in those parts of the Iliad which the critics hold
to be the earliest stratum of the poem, another explanation had
to be sought
for.
Accordingly Reichel and his followers maintain
that, whilst many passages in which thorex undoubtedly
means a corselet are later interpolations, when the same term
is met in really old parts of the Iliad, it is a general term
meaning the whole defensive armour. This he endeavours to
support by quoting the verb doyprjcraeadai, ' to arm oneself.'
But the verb must be a derivative from the noun thorex, and it
is contrary to experience to find that the general
sense of a
word such as thorex is the earlier, and that later on it is
narrowed into a particular meaning. There is no evidence that
in any Greek dialect at any time thorex was used as a collective
noun. As the Mycenean warrior had no defensive armour
except his shield, the tJiorex, accoi'ding to Reichel, in the
oldest passages
is practically the shield. But the Homeric
stiident naturally asks how does Reichel explain the fact that
'
the Acheans are regularly termed bronze-shirted '
(xaXKoxt-
Tfoi/e? 'A%atot), an epithet which has always been regarded as
referring to the fact that they w^ore a bronze thorex. Reichel
boldly replies that the epithet merely i-efers to the great shields
of the Mycenean warriors, and that to the poet's eye the ranks
of shieldbearing heroes would look as if they were shirted in
brotjze. But, as no bronze shields have been found in the
tombs, and it has been therefore inferred that the Mycenean
shield was made of ox-hide, how could such shields as these appeal'
as glittering shirts of bronze to even a ])oet's eye rolling in
tine fi-enzy
we naturally ask why the ])oet should describe
a shield as a shirt, for all the Homeric epithets are accurate