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

'
Head,
THE ROUND SHIELD. 475
476 THE ROUND SHIELD.
with central boss for the indigenous oblong scutum, so too, as it
appears, did the Gauls.
heroes is that of the Dipylou vases." This armour "does not differ essentially
from that which was in use in the previous (Myceneau) period" (p. 258).
Eeichel's expulsion of the bronze helmet, greaves, and breastplate from
Homer suits M. Perrot very well. The graves of warriors in the Dipylon
cemetery produced an iron sword (Om. 48 long, Om. 6 in widest part), iron
lanceheads, iron daggers, blades, and both bipennes and single-headed axes of
the same metal, whilst there was not a fragment of helmet, breastplate, greaves,
or shield of metal. Perrot accordingly attempts to till the lacunae from the
pictures on the Dipylon vases. Those of the latter which appear older, show
shields and helmets like those on the Mycenean monuments, and no greaves or
breastplates are depicted. As the weapons found are of iron, in this respect
Perrot's theory fits the Homeric poems better than the Mycenean (Bronze Age)
hypothesis of Reichel. But though Perrot's doctrine may tit the poems as
hacked by Eeichel, it does not agree with the Homeric poems as they have
come down to us. It is easy to find a solution which both leaves Homer intact
and explains the armature found in the graves and depicted on the pottery of
the Dipylon cemetery. We saw (p. 824) that the Pelasgian Arcadians continued
to use their ancient armature, and did not don breastplate and greaves, or carry
round shields and long spears, until the time of Philopoemen. We need not
therefore be surprised if the Pelasgian. Athenians continued to use their ancient
armature down to the seventh century b.c. Indeed we should be just as much
justified in arguing that because the Mycenean armature was still in use in
Arcadia in the third century li.c, therefore the Homeric epic was composed only
in the fourth century h.c, as Perrot is in arguing that because the Athenian of
the eighth century is.c. still retained the Mycenean armature, therefore the
Iliad was only composed in the ninth century li.c. Such a method of arguing
is based on the false, though common assumption, that what holds true for one
district of Greece at any given time, holds e(iually true for every other part at
the same epoch
;
a fallacy pointed out on p. 207.
By holding that the shield of Achilles was rtiund, Perrot has got himself intt)
a hopeless tangle. For he thus postulates as Mycenean or Plioenician in shape
a round shield, though he admits tliat Reichel is right in saying that no such
round shields are to he found on .Mycenean monuments. He tlius assumes
that the round shield in one jiassage is not a late interpolation, but a survival
from an earlier time, yet he ])oints out that it is only towards the end of the
eiglith century is.c. that tlie vuinid shield bej^'ins to appear on tiie Dipylon
vases.
Furthermore he has failed to notice that wlien tiiese round shielils do appear
they are not furnished with i)os>