Boar's tusk helmet
The boar's tusk helmet is a type of military headwear used in Mycenaean Greece.[1][2] The helmet was made of ivory from a boar's tusks and attached in rows onto a leather base padded with felt.
Homeric epic
A description of a boar's tusk helmet appears in the tenth book of Homer's Iliad where Odysseus is armed for a night-raid against the Trojans.
Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on his head. On the inside there was a strong lining on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had been sewn in. The outside was cleverly adorned all around with rows of white tusks from a shiny-toothed boar, the tusks running in alternate directions in each row.
Μηριόνης δ' Ὀδυσῆϊ δίδου βιὸν ἠδὲ φαρέτρην
καὶ ξίφος, ἀμφὶ δέ οἱ κυνέην κεφαλῆφιν ἔθηκε
ῥινοῦ ποιητήν: πολέσιν δ' ἔντοσθεν ἱμᾶσιν
ἐντέτατο στερεῶς: ἔκτοσθε δὲ λευκοὶ ὀδόντες
ἀργιόδοντος ὑὸς θαμέες ἔχον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα
εὖ καὶ ἐπισταμένως: μέσσῃ δ' ἐνὶ πῖλος ἀρήρει.
— Homer, Iliad 10.260–5
The number of ivory plates needed to make a helmet ranges from 40 to 140.[3] Also, around forty to fifty boars would have to be killed to make just one helmet.[4]
Gallery
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Boar's tusk helmet displayed in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
References
Citations
- ↑ Rutter 1996, Lesson 16: The Shaft Graves
- ↑ Komita 1982, pp. 59–70.
- ↑ Kilian-Dirlmeier 1997, p. 46.
- ↑ Everson 2004, pp. 9–10.
Sources
- Everson, Tim (2004). Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great. Brimscombe Port: The History Press. ISBN 9780752495064.
- Kilian-Dirlmeier, Imma, ed. (1997). Das mittelbronzezeitliche Schachtgrab von Αegina. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. ISBN 9783805319928.
- Komita, Nobuo (1982). "The Grave Circles at Mycenae and the Early Indo-Europeans" (pdf). Research Reports of Ikutoku Technical University (A-7): 59–70.
- Rutter, Jeremy B. (1996). "Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean". Trustees of Dartmouth College and the Foundation of the Hellenic World. Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
Further reading
- Mödlinger, Marianne (2013). "From Greek Boar's-Tusk Helmets to the First European Metal Helmets: New Approaches on Development and Chronology". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 32 (4): 391–412. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12021.
