Ancient Greek Armor: Shields, Helmets and 30-Kilogram Panoply | Early European History And Religion

ANCIENT GREEK ARMOR

Ancient Greek armor with a cuirass for the torso and greaves for the legs

For protection Greek warriors wore an armored helmet and breastplates and carried a three-foot-across round shield called a “ hoplon”. Greek soldiers supplied their own armor: bronze helmet with nose and cheek pieces, breastplate, greaves (for the arms and legs below the knee), a heavy shield made of bronze or wood reinforced with iron, circular or elliptical, attached to the left arm, The armor, which together weighed up to 32 kilograms (70 pounds), protected them from cavalry charges and archers.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:: Hoplites “were characteristically equipped with about seventy pounds of armor, most of which was made of bronze. The typical panoply...and bronze armor consisting of a helmet, cuirass (chest armor), greaves (shin guards), and a large shield about thirty inches in diameter. The heavy bronze shield, which was secured on the left arm and hand by a metal band on its inner rim, was the most important part of a hoplite's panoply, as it was his chief defense.” [Source: Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2000, metmuseum.org \^/]

The defensive armour of the infantry consisted of helmet, cuirass greaves and shield. In all essentials this was the armour of the heavy-armed soldiers of the Homeric and historic periods; with a few modifications in the centuries which followed Homer. As a rule, soldiers began by putting the greaves on first, as it would have been difficult to bend the body after putting on the cuirass, and we see this rule observed in most old works of art, though there are some exceptions. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

Materials Used to Make Ancient Greek Armor

Bronze was arguably the most import material used to make Ancient Greek armor. Caroline Alexander wrote in National Geographic: Bronze is harder than copper, harder indeed than iron. Bronze armor — helmets for the head, shields and breastplates for the body, greaves for the shins — were a warrior’s best chance of protection against the bronze-hard weapons he would encounter on the battlefield. [Source: Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, February 20, 2021]

Bone, hooves and wood were also used to make weapons armor.The earliest armor was made hides or fabric, such as linen, that was quilted for strength. A 14-layer linen fragment has been found that dates back to the 16th century B.C. Some soldiers were buried wearing a helmet and a golden mask. Rigid scale armor made from metal, bone, wood or cir boulilli (leather made hard by boiling in wax) was used by the ancients Greeks and Romans. Detailed descriptions of armor from the Greek and Roman period have survived but actual pieces of armor are very rare. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

Pausanias wrote in “Description of Greece”, Book I: Attica (A.D. 160): Among the votive offerings there is a Sauromatic breast plate. On seeing this a man will say that no less than Greeks are foreigners skilled in the arts. For the Sauromatae have no iron, neither mined by them selves nor yet imported. They have, in fact, no dealings at all with the foreigners around them. To meet this deficiency they have contrived inventions.

Their breastplates they make in the following fashion. Each man keeps many mares, since the land is not divided into private allotments, nor does it bear any thing except wild trees, as the people are nomads. These mares they not only use for war, but also sacrifice them to the local gods and eat them for food. Their hoofs they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were python scales. Whoever has never seen a python must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. He will not be mistaken if he liken the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates that are as handsome and strong as those of the Greeks. For they can withstand blows of missiles and those struck in close combat.[1.21.7] Linen breastplates are not so useful to fighters, for they let the iron pass through, if the blow be a violent one. They aid hunters, how ever, for the teeth of lions or leopards break off in them. You may see linen breastplates dedicated in other sanctuaries, notably in that at Gryneum, where there is a most beautiful grove of Apollo, with cultivated trees, and all those which, although they bear no fruit, are pleasing to smell or look upon.

20-Kilogram Dendra Panoply and What It like to Wear It

Dendra panoply, from 1400 BC

The most famous example of Mycenaean armor was called the Dendra panoply or Dendra armour. Dated to the late Mycenaean period (c. 1450–1400 B.C.) and uncovered in the village of Dendra in the Argolid, Greece, it was a full-body armor made of bronze plates and comprised of body cuirass, shoulder guards, breast plates, and lower protection plates. It was flexible and comfortable enough to be used for fighting on foot. Pieces of similar armor have been unearthed in Thebes, Mycenae, Phaistos and Troy. [Source Wikipedia]

A complete Dendra Panoply weighed 18 to 23 kilograms (40 to 51 pounds) and consisted of 15 separate pieces of bronze sheet, held together with leather thongs, that encased the wearer from neck to knees. The panoply included both greaves and lower arm-guards. The arm-guard was unique but greaves, probably made of linen, were often depicted in late Mycenaean art.

The panoply's cuirass consisted of two pieces, for the chest and back. These were joined on the left side by a hinge. There was a bronze loop on the right side of the front plate and a similar loop on each shoulder. Large shoulder guards fit over the cuirass. Two triangular plates were attached to the shoulder guards and gave protection to the wearer's armpits when his arms were in the raised position. There was also a deep neck guard.

In modern Greece, researchers have put soldiers to work recreating what it was like wearing 23-kilograms of armor 3,500 years ago. Amanda Holpuch wrote in the New York Times: One by one, Greek soldiers, bellies full from a breakfast of red wine and dry bread, armed and clad themselves in a bulky, buglike suit of armor as they prepared for battle. They aimed their spears at wooden targets, and their chariot was connected to a treadmill motor, but for 11 hours, these elite soldiers from the Hellenic Armed Forces pretended to fight as if it was the 15th century B.C. [Source By Amanda Holpuch, New York Times, June 7, 2024]

Ancient Greek Cuirasses

The cuirass of the heroic and historic periods is shorter than that which was customary with the Romans, but still descends far enough to cover the greater part of the body below, and may be seen on works of art; but, as a rule, the massive parts do not extend below the waist, and there are movable lappets attached to it to protect the parts below. The cuirass was generally made of bronze, and consisted of two plates, one of which covered the breast, the other the back, and these were fastened together at the lower edges, and also below and above the shoulders by buckles or other fastenings. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

Greek bronze muscle cuirass (370–340 BC) was made to fit the wearer's torso and designed to mimic an idealized male human physique; it first appeared in late Archaic Greece and became widespread throughout the 5th and 4th centurie BC

In later times, shoulder-pieces were added, which are not mentioned in Homer; these were fastened to the back, and when the cuirass was put on drawn from there over the shoulder, and made firm in front with little chains or cords to rings or hooks. In another image, the man on the right, who is putting on his armour, has already drawn on his cuirass; the two shoulder-pieces are still open, and he is just on the point of pulling the right shoulder-piece forward, in order to fasten it there to the front piece of his cuirass. In one image, a heroic genre picture, we see this more clearly. Here Achilles bandages the arm of the wounded. Patroclus; the right shoulder-piece of Patroclus is fastened, but the left is opened in order not to hurt the wounded arm. The mode in which the shoulder-pieces were fastened to the cuirass is very clearly represented in the figure of Amphiaraus, a vase painting representing the “Farewell of Amphiaraus.”

The warriors wear scale armour; the cuirasses are evidently made of leather, covered with little brass plates, arranged one over another like scales. Some parts of the cuirasses seem also to be made of plates; for instance, the girdle of Achilles and a strip behind, also the upper part of the breast-plate of Patroclus; the shoulder-pieces, however, are made of scales, for flexibility was of special importance here. The belly was protected by leather strips or lappets, covered with metal, hanging down at the lower edge of the cuirass, and covering part of the thighs. The cuirass was generally fastened round the hips by a leathern belt, with brass coverings; perhaps this is the object which the boy is offering to the warrior putting on his armour.

Below the cuirass they wore a short chiton woven of especially strong threads, and frequently mentioned by Homer as twisted or woven; the sleeves were usually cut short, falling a little way below the shoulders, and it only descended over part of the thighs. Homer also makes mention of a broad girdle, plated with brass, worn immediately over the chiton in such a manner that the upper part of the girdle was covered by the cuirass, while the lower was exposed. This girdle seems to have fallen into disuse soon after the Homeric age, for we can find no trace of it on any works of art. The linen tunics mentioned in Homer, which became commoner in later times, were probably woven of strong thread, and covered with brass at the most exposed places.

Types of Ancient Greek Cuirasses

There were two kinds of cuirass: those with stiff plates, and those with scales. In the former, those plates are commonest which do not fit closely to the body, but only roughly represent its shape; of this kind are the cuirasses of the warriors in two images, and also that of Amphiaraus. In another image taken from a bowl painted by Duris, the youth who is going to battle receives a cuirass of this kind. Sometimes this cuirass was made in a shape common among the Romans, imitating the form of the human body and representing its chief features. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

The earliest Greek cuirass consisted of two curved bronze plates laced together at the sides. It reached to the waist and turned up around the edges so as not to hurt the wearer. The Dodona statuette shows this cuirass, and an Italic example belongs to the same general type, though it is longer and the lower part is slightly curved out to follow the line of the hips. This heavy and uncomfortable piece of armor was superseded in Greece in the fifth century by a cuirass made of leather or cloth upon which bronze scales were sewn. It was provided with shoulder-straps and a cloth or leather kilt reinforced with strips of metal hung below the corselet proper. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]

The earlier cuirass continued to be used in Italy, but in an improved form; the bronze plates, being moulded to follow the curves of the body, made a more comfortable as well as a beautiful piece of armor. In some parts of Italy a substitute for the cuirass was found in the use of a breastplate made of leather on which bronze disks were sewn. An armored belt accompanied the breastplate. On a krater from South Italy is a warrior wearing such a belt.The small holes along the edges are for sewing in a lining.

Ancient Greek Helmets

Mycenaean-era Boar tusk helmet The helmet, which, even in the earliest ages, took the place of the original head-covering of skin, was usually of bronze, and, according to the statements of Homer and originals still existing, was of three thicknesses, strongest in the middle, with a thinner layer above and below. The chief part of the helmet fitted close to the head like a cap, and covered forehead and temples; in front it hung down in two separate pieces over the cheeks; there were two openings for the eyes between the nose-piece and cheek-pieces. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

In ancient times the skull cap and cheek-pieces were made of a single piece, as we see on the ancient Greek helmets from Olympia and Sardinia, represented in two images; these are also provided with nose-pieces, so that not much could be recognised of the warrior who was covered in this way. The helmet acquired an additional protection by a ridge extending over the middle of the skull cap from the back of the head to the forehead, in which the crest was fastened; there were also helmets with two ridges to increase the resisting power, and this then had two crests. Very often the crest, which was of great size, was not fastened directly into the ridge, but connected with it by means of a tall, narrow elevation, so that it towered high above the helmet. The vase painting represented in shows helmets of this kind belonging to two warriors who are playing draughts; one of them has taken off his helmet and placed it on the shield beside him; the other keeps his on, but has raised the part over the forehead; the shape resembles the originals represented in two images.

Sometimes the crest was fastened straight into the skullcap without any ridge in the helmet belonging to the warrior on the right. In later times, many changes took place in the shape of helmets; the nose-piece and cheek-pieces were sometimes flexible and sometimes stiff, but of a different shape; thus the helmet of Achilles has the stiff forehead and nose-piece, but the cheek-pieces move on a hinge, and for the sake of comfort the hero has turned them upwards. Of the three helmets, the one on the ground on the right seems also to have movable cheek-pieces, but there is no nose-piece, and only a protection for the forehead, which could probably also be pushed back; the two others have stiff nose-and cheek-pieces in one with the skull cap, but the cheek-pieces are not pointed, as was usually the case in the older kind, but rounded off.

There was usually also a protecting piece for the neck, as may be seen on many other pictures. Works of art show manifold ways of decorating the helmets. Sometimes they made them in the shape of a human face, imitating the lines of the forehead, eyebrows, etc., in bronze. Curiously enough, this mask form was sometimes transferred even to the back of the helmetrepresenting the death of Memnon, where the long hair of the warrior descends below the helmet, though this may have been due to a mistake on the part of the artist; another point of interest about this helmet is its two crests. Besides these high and usually splendid helmets, the simple cap-shaped helmets were also extant in later times, and these were strengthened by ridges or plates of brass nailed on them; such is the helmet worn by Amphiaraus. To prevent excessive pressure on the head, they usually wore a close-fitting cap below it, as we see in the case of Patroclus.

Types of Ancient Greek Helmets

Corinthian helmetThe earliest Greek helmets were of the type called Corinthian because Athena is represented in this helmet on the coins of Corinth. It formed a complete covering for the head, having openings only for the eyes and mouth. A nose-piece extends downward from the top. Holes for attaching a leather or cloth lining may be seen along the edges of some of the oldest examples. In the later helmets, the shape has improved and the workmanship is finer. These helmets must have been worn over a cap, as there are no holes for sewing in the lining. One example has three small loops for attaching the crest, which was generally made of horsehair. When not in battle the wearer pushed the helmet back until the front rested on his forehead. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]

The Corinthian helmet had the great disadvantage of covering the ears and its shape probably caused it to be easily displaced. An improved form known as the Attic appears during the sixth century. This helmet was lighter than the Corinthian, fitted the head better, and had openings for the ears. The cheek-pieces were often provided with hinges and could be turned upwards and away from the face; on a large amphora a young warrior is holding a beautiful Attic helmet with cheek-pieces which seem to be hinged.

Both the Corinthian and the Attic helmet continued in use at the same time, but the Attic type gradually superseded the other. Two helmets shaped like the pilos or felt cap worn by workmen show a Greek type of the fifth and fourth centuries. One of them 1541) has holes for attaching a crest. The other helmets in the collection are Italic or Etruscan. An Italian helmet reinforced by bands in relief is of the same type as those in the British Museum which were found on the battle-field of Cannae.

Ancient Greek Greaves

The greaves were half-bent plates of brass, lined within with leather or wool; they had to be elastic, because they were bent outwards in putting on, and by means of their elasticity they clung to the leg, the front of which they covered, extending above the knee; still, there must have been a ring round the ankle to hold them fast, and perhaps there was another fastening above. Pictures from a painted bowl with red figures, we see on the right a young warrior stooping down to put on one of his greaves, which he is bending outwards for this purpose; contrary to the usual custom, the youth has already put on the cuirass and chlamys over his chiton. In one image, the inner picture of a drinking cup, representing the murder of Dolon, the Greek hero Diomede wears greaves, on which we can clearly recognise the ring below. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

Greaves were characteristic features of a Greek soldier’s equipment. The pair of greaves on display show how their shape and elasticity caused them to stay in place on the leg. One pair of greaves has holes along the edges for sewing in a lining. On the upper part of a loutrophoros is a warrior wearing greaves of which the lining can be seen in a ridge around the foot.[Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]

Ancient Greek Shields

Greek greaves from 500 BC

Shields were a necessary part of the defensive armor of ancient times, but remains of them are very scanty. Scenes of arming and of combat, however, are so frequent in Greek and Roman art that we are acquainted with their general appearance. Greek shields were usually circular or oval in shape, and made of wooden frames covered with hides and reinforced with bronze. The rim and a large boss in the center were the most essential metal parts, but the entire surface might be covered with bronze, or plates of various forms arranged upon it. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]

The large bronze plates seem to have been parts of shields. When using the shield as a defense the warrior thrust his left arm through the Loops in the inside, one of which was close to the rim at the left and another usually near the center of the shield; he held a third, which probably was stouter than the others, in his hand. The loops on the rim are shown in a painting on the amphora which stands on the pedestal in the Fifth Room, as well as the strap extending from side to side by which it was suspended around the wearer’s neck on the march.

As to the mode in which they were carried, we sometimes find two handles, both at a little distance from the center of which the inner side is visible; sometimes a crossbar extended over the whole inner breadth of the shield, through which the arm was thrust, while there were various straps at the edge which could be easily grasped, and which made it possible to go on using the shield even if one of these handles should have been torn off. There is a rather different contrivance in a different shield, of which we see the inner side; instead of one crossbar used as a diameter of the circle, there are three like radii meeting together in the center. Here, too, there were probably loops at the edge. Very often the shields were lined inside with colored materials, and decorated with tassels or cords; on small round shields we sometimes find a broad lappet of leather, or some such material, hanging down, to give the combatant a further protection for the lower part of his body. The coats of arms, which were very various and full of meaning, were either put on in relief like the head of a satyr in the center of a shield, or else inlaid of metal of another color, or nailed on. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

Types of Ancient Greek Shields

In the Homeric age, there were two chief kinds of shields: a small circular one, and an oval shield of almost human height. They were made of several layers of bull’s hide, sewn on the top of one another, and covered, as a rule, on the outer side, with bronze. As the diameter of the skins decreased from without to within, and the strength of the metal coverings decreased from the middle to the edge, the result was that the middle of the shield, which had to offer the greatest resistance, was also the strongest part; besides this, a boss or convex bronze plate, was also fixed in the center of the outer side, but in later times they put the coat of arms in its place. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

shield from Olympia

The smaller circular shield seems to have been carried by a double handle, through one part of which, in the middle of the hollow, the arm was thrust, while the other at the edge was clasped by the hand. This mode of carrying would be impossible for the large shields, and these must have been managed by a single handle, though we must not forget that these very heavy shields were also suspended from the body by straps. In later times, too, we find the round and oval shields still in use, but the latter were considerably diminished in size, which is very natural, since it must have been extremely inconvenient and troublesome in battle to carry these enormous shields. Both kinds were moderately vaulted, and had a somewhat projecting edge; the shields, both round and oval, often had two slits at the sides, the object of which was to enable the warrior to peep at the enemy from behind his shield, and also perhaps to send his spear through the opening; these slits may be recognised in the shields.

The shield of the Greek soldier bore the device of his state, as the Koppa of Corinth, which was painted on the shields of her citizen-warriors. Interesting devices, frequently animals’ heads, were adopted like coats of arms by Greek nobles, and many of these can be seen on vases of the sixth century. An amphora shows shields decorated with the heads of a bull and a boar. The Dodona warrior carried the so-called Boeotian shield which has depressions in the middle of each side. Various explanations are given of the origin of this form; a probable one is that it results from stretching a hide over an oval frame on which the top and bottom were fastened firmly while the sides were left free and were naturally drawn in by the pull from both ends. Another possibility is that the shield was cut out at the sides to provide peep-holes. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2024