The Homeric Way of War: The<i>Iliad</i>and the Hoplite Phalanx (II)

Wees, Hans van

doi:10.1017/s0017383500023366

Cited by 88 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Many warriors on both sides used a waist-long cuirass made of several bronze plates covering the whole torso but leaving the neck exposed [12]. This can explain the high incidence of neck injuries on both sides.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

War trauma in Homer’s Iliad: a trauma registry perspective

Chicco

Tebala

2020

Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg

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Purpose Homer's Iliad reports detailed descriptions of war traumas, with precise anatomical references, so that the Iliad can be considered the first trauma registry. We aimed to analyse the Iliad from the perspective of a modern trauma registry: that is, to find historical and local prognostic factors through the epidemiological study of the reported traumas. Methods Two different editions of Homer's Iliad-one in English and one in Italian-were thoroughly studied and epidemiological data were statistically analysed. Results 148 reports of human traumas were analysed. The majority of traumas (73.6%) involved Trojan warriors, with spears being the most frequent wounding agent (71%). Overall mortality was 84.5% and was higher in the Trojan field (90.8% vs 61.5%). Despite the high mortality, median New Injury Severity Score (NISS) was low, probably due to high prevalence of penetrating mono-systemic trauma. Median NISS was higher in the Trojan group. Compared to the Achaeans, the Trojans had more torso injuries, whereas Achaeans had more injuries to limbs and superficial tissues. However, in both fields, head and neck were more frequently injured. Conclusions Homer's Iliad gives us an interesting insight into war traumas during the siege of Troy. The reported higher mortality within the Trojan army can be explained not only by poetic reasons but also by different military skills.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

War trauma in Homer’s Iliad: a trauma registry perspective

Chicco

Tebala

2020

Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg

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“…Men at that time probably ceased to carry swords and instead used spears, due to the fact that Greek warfare had now developed completely into hoplite warfare, whereby the more fence-oriented warfare had died out. Even for the Homeric heroes the spear was their main weapon, and unlike later European history where the sword has been the preferred mêlée weapon and still has a place in official parades featuring military officers, the spear completely took over this role in Greek warfare (van Wees, 1994: 133).…”

Section: Bearing Armsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The taming of the aristoi – an ancient Greek civilizing process?

Jørgensen

2014

History of the Human Sciences

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The aim of this article is to discuss how the increasing social control of violence and aggression, which characterized the period from the Archaic to the Classical Age in ancient Greece, can be explained as an Eliasian civilizing process. Particularly crucial for this development is the question of how the city-state’s distinctive urban-political structures were the locus of this civilizing process. Accordingly, it is argued that not only are Elias’s key concepts analytically relevant to the ancient Greek civilizing process, but also that they are to be reassessed in the light of the ancient Greek city-state culture. Thus, by the advancing of the argument that the civilizing process is not a uniquely western phenomenon, which occurred in western Europe from the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century, the analytical relevance of Elias is re-evaluated and augmented.

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“…In the north‐western Iberian Peninsula, we find types of combat that were typical of the Indo‐European cultural sphere: on the one hand, types of communal combat, such as the razzia , aimed at obtaining booty, mainly livestock, and which is referred to extensively in the Indo‐European myths concerning the raid in search of livestock (Lincoln 1991, 117–56); on the other, the appearance of warrior elites and the subsequent development of the ideological importance of warfare (Dumézil 1990), with the appearance of individual combat, as duels between champions. This type of combat is seen in mythical epic traditions and historical sources (Blaive 1991; 1993) in many Indo‐European populations, such as the Greeks (in Homer: Van Wees 1988; 1992; 1994; Archaic Period: Fernández Nieto 1975), the Romans (Oakley 1985; Lendon 2006, 231–2), the Celts (Brunaux 2004, 63–4; Rawlings 1996, 86–9) or the Germans (Osgood 1998, 82–3; Kristiansen 2002, 329).…”

Section: Individual Combat: Warfare and Social Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS: WARFARE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THE NORTH‐WESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA¹

García¹

2009

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary This article explores changes in the ‘art of warfare’ among societies in the north‐western Iberian Peninsula in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. These changes are interpreted as a manifestation of the transformation experienced by societies living in the region first from ‘warrior societies’ to ‘societies with warriors’ at the end of the Bronze Age and then back to ‘warrior societies’ in the Late Iron Age. Evidence of individual combat as a manifestation of ‘societies with warriors’ is analysed in the broader context of Indo‐European and ethnographical examples. It reflects societies in which there were groups specialized in warfare and represents the establishment, in the region, of an Indo‐European warrior ideology.

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The Homeric Way of War: TheIliadand the Hoplite Phalanx (II)

Cited by 88 publications

References 9 publications

War trauma in Homer’s Iliad: a trauma registry perspective

War trauma in Homer’s Iliad: a trauma registry perspective

The taming of the aristoi – an ancient Greek civilizing process?

BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS: WARFARE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THE NORTH‐WESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA¹

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The Homeric Way of War: TheIliadand the Hoplite Phalanx (II)

Cited by 88 publications

References 9 publications

War trauma in Homer’s Iliad: a trauma registry perspective

War trauma in Homer’s Iliad: a trauma registry perspective

The taming of the aristoi – an ancient Greek civilizing process?

BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS: WARFARE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THE NORTH‐WESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA1

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BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS: WARFARE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THE NORTH‐WESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA¹