"Items" Of Interest For "Reenacting" & Also The Panoply of Ancient Greece |
| "BASIC PANOPLY:" CHITON - TUNIC LEATHER SANDALS DORY - SPEAR ASPIS - SHIELD CORINTHIAN HELMET |
| "ADD ONS WHEN YOU GET MORE CASH": RED CAPE (METAL CUIRASS or LINOTHORAX) BRASS GREAVES LEATHER VEMBRACES |
| IF YOU ARE JUST STARTING OUT ON A NEW QUEST AND NOT SURE WHAT TYPE OF MATERIAL TO BUY OR EQUIPMENT TO GET, PLEASE ASK. IT WILL HOPEFULLY SAVE YOU SOME MONEY! |
| <--------SHORT SWORD--------> complete your panoply |
| The ASPIS/SHIELD will be one of the most important & expensive part of you Panoply. This design is mine so get your own! lol! |
| The HELMET being the other most important & expensive part of your Panoply. With or without a crest |
| GIANNIS KADOGLOU |
| "BASIC PANOPLY" "THE CHITON": (tunic) Greek clothing was made out of three types of materials. The first mostly used was wool which was woven from very coarse to very soft. They used linen grades from fine to very soft. Colors of this period were bright-hued like yellow, indigo, green, violet, dark red, dark purple and colors that were also earth toned. However if you were a Spartan, then it was strictly red. Both the men and women wore the same type tunic. For the men, it can cover the leg to semi-thigh or go down to the foot. Depending of the age of the man and also the function he was attending. Young men who went off to war or working in the fields would have a short chiton. Statesmen or just relaxing at days end, might wear a long chiton. " SANDALS": Leather. Most of the time the men would be barefooted in and around the house. Sometimes working in the fields or going into town they would wear basic sandals because of stepping on stones and other assorted painful things.(ouch) Going off to war, they would wear sandals as a rule. "The DORY" is a type of spear that was the main weapon of choice of hoplites (heavy infantry) in Ancient Greece. The size of the dory was about 7 - 9 feet in length. In those days the diameter was approx. 1 1/4"-1 1/2". Made from either Cornel or Ash and weighed 2 to 4 pounds. Today for us reenactors, it's approx of two inches made of pine/ hickory wood. The spearhead was made of bronze/iron and was flat and leaf shaped. The spear head’s substantial weight was counter balanced by a bronze butt-spike. Known as "The Lizard Killer", the butt-spike could serve as a secondary weapon. If the shaft of the dory was broken or if the iron point was lost, the remaining portion could still function as a spear. In combat, not all of the enemy fatalities would be immediate. The butt-spike could have been useful in finishing wounded enemies as the formation advanced over them. Another use of the feature might have been that by lodging the butt-spike into the ground a hoplite may have been able to stand the Dory upright when he was not holding it. (COOL!) "The linothorax" is believed by many to be built from several layers of linen, between 12 and 20 are commonly expressed numbers. Some have claimed that it was made of leather but there is little evidence to support this. ( This would make very good sense to me. Thick leather was easy to come by and a lot cheaper than bronze or linen to make, but thats just my opinion.){ UPDATE KIDS! Leather Breastplates have been found in a mass grave at the Archontiko dig! I'll have more info on my new "The Scribe" page in a few days.} It has also been claimed that the linen layers were glued together by animal glue, or a kind of flexible resin There was a partial find of a linothorax found during an excavation of an arsenal at Thebes that has yet to be published, also a multi-layered linen fragment was found in a Mycenaean grave shaft which is believed to be part of a greave but does lend some weight to the layered linen argument. "Greaves" may be constructed of materials ranging from padded cloth to bronze plate. Most ancient designs protect only the lower leg from the knee to the foot. Greaves are most commonly found in the armor of heavy infantry, usually from ancient times. Greek hoplites wore a bronze greave on each leg which were made for each individual. Not tied in the back as it is for todays reenactor but where made like a spring which would cling to the leg. " Aspis /shield" was a deeply-dished shield made of wood. Often, it was covered in a thin layer of bronze and approx 36" - 38" in diameter. In some periods, the convention was to decorate the aspis;(see MY "Item page 2" for some ideas on decorating your shields) in some others, it was usually left plain. Probably the most famous aspis decoration is that of the Spartans: a red capital lambda (Λ) - ( see the movies "The 300Spartans" and the "300"at least, from the late 5th century BC. After the Battle of Thermopylae! Athenian hoplites commonly used the Little Owl, while the shields of Theban hoplites were sometimes decorated with a sphinx, or the club of Herakles. According to Diodorus Siculus "The Bronze Corinthian Helmet" which in its later styles covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth. A large curved projection protected the nape of the neck, It was made (pounded) out of 1 bronze sheet of material. The Corinthian helmet was depicted on more sculpture than any other helmet; it seems the Greeks romantically associated it with glory and the past. Around the time of Thermopylae, the helmet covered the entire head. It was very heavy, hot and of course very difficult to hear since there were no ear holes. Shortly after that, Someone had the bright idea of making the helmets with ear holes and wider cheek pieces to let more air in. (you have to love modern technology huh?) |
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| THE DORY |
| More Buttons To Play With! |
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| "THE CHITON" basic |
| BRASS GREAVES |
