Monday, February 8, 2010

Three Greek Helmets

Ancient war helmets are sometimes considered very rare and they sure are, but it's important to remember that we do have quite a number left anyway, they are just so few compared to ceramics and sculpture.


Late 7th, early 6th century BC Corinthian helmet (bronze).


I can't quite remember the date of this one, but it's a good example of a helmet that's not of the Corinthian type.


Late 6th century BC Corinthian bronze helmet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stunning helmets, really well-preserved.

In Ancient Greek art hoplite helmets are often depicted with horsehair crests attached to them. Are there any traces of mounting holes for such crests on the helmets pictured here? I can't see any myself, but I guess it is due to the angles from where the photos are taken.

I am especially fond of the last one; it really is a work of art (the other ones are nice too, but a bit crude-looking in comparison). Wouldn't mind having a replica of one of those to put on display on my bookshelf, hehe... :-)


/Jerry

Patrik Klingborg said...

Well, I would love to simply say yes, as I'm all but sure that they had crests from time to time (at least for the high ranking officers), but I cannot find any evidence in the picture library (I have photos of roughly 10 helmets).

There are other types of evidence however. Notice in the pictures from Delphi that one of the warriors in the Trojan frieze wear a crest. There's also a bronze crest preserved from a statue at the site.