CHARIOTS FOR A KING

In the Greek camp outside of Troy, Odysseus and Diomedes were preparing to spy on the Trojans – they put on their ‘terrible armour’ and their comrades gave them shields and weapons worthy of their status. They snuck off into the enemy lines and killed several Trojan allies; as a prize, they made off with the fine chariot and horses of king Rhesus.

By Guy D. Middleton

The Homeric poems were written down perhaps five centuries after the fall of the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Aegean. Although they cannot be taken as historical sources, they do contain LBA ‘fragments’. Homer’s description of Odysseus and Diomedes’ kit would have been recognisable to warriors of the Late Bronze Age. Warriors with bows, for example, appear on two silver vessels deposited in Shaft Grave IV in Grave Circle A at Mycenae. One, the Silver Siege Rhyton, shows an attack from the sea on a walled town, defended by a crowd of archers, as well as men with clubs or swords and spears. Although no bows have survived, thousands of arrowheads have been found at the palace of Knossos on Crete. There is also an ideogram for…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XV.3

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