THE HOMERIC WARRIOR

With an assenting nod of his head from Zeus, the Danaans now drove the Trojans away from their hollow ships. Amongst the foremost ten of the Danaans in this action, focus descends upon the actions of Teucer sheltering beneath the shield of his half-brother Telamonian Ajax. With his curved bow at the ready, he repeatedly ventures out to strike down a chosen victim before running back beneath the shelter of the shield once more, “like a child to the arms of his mother” (Iliad, 8.266).

By Mark McCaffery

Whilst the poetry of Homer was composed later, there are many elements within it that accurately echo aspects of Mycenaean warfare. Teucer stands for an integrated archer (toksotas). Armed with his composite bow, clothing limited to a kilt (or drawers) and his only armour being the boar’s-tusk helmet, these bowmen would support the heavy spearmen. Their support, embodied in their bronze, flint, and obsidian arrowheads (fired before withdrawing to the protection of the body-length shields), compensated for a specific weakness of the spearmen. The latter, represented by Telamonian Ajax in this instance, would be attired similarly to their accompanying archers. The helmet constituted their only necessary armour due to their use of body-length shields. These shields fell into two categories: the flat ‘tower’ shields made of goat’s hide across wickerwork on…

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

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