The hour of heroes

During his description of the battle of Delphi, Pausanias records that “there were seen by them ghosts of the heroes Hyperochus, Laodocus and Pyrrhus; according to some a fourth appeared, Phylacus, a local hero of Delphi” (10.23.2). This echoes the literary tradition of heroes and ghosts appearing in other battles, such as at Marathon. Pausanias’ description of the painting in the Stoa Poikile depicting the battle mentions the eponymous hero Marathon, another hero called Echetlus, and the gods Theseus, Athena, and Heracles (1.15.3). Throughout Greek and Roman history there are also many examples of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, appearing to aid the victors in battle, including the battle of the Sagra River ca. 600 BC (Diodorus, 8.32.1), the battle of Plataea in 479 BC (Simonides, Fragment 11), the Roman…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XVII.2

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