Greek & Trojan Armour

                                                             Greek & Trojan Armour

The common field soldier in ancient Greek times was called a hoplite and he entered the battle usually armed with just a shield, a helmet and a spear and most often protected with only linen armour. Leaders, nobles, royalty and the very wealthy, on the other hand, wore armour that provided them with the utmost protection in battle, and in addition, served to identify them and to symbolize their status and their martial prowess. Only the wealthiest individuals could afford to be protected with bronze armour, including a cuirass or corselet or breastplate for shielding the upper body and greaves for the legs. For these elite fighters, bronze was the material of choice for armour construction, with gold, silver, enamel and tin used for embellishment.

The description of King Agamemnon’s armour at the beginning of Book XI of the Iliad gives us a fine example of the type of armour and weaponry used by the very wealthy and someone of such high royal status as the king of Mycenae and leader of the Achaeans.

The son of Atreus rejoiced and commanded the Argives to gird themselves for battle and amongst them he clothed himself with his flashing bronze. First he put his greaves on his shins and then fitted together his beautiful silver leg guards. Secondly he wrapped his breast with his corselet that once upon a time Cinyras had given him as a host gift. He had heard from afar in Cyprus that the Achaeans were about to sail forth in their ships for Troy, and he wanted the pleasure of giving the breastplate to their king as a gift. On the corselet were ten bands of dark blue enamel, twelve of gold and twenty of tin. Serpents of dark enamel reached toward the neck on both sides, three on each side like rainbows that the son of Cronos fixed in the masses of clouds like a portent for mortal men. He slung his sword on his shoulders, shining with studs of gold while its scabbard was of silver fitted with gold chains. Then he seized his richly-wrought beautiful shield that covered the whole man and which around it had ten bands of bronze and twenty bosses of bright shining tin and in the centre one of dark blue enamel. On there was set a crown that featured the grim looking Gorgon who was glaring terribly and around her were set Demos and Phobus. From the shield there hung a broad strap of silver and on it a serpent writhed made of dark enamel and it had three heads that turned this way and that all of them springing from the one neck. On his head he placed his helmet, one with two horns and four bosses and a plume of horsehair that nodded terribly from above. In his hand he placed two spears with sharp bronze tips that shone brightly into the heavens. Athena and Hera roared greatly at this, showing reverence to the great Mycenaean king who was rich in gold.

            The armour was made of bronze plates which were first cast and then hammered into the desired shape that was either decorative in nature or fashioned to replicate the muscled bodily contours of the wearer. There were two large bronze plates which protected the chest and the back and they were hinged on one side to allow them to be easily put on and removed. The armour included shoulder guards and a neck guard as well as a protective belt around the waist in the front and back. A full complement of bronze armour could weigh upwards to 70 pounds. When one adds on the weight of a full bronze helmet, greaves for the legs and a scabbard and sword, it is easy to see why such a kitted-out warrior would have to be transported to the fight by chariot instead of going there by foot.

            In Book IV of the Iliad we witness the scene where the goddess directs the arrow that has been launched at King Menelaus so that it strikes him in a place where the least amount of damage can be done. This passage gives us a further description of what the armour of a high-ranking person looked like.

Nor did you escape the notice of the blessed and immortal gods Menelaus, chief of whom was the plundering daughter of Zeus, who standing before you, warded off the sharp missile from you. She flicked it off your body, much likes a mother does to a fly on her child when it has been laid down in sweet sleep. She steered it toward the place where the golden buckles of the warrior’s belt meet the doubled breastplate. The arrow was driven through the well-fitted belt and then went through the plates and the guard that he wore to protect his loins and to block spears. It pierced even this greatest defence and the tip of the sharp arrow grazed the man’s skin. At once a stream of black blood started to flow from the wound.

            Achilles loses his armour after his beloved Patroclus enters the battle dressed as the hero and is slain by Hector. Hector strips the armour of Achilles from the body of Patroclus and claims it as his war prize. The goddess Thetis prevails upon Hephaestus to fashion a new set of armour for her son and he does so. The centre piece of the new armour is the famous shield of Achilles which Homer describes at great length in his narrative. But Hephaestus makes a full set of beautiful armour for Achilles, armour befitting a hero and his prowess. We witness Achilles dressing himself in this armour before battle.

In fierce anger towards the Trojans he armed himself with the gift from the god which Hephaestus had created for him. First he placed the greaves on his legs, beautifully made with ankle guards fashioned of silver. Secondly he put on the corselet to protect his breast. About his shoulders he cast the silver-embossed sword of bronze and immediately seized with his hand the sturdy shield which set off afar a beam of light like the moon. Just like when over the sea the sailors catch a glimpse of a blazing fire and they see it burning in a lonely place on a high hill, but against their will the stormy winds on the fish-laden sea bear them away far from their friends, even so from the beautiful and richly-wrought shield of Achilles there went up a shining gleam into the heavens. He lifted up his mighty helmet and placed it on his head and the crest of horse hair on it shone like a star and around it there waved plumes made of gold that Hephaestus had fashioned for the neck. And the godlike Achilles made the best of his new armour. His glorious limbs moved freely in it and became like wings to him and lifted on high the shepherd of the people.

            Trojan armour is believed to be not that much different than Greek, although perhaps somewhat lighter. But we know that Hector stripped the armour of Achilles from the body of Patroclus after he had killed him and claimed it as his spoils of war. Stripping the armour from one’s enemy was an act of pride and its deeper purpose was to transfer the honour and glory of the defeated one to the victor. The more noble the vanquished one, the greater the honour bestowed on the winner. In addition to wearing the armour of Achilles, we do know that Hector wore a helmet with a large horse-hair plume on it, because this is the helmet that frightened his son Astyanax when Hector visited him and his mother before returning to the battlefield. But that act of pride on his part, wearing the other hero’s armour, led to his ultimate downfall. Achilles knew the weak spot of his own armour and it is there that he thrust his weapon when fighting Hector. Capitalizing on this vulnerability allowed him the opportunity to deliver the fatal blow and to regain his initial set of armour from Hector’s corpse.

            Helmets varied in design and Homer most often depicts them as being made of bronze. We typically think of the Corinthian style helmet when we talk about bronze helmets. This type of helmet was made of one piece of bronze and was shaped like the head, extending from the top of the head down to the base of the neck and covering the cheeks and jaw. It had a flange over the nose and cut-outs for the eyes and mouth. It was simply slipped over the head to put it on. Homer often talks about such helmets as having crests of waving horsehair and elaborate decorations. However modern scholars believe that Homer’s references to bronze helmets is anachronistic, because such helmets were more often found in the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek history rather than the Mycenaean Age of the Trojan War.

            The more usual head protection of the Mycenaean period was just a leather helmet or the boar’s tusk helmet. Both are featured in Book X of the Iliad when Odysseus and his partner go out on a night-time spying mission.

Thus he spoke and the two of them clothed themselves in their terrible armour. To the steadfast Thrasymedes the son of Tydeus was given a two-edged sword, for he had left his by the ship, and a shield. On his head was placed an ox-hide cap without a horn or a crest, usually call a leather helmet and worn by sturdy young men. Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a sword and on his head he placed a helmet made of strong hide and made solid with leather straps on the inside. On the outside were the bright teeth of a white-tusked swine, close set together on one side and the other and lined with a felt of soft wool. This was the helmet that Autolycus once stole out of Eleon when he had broken into the well-built house of Amyntor, son of Ormenus, and he gave it to Amphidamas from Cythem to take to Scandeia, and Amphidamas gave it to Molus as a present, but he gave it to his son Meriones to wear, and now it rested there, covering the head of Odysseus.

            I recently had the opportunity of seeing a boar’s tusk helmet that was discovered in Mycenae. It is housed in the Archaeological Museum in nearby Nafplio and it is indeed a work of art. (See Footnotes & Fancy Free July 17, 2025). You can tell from looking at it that it might be suitable for warding off or deflecting an arrow or a stone hurled from a sling, but it would do little to protect the wearer from a direct blow from a sword or spear. However, neurosurgeons who have studied the Iliad have pointed out that most helmets, bronze or otherwise were pretty ineffective when it came to preventing head trauma. Traumatic head injury was a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Homer's epic poem. One study showed 54 total references to head and neck injury, typically resulting in death in the epic.

            One notable thing about bronze armour was the sound that it made when a warrior fell to the ground. In Book V of the Iliad alone we find three separate examples and there are many others throughout the text.

First King Agamemnon, the leader of men, threw from his chariot Hodius, the commander of the Halizonians. He had turned in flight and was struck in the back between the shoulders with a spear that went right through to his chest. He fell down with a heavy sound and his armour crashed about him.

Menelaus the son of Atreus who was famous for his skill with a spear wounded Scamandrius in the back as he was fleeing from him and drove his spear between his shoulders and through into his chest. He fell down flat on the ground and his weaponry clattered around him.

Having spoken thus, he hurled his spear and Athena straightened its path so that it struck his nose near the eyes and passed through his white teeth. Indeed the finely-worked bronze cut the base of his tongue and was driven through the bottom of his chin. He fell from his chariot and his resplendent armour clattered around him as his horses were startled and shied away in fear. His life force and his strength were dissolved in death.

            To Homer, armour signifies a hero’s power, fighting prowess, his social status and his very identity. For the Homeric hero, his armour is used to inspire his own troops and allies and to terrify his enemies. The armour of Achilles is a notable example. When Patroclus puts on his friend’s original set of armour and appears on the battlefield, on seeing it, both the Achaeans and the Trojans know that the end of the war is in sight, because Achilles has returned to the field. When Achilles appears in the beautiful armour forged by Hephaestus, his position among mortals and immortals is made secure, as is his ability to achieve kleos as a conquering hero. For Homer, armour is more than just protection. It is a symbol of all things great.