Combat

Soldiers frequently appear on ancient vases, reflecting their importance in Greek society. Heavy infantry soldiers, or hoplites, were held in particularly high regard. Most hoplites were amateur soldiers, not professionals, and they were responsible for keeping themselves fit and combat ready. The hoplites on this vase are fighting with spears, the primary weapon of the ancient Greek hoplite. The spear was combined with a large heavy shield and a helmet. Other equipment, such as greaves and body-armour depended on a hoplite’s wealth and personal preference. The left-hand hoplite on this vase wears a breastplate, while the others are fighting in knee-length tunics without armour.  The onlookers are wearing longer, less sporty robes – a sign that they don’t need to keep their limbs free for combat or manual labour. In time, heavy breastplates gave way to lighter reinforced fabric corselets which were easier to move in.

This cup by Douris shows a range of equipment in a hoplite arming scene.  It is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, (ref 3694).

© Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period, 1975

For battle, each army of hoplites would be arrayed in a phalanx, a wide line of soldiers that was several men deep. The foremost hoplites would use their spears to reach out at opponents. After a furious fight, one side would usually give way, leading to a looser phase of the battle, in which the losing side was pursued some way. The hoplites on this vase have swords hung close to their torsos; these would be useful when the orderly lines of battle broke up into a more chaotic melee.

In the fifth-century BCE, several decades after the time this vase was made, the Greeks developed prose history-writing.  This development has left us numerous outstanding accounts of hoplite battles.  Herodotus has given us accounts of battles in the Persian Wars, such as Marathon and Thermopylae(Histories 6.111.3-117; 7.210+).  Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War includes the battle of Delium, a messy affair fought between Athenians and Boeotians, not far from Euboea where this vase was made (4.96+).  Xenophon describes hoplite combat with horrible punchiness - how, 'setting shields against shields they shoved, fought, killed, and were killed.’(Battle of Coronea, Hellenica 4.3.19).  There was risk and cost involved in being a hoplite warrior, but the gains could be great.

Combat was made from a black figure lekanis made on the island of Euboea in the High Archaic period, c.550BCE. The vase is housed in the Ure Museum (Accession Number: 56.8.8). The low, wide-angled exterior of the lekanis depicts athletics and combat. The fight has a thematic link to the image inside, which is a black-figure cockerel within a central circular space, or tondo. Watching cock-fighting was a popular aristocratic pass-time.

©Ure Museum (56.8.8)

This vase also featured in Hoplites! Greeks at War; the webpage for Hoplites! has further information about the vase.

The story was developed by pupils from Maiden Erlegh School, Reading as part of the Ure Discovery project. An Arts Council funded project run at the University of Reading’s Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology in 2013.

The animation shows a fight in which the central warrior stabs his opponents. There are onlookers to the fight; perhaps they are trainers or family members at a training bout, however sometimes onlookers are added to vase scenes where you would not expect onlookers, in that case they are acting as a kind of witness to the achievements of the active parties. Deaths in training would probably have led to a court case, but killing opponents in battle was regarded as something to celebrate, as Xenophon shows in his account of a victory at Corinth (Hellenica, 4.4.12).

This fifth-century vase shows a similar arrangement in a mythical spear-fight; Athena and Apollo are standing nearby as Achilles and Hector fight.  The reverse shows Achilles and Memnon fighting, with their mothers standing on either side.

© Trustees of the British Museum. BM 1848.801.1

This is the storyboard created by pupils from Maiden Erlegh School.

The track on this animation is called Makrotatos. It was created by ancient music specialist Conrad Steinmann of Melpomen. The Spartans were unusual amongst the Greeks in using pipe music to help their hoplites move together - a sign of their high military standards (see Thucydides, 5.70). Find out more about ancient music through our blog post on the subject and on Melpomen’s website: www.melpomen.ch. 

• Ask your students to analyse the differences in clothing between the combatants and the onlookers. Encourage them to consider what the differences are, how they might be linked to function, and what factors influence soldiers’ choices of clothing and equipment. 
• After watching the animation together, ask your students to work in groups storyboarding a mythical or historical spear fight. Who will they choose? What scenes from the episode do they consider to be the most important?
• This vase was made on Euboea and has a distinctive style. Ask your pupils to contrast its stylistic features with scenes on Attic and/or Corinthian ware, such as Exekias’ Achilles and Ajax vase in Clash of the Dicers or the scene in Amazon.