Hoplites! Greeks at War

Hoplites! Greeks at War was created as part of a project called Every Soldier has a Story. It follows a hoplite soldier (heavy infantryman) as he prepares and goes to war.

The animation depicts key aspects of the hoplite experience: training; sacrifice, reading a liver for omens, and departing; the build up to battle; battle; and the aftermath of battle.

This vase was made on the Greek island of Euboea in around 550BCE. It is now housed in the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology at the University of Reading (vase number 56.8.8). The vase is a lekanis. It has been made in the black-figure style, although extra sections of white slip and a red slip known as 'deliberate red' have also been used. See the Hoplites PowerPoint for further information.

The animation was created for the Every Soldier has a Story project. It depicts key aspects of the hoplite experience: training; sacrifice, reading a liver for omens, and departing; the build up to battle; battle; and the aftermath of battle. This storyboard shows how the animation was planned and developed. Hoplites storyboard.pdf

The Every Soldier has a Story project included lively workshops in schools, museums, and with charities. It encouraged people to learn about ancient warfare and to imagine the personal lives behind a battle by creating a hoplite persona. Lots of the artwork created in these sessions is collected in this pdf along with artwork sent in to us via the website.

You can also see more about the project exhibition in our blog post about it.

The music for Hoplites! was created especially for the animation by ancient theatre specialists, The Thiasos Theatre Company www.thiasos.co.uk. The dominant sound that you can hear comes from singing bowls. You can hear music from their live performance on the Every Soldier has a Story photo-film in Activities.

Every Soldier Has a Story was a ‘Communicating Ancient Greece and Rome’ project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through The Archive for Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk). Further funding for the animation was given generously by Yana Zarifi-Sistovari of the Thiasos Theatre Company.

The project launch was kindly sponsored by the Department of Classics at the University of Reading, by the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, and by Bloomsbury Academic Publishing. 

• Download the Hoplites PowerPoint.
• Create a character based on the vase and animation, then plan a story and storyboard about them: click on the link to download the Every Soldier has a Story activity sheet.
• Look at the vase, watch the trailer, and plan what-happens-next in a storyboard.
• Create a shield design.