Leather Cuirass

[Sean Manning]

To Sean Manning: many tks for the full Alcaeus quote! , but it still sounds as if the poem is a "heroic" one - references in Greek literature and art to contemporary events don't commence until just after the Persian wars ,in Athens. I agree that H. was saving space by not explaining things his readers knew - which also implies his readers were not familiar with corselets of linen.

As far as I know, that's wrong, at least for Ionia. According to the commentary, lyric was the genre of the present, intended for a specific audience and usually dealing with the poet's present feelings and concerns or just trying to be amusing. Sappho wrote lyric, for example (and may have been a contemporary of Alcaeus).

This was a time of stasis and revolution on Lesbos, and we know of many changes of government. Alcaeus seems to have been banished for scheming with Lydia against one government. I see no reason to see the fragment as mythical.

Alcaeus was probably later than Tyrtaeus, the classic poet of hoplite battle.

Paul, Herodotus tells us that some Persian cavalry wore iron and bronze helmets. You don't think that suggests that his audience was unfamiliar with metal helmets, do you? When a style of armament looked different from hoplite gear, he described it. I think any form of soft armour not having the Greek cut would look unusual to his audience.