Greetings,
I just found this beauty - Chaldician with a rams head crest....dated 510-490 bce......!!!
[url:2yqipv24]http://www.planetware.com/picture/st-louis/st-louis-art-museum-us-mo052.htm[/url]
Would it have been a ceremonial helm?
regards
Arthes
Oh Yes a great master piece!!! :o ..
It is sed that they cant belive how thin is this helmet in gauge I think...
I hadn't seen it before.....but St Louis has a football team called The St Louis Rams...I wonder which came first? :wink:
Sorry, Cristina,
I think it's awful! The helmet's great and the carving of the ram's head and neck is superb - they just look incongruous together. Yuk!
The Ram was the symbol of ARIS (Mars).
The helmet though was a modified version possibly the God's repersenetation on an altar it seems.
You cannot fight with this thing on your head!
Kind regards
There are many Chalcidian helmets with rams' heads in profile for cheekpieces, but I don't know of others with full rams' heads on top.
I always hesitate to say that this or that helmet or equipment was purely "ceremonial" or couldn't be worn in battle. As long as this helmet was strapped round your head, I don't see why it couldn't or wouldn't have been worn in battle.
Part of its hideousness, for me, is that the positioning of the crest appears so ungainly and its size, in relation to the helmet seems disproportionately large. It also looks to be off-centre AND too far forward. My first reaction on seeing it was that someone had super-imposed a picture of the ram's head and neck on an unrelated helmet.
Most of the elaborate animals on medieval knights helmets were made of "soft material" so as not to add weight. Most of this helmets were like "riveted" on the torso armor too. I do not doubt that extravagant helmets would have existed in the ancient times but this one is unpractical for battle. As Paul suggested it is unbalanced. I have serios doubt if someone can perform the 100 meter sprint charging in full armor with this monstrocity on his head. Only an exterm fool or someone with a deathwish would encumber himself like that.
Kind regards
It has a rather phallic look about it .... maybe symbolic of the male strength and fertility of Aries and the ram :roll:
Looking really well preserved.
I'd love to see it live some day.
__________________________
Alexandra from
Artys Transit