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+--- Thread: Herakles\' Quiver (/showthread.php?tid=16250)
Herakles\' Quiver - Kineas - 12-30-2009
So, a while ago I decided to make a quiver for my Greek bow and period arrows...
I decided to use the quiver worn by Herakles on the Berlin Painter's Herakles Vase, Antikenmuseum Basel Inv. 85 456.
The quiver is made of vegetable tanned cowhide. There's two layers sewn with natural linen thread in four ply. I suspect that the Greeks used sinew or two ply. I may well have stitched what, on the original, was merely painted or dyed decoration, but my method made for a very stiff, usable quiver! The dark parts (the whole body of the "under" quiver) was stained to a color obtainable using walnut hulls and metal filings while the lighter parts are left natural. The whole was formed to shape wet around a carved bit of oak log. For now the strap is just hemp rope. It appears that that's what most of the quiver straps are, in art.
On the left, an image of Herakles quiver from the vase. On the right, my quiver.
![[Image: 4226795325_c54ae01775_o.png]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4226795325_c54ae01775_o.png)
Below, the quiver again
![[Image: 4226966168_c103164e08_b.jpg]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4226966168_c103164e08_b.jpg)
Herakles quiver has a soft leather or fabric cover--or that's what vase interpreters say the top is made of. I'll make one when I have stopped experimenting with things it might have been made from... my quiver is made to fit my 32 inch arrows (I have very long arms) and the flights will stick out the top. Also, I chose not to make the "checkers" on the spine of the quiver as small as the ones on the vase--to save work. even as it was, I did 15 or so hours of leather sewing to finish the design. Perhaps I'm lazy... and other vases show larger squares... I'm not Herakles!
The tow of the quiver
![[Image: 4226968668_22b04d85a7_b.jpg]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2545/4226968668_22b04d85a7_b.jpg)
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Matt Lukes - 01-04-2010
Very nice Christian
Is there any indication what the axial lines on the 'spine' of the quiver on the vase are? It's clear the stitching line is indicated with a single line from the base around the curve and up, but those lines only begin a little way up from the base and there are more than one...
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Kineas - 01-04-2010
I chose to render them as a central stitching line with tooling lines on either side. But since making this, I've seen a 19th c. Lakota rawhide quiver and now I think that's how this is made--rawhide with paint. No stitching at all.... well, perhaps up the back. Or it's the legs off a hide, which would explain the very slight protrusion at the base--it could be the knee.
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - hoplite14gr - 01-04-2010
I like it.
Good stuff!
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Rob-Galmor - 01-07-2010
As always, quality work! I also liked the inlay nocks on your arrows...nice work. I'm also curious about what kind of arm guards the Greeks wore.
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - John Conyard - 01-08-2010
It reminds me of the Euphronios in the Louvre. This has a soft cap to the quiver as well.
[attachment=0:21b5ra1b]<!-- ia0 skythian_archer_louvre_g106_full.jpg<!-- ia0 [/attachment:21b5ra1b]
Perhaps all those Scythian policeman around Athens were all wearing a standand issue quiver
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Gaius Julius Caesar - 01-08-2010
Your arrows look like Grozers?
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Theron_of _Sikyon - 01-24-2010
That looks quite nice. Could you also post a picture of your bow?
Edward
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Kineas - 01-24-2010
I have a bunch of arrows, but my Xmas present from my inlaws were some custom (type E) Grozer Scythian arrows with bronze heads, horn nocks, and round Scythina flights like some of the Altai finds... and I'd be the first to point out that the Altai arrows and the arrows in Greek and Scythian iconography have little to do with one and other, pointing up all the failures of the non-photo as a source... but anyway (
)I'll post my bow another time. My Father and Mother in law have a lovely piece of property north of Toronto where we can shoot to our hearts content, so my bow, arrows, and quiver are all on a peg in their back room right now!
Re: Herakles\' Quiver - Kineas - 01-24-2010
Quote:Very nice Christian
Apologies, Matt, I missed this coming in and just caught it going through the thread.
I think that it is entirely possible that this is a second stitch line. Now, having just looked at a bunch of extant quivers (including Sarmaitian bark quivers) AFTER this project (hmmm) I have stated, above, my own doubts--I think that most ancient societies had some pretty temporary quivers, if only because the terms of value were the ARROWS (difficult to make, high cost metal heads, etc) and not the quiver. So a rawhide quiver with paint of protein color decoration would be dead simple, as would bark with paint decoration, whereas a tanned leather quiver would be very durable and last a lifetime...
All that said, if my attempt at reconstruction is correct, than the line you mention is almost certainly a stitch line. Another possibility would be a hard leather spine (the checherboard, sewed up the backbone for added strength or to make it from scraps) with a soft leather "bag" but the artist shows no wrinckles...
All this is a long winded way of saying...
Don't know.