09-10-2007, 10:25 AM
I agree that nothing can be taken for sure.
It is not sure from the Onomastikon that the leather spolas was necessarily in tube-and-yoke form.
It is not sure wether Xenophon used "thorax" in a special sense. When he speaks of linen thorakes only when mentioning non-Greek armour, one explanation can be that that was only because the Greeks know the material of their armours, so no word was necessary. So a thorax could also be a linen one.
Thorakes from linen (neo lino) are mentioned by Alkaios, who is later than Homer. Linen is perhaps not mentioned in the later classical times because it was a normal material, like leather.
It is not sure from the Onomastikon that the leather spolas was necessarily in tube-and-yoke form.
It is not sure wether Xenophon used "thorax" in a special sense. When he speaks of linen thorakes only when mentioning non-Greek armour, one explanation can be that that was only because the Greeks know the material of their armours, so no word was necessary. So a thorax could also be a linen one.
Thorakes from linen (neo lino) are mentioned by Alkaios, who is later than Homer. Linen is perhaps not mentioned in the later classical times because it was a normal material, like leather.
Wolfgang Zeiler