10-25-2007, 04:42 PM
Quote:No, thanks for bringing that to my attention, Paul! However a quick look at some web sites shows that it is possibly a tool, or a Spartan version of the strigil. It also seems very difficult to see a picture of it. Do you have a picture?
In Sekunda's Osprey title on Sparta he shows an image of one that looks very much like a rhomphaia, but I don't know where he got the image. The only surviving examples I have seen are from the temple of Artemis Orthia:
http://efts.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eo ... object=328
There has been debate on whether this was a strigil or a sickle, but the name would seem to tie it to wood working, not oil scraping. As for it being a weapon, we do know of at least one person killed by a blow from a Xyele- a spartan was exiled for this act.
My guess is that it was the utility knife of spartans. You can see the historical connection to the ritual of giving Spartan boys Xyeles at a certain age- now they could whittle their own spears and javelins for the hunt and war. Although it is ulikely that Spartiates made their own spears, their ancestors surely did.
Paul M. Bardunias
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
