01-26-2008, 02:02 PM
Quote:I'm also not sure I've ever seen an oval shield with a porpax where the ovoid extended vertically and not horizontally. (I've only seen this grip on "boetian shields", which are almost certainly an artistic invention and never truly existed) Horizontal width is not something that would aid an Iphicratid if he needed to hold the spear with the left hand.
The only example I know of is from one of the figures in the Roman copies of the monumental Pergamene "dying Galatians" group. One figure from the group is a dead Galatian lying on his back, naked except for a belt around his waist, and his left arm is extended out through a vertically-oriented porpax on the inside of his thureos. There are some other problems with the representations of the Galatian equipment on these reliefs, however, and this seems like a fantastical invention of the sculptor, as this shield would be held horizontally with a porpax oriented in this manner!
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
