04-15-2009, 04:03 PM
Quote:Sorry if there was some confusion there on the topic of chariots. I believe that they existed (as they raced them in the Olympic games) but not that they are used on the battlefield. My argument on the point is that the vase art in the period in question depicts the chariot in both heroic (battlefield use) and contemporary (racing) manners. As such, it serves as a corollary to the argument, as depictions of warriors with boeotians which are not "heroic" may represent contemporary usage.
Cole, you misunderstand my misunderstanding
Your analogy shows exactly the opposite of what you intend it to. It shows that an archaic element- Dipylon shield or War chariot- can survive in a culture as a real article whose usage has become completely stylized. Just as no war chariot was seen alongside hoplites in 500 BC, chariots only surviving as a toy for symbolic competition, so no dipylon shield was seen on a battlefield in 500 BC, the boeotian shield type surviving as a symbolic rememberance of the earlier dipylon shield. They probably only existed in art, but perhaps were even built and used in symbolic processions and such. The retention of chariots shows how and why this might occur.
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!"
