Real Deal Spolas

[Clavdivs]

An extremely interesting series of remarks -- I think that, if it is intentional, it is very likely apotropaic. The Gorgoneion is certainly an apotropaic, whether one increased in efficacy by perspective or not. 

A respectable academic source depicts a much later Roman oil-lamp emblazoned with the Gorgoneion amongst other apotropaic figures: http://archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu/the-...-evil-eye/

Returning to Greece, in a military context, it appears at least twice to my very limited knowledge on shields (a) the Hippolyte Krater, c. 575-550 B.C.E., kept at the Louvre, and b) a vase approximately a century older than your source, c. 550-540 B.C.E., kept at Paris, showing Herakles fighting Geryon:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...e_E636.jpg
http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/L3.5.html

It is alleged to occur quite commonly on thresholds in Roman mosaic art (an Internet reference that needs confirmation: https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/201...gorgoneion.

Incidentally, many thanks once again for the continuing excellent photographs. It is to my mind quite as important to see smaller artefacts reconstructed with approximately their original colours as it is to see reconstructions of the splendid polychromy of Pheidias' frieze at the Parthenon (best known to us in part as the Elgin Marbles) or the Ara Pacis Augustae.

[Dan Howard]

Keep going Todd. The hard parts are over now. Into the final stretch.

[Feinman]

Thanks, man! That's what I keep telling myself, too. I hope you had a nice New Year's Eve Dan.

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Thanks for pointing me to those resources, Clavdivs! You are a wealth of knowledge, and much appreciated. Happy New Year! (I hope).

[Clavdivs]

Not at all -- it is a pleasure to be able to offer a little help. The great thing about this website -- take your spolas, or Rado's vexillum -- is the colour, real and metaphorical, and tangibility that reconstructions bring to the written sources.

The gods go with you all in (Gregorian) 2018. The New Year of the Roman calendar, which I follow as a Roman pagan, is March 1st, with the dance and archaic Latin song of the Salii or Leaping Priests of Mars which, sadly, will not bring in in the the 2771st year of the foundation of the City as it has not done for over a millennium and a half.

All your good wishes are gratefully received.

[Feinman]

Nasty cold. Hopefully get a bit done tomorrow, anyway! Hope springs eternal for a peaceful New Year..

[Feinman]

Should have chance to get more done today. Pics this early evening.

[Feinman]

Got bottom hide edging cut, holes drilled.  Hide for ptyreges arrived today.  Ptyreges for this section will be attached when the bottom edging is attached. Also sealed top edging, which evened out color.

https://imgur.com/WKEbByV

More soon.  Over cold.

[Clavdivs]

It is always a pleasure to see this project advance -- the attachment of the pteruges will give us an idea of the entire spolas, more than the front section alone. The fineness of the work, especially on hide and stiffened at that, is invariably remarkable.

I doubt very much that it has escaped your notice, but I would like to point out that on the Achilles vase (Vatican 26571, Feinman's source) the pteruges are arranged in a very interesting way -- there are two layers, so cut that the gaps between the pteruges of the upper layer are filled by the full part of the pteruges of the lower, and vice versa. The purpose is evidently to give complete cover of the lower torso (the hide plate must barely reach the navel, if that, note that the pteruges end barely half-way around the genitals, which would only be covered by the cloth shift.

There is a beautiful marble statue of Herakles as an archer, c. 485-480 B.C.E. (so approximately 35 years older than Feinman's source), originally from the figured east pediment [depicting the war of Herakles and Laomedon, king of Troy] of the great Doric temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf but now kept at the Glyptothek in Munich, which shows why the spolas was made so. One might think that it offers less protection to the lower viscera than a cuirass that reached further down, and that is certainly true [but see Feinman's earlier notes or my postscript], but by ending the hide plate above the navel and keeping the pteruges short, one allows complete freedom of movement of the legs, as much as if the warrior was nude.



Another statue of a spolas-clad warrior, more fragmentary, identified as Teucer, the great Achaean archer and half-brother of Ajax, also taken from the temple of Aphaia but this time from the west figural pediment [depicting the more famous Trojan War, the Trojan War of the Iliad] shows the extreme freedom of movement allowed by such an armour that leaves the genital organs half-covered only:



The Saronic Herakles also may shed considerable light on the plates or scales on the side-panels of the spolas, which are only suggested by the Achilles Painter.

Feinman concludes in his earlier analysis that the pteruges were made of rigid hide, not pliable leather, and that this accounted for their stopping above the genitals to avoid chafing and injury before mobility was even considered. I believe these marbles support this hypothesis very strongly -- they stick out rigidly, even at an angle (observe the rear of the Saronic Herakles) from the spolas, showing no sign of flexion or of following the lines of the soldier's body as a thin leather flap would do. I have seen some claims that the pteruges could only have been a very poor protection, but these all assume that they are made of leather, not the hide, wax and casein-treated material used here. Feinman is a strong man and can barely bend the chest-plate, so I suspect the double layer of pteruges were no slight protection for the lower torso.

Although it seems to me necessary to assume the pteruges were attached separately from each other to allow them to move freely (I will be interested to see how Feinman makes his replica), the statues, unlike the Achilles Painter's vase, in which it is implied but not clearly shown (the pteruges are separated for the whole of their visible length, there is no sign of them being cut from one piece) it is seems fairly explicit in the statues that each pteron was attached separately.

I fear very much that the modern desire for programmes to be ''gritty'' has deprived us of an understanding of just how advanced the Classical civilisations were -- the Greek bronzes are actually finer than the Victorian copies to my mind, the Roman are as elaborate as anything designed by Piranesi or the Victorian neo-Classical sculptors. The spolas is an extremely elaborate piece of armour, with the stiffened hide panels front and back and stiffened plates overlapping on flexible leather at the sides. The filthy centurions of the Bible programme with old towels on their backs shown on this forum and the crude ''Hollywood Achaean'' of ''300'' and other such rot are thoroughly pernicious.

I am most sorry for publishing my notes at such length and cannot possibly stress enough that Feinman is the star and genius of this work. I am merely prattling and don't want to take away from his tremendous effort. I hope he sees these notes as what they are meant to be -- the highest tribute I can give to his work.

[Feinman]

Thank you for posting those pictures, and I very much enjoy your commentary, Clavdivs!  I will have to consider the attachment and articulation of the ptyreges, as you say.  As I must try to reproduce the piece as it specifically appears on the amphora depiction, I will probably keep each layer of ptyreges as one piece; this will keep them pointed down, but still allow the flexibility needed between torso and pelvis, and those depicted on the vase actually bow out slightly.  There is an incredible variety of depictions of Tube & Yoke armour, and some are very  difficult to understand;  some actually appear to be depictions of linen armour, likely twined, or armour of layers of linen, or with hide scales and bronze scales or possibly contiguous plates...  Or even twined linen with a bronze scale section and several layers of hide over the breast, as in the Alexander Mosaic.    So!  I should have time tonight and tomorrow to actually get something done on it!  Pics eventually.  

BTW, I used to just be a normal guy into ancient Egyptian arms and armour, but Matt Amt and Joe Balmos got me interested in Greek stuff, so I blame them!

[Clavdivs]

Always a great pleasure -- I look forward to the pteruges in a few days. ''The glory that was Greece'' (E.A. Poe) is always well worth studying, so I think you were fortunate!

P.S. Two marvellous pieces of Greek pottery showing the spolas or linothorax being put on:

A. Hector departing for the Trojan War, receiving his helmet from Hecuba. Reverse of the ''Three Revellers'' Amphora of Euthymides, c. 510 B.C.E. (and so about sixty-five years older than your source)l kept in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen at Munich. This struck me as particularly interesting as it shows the construction of the shift worn under the armour.

B. To my great annoyance I cannot trace this one!

[Feinman]

one row for front done and waxed / oiled, other row which will be offset for front nailed up and drying, will finish that one tonight. discoloration at top of finished piece will not be visible.  This hide is crazy tough.

[Clavdivs]

Excellent work as ever -- the observations on the toughness of the treated hide, and hence the ability of two layers of pteruges to deflect blows, are of the very best in experimental archaeology.

[Feinman]

Tomorrow I should have time to get more done! And this weekend is free this time too, so I am planning on finishing the front panel and ptyereges and then start cutting scales..

[Clavdivs]

Delighted to hear it. I look forward to the progress keenly.

[Feinman]

Done with front section early.  Hardest part over, I think.  Just waiting for paint to dry for an hour or two before sealing, so pics very soon!