Machaira, kopis, falcata

[Thersites]

Machaira, kopis, falcata in pdf format:
(text in Spanish, but can be followed easily I expect)

http://www.ffil.uam.es/equus/warmas/onl ... alcata.pdf

[sitalkes]

Machaira, kopis, falcata in pdf format:
(text in Spanish, but can be followed easily I expect)

Thanks a lot for this. I don't speak Spanish, and there aren't any pictures. Could you provide an English summary? For instance, does he say they are all the same thing? I suppose he does, since there aren't any pictures. I would like to know if it is useful before trying to use Babylon or BableFish to translate it.

[Thersites]

Here you are:

Basically: 'falcata' is a modern word, dates to the 18th century as an erudite term. Noly very occassionaly we do find the adjective 'falcatus' applied to a blade, but not as a substantive: e.g. 'falcatus ensis' in Virgil.

'Machaira' and 'kopis': Ancient sources are notoriously inconsistent and unreliable when using military terminology. Even Polybius, for instance ( avery knowledgeable military writer), uses some times 'machaira' (in theory a curved knife or by extension a curved sword, a sabre) to name the straight La Tène sword, because it was used as a slashing weapon. But not always; he also uses xiphos.

Taking this inconsistency into account, 'machaira' was originally used for most types of curved knifes (even in the Illiad), and specially for butcher's and sacrificial one-edged knives. It became a term for swords only much later.

Kopis seems -apparently- the more technical term (Xenophon), but even Xenophon himself sometimes seems to imply that kopides and machairai are different weapons (wen describing alien weapons), while in some cases these two terms are used interchangeably.

Romans adopted both terms and translated them into latin, but keeping the same confusion. Machaera seems to be used by Seneca to describe what we now call an Iberian falcata. But he could have employed 'copis' just the same.

Also, in Hellenistic times the word machaira , while udsed wor curved swords was still used for butcher's and sacrificial knives; while kopis was more often used in military contexts...

Basically, you cannot use 'kopis' or 'machaira' to try to define specific weapons (for example, kopides for Greek and machairai for Italian swords). That would be a biased use of information. Different shapes (almost straight or more curved blades, shorter or longer blades, with or without fullers, with or without dorsal edge, etc. have to be studied in archaeological terms (see 'El Armamento Ibérico' that also studies Italian and Green extant examples), and not by reference to two terms which are very confusing.

[hoplite14gr]

Machera or Macheri in Greek means knife.

Some ancient writers use it describing various types of swords adding to the confusion.

Kind regards

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Generally in Greek by ending some words to "a" and converting them to feminine it implies that this object is bigger or greater. Thus "machairi" becomes "machaira". If you now think that machairi means one edged knife-as opposed to the doubled edged knife that is called "encheiridion" you may wonder, is "machaira" a generic term for "big knife"? Note that small curved knifes were common in ancient Greece. The only thing i'm not sure in the above supposition is whether the word "machairi" was used in ancient times to mean a one edged knife,like today. Also note that still today one may call a big knife "machaira" if he wants to emphasize its size.
Khairete
Giannis.

[Thersites]

I cannot translate the whole article I uploaded in .pdf; you should have to read it if you want to grasp all different usages and meanings, changes with time and inconsistencies in sources. But we should remember first that ancient Greek covers a lot of time since the Illiad down into hellenistic times, so meanings change with time; and second that precision in object terminology was very different then; litarary usage, linguistic evolution, and changes in the objects themselves along an eight-century period have all to be taken into account.
I can only recommend you to struggle with the Spanish, or at leaast try to follow all references there to the original Greek and Latin sources... The different usages may look complex , but will give you a much better insight into the meanings of (gr) machaira, (gr) kopis, (lat) machaera and (lat) copis.

[sitalkes]

Excellent summary, thankyou very much! I've downloaded Babylon and will try to translate it ( Babylon is annoying in that it doesn't allow you to translate the whole thing, only one paragraph at a time).