A \'new\' look at the linothorax

[Dan Howard]

As far as I can tell there is nothing to suggest that the noun, linothorax, was ever used by the Greeks to denote a tube-and-yoke armour made of linen. There is one mention of the term in the the entire corpus of Greek texts (Strabo, Geography) and he doesn't give any hint of what it might have looked like. I have no problem using the term to describe any type of Greek armour made of linen, including Bronze Age versions. Homer doesn't use the word at all. He uses an adjective, linothorex, which simply describes someone who is "armoured in linen", not a noun.

The tube-and-yoke style of armour seems to have been made of everything: linen, leather, scale, iron plate; and is seen everywhere from the Aegean to central Asia.