09-06-2016, 01:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2016, 01:40 AM by Paullus Scipio.)
King Amasis’ linen ‘armour’
Dan Howard wrote:
“There is also king Amasis' armour. Pliny said it was made of linen strands consisting of 365 threads and Herodotus said 360 threads. The exact number doesn't matter; what matters is that cords this thick are used in twined cloth, not woven cloth. So we have more data pointing to twined linen armour.”
Paul Bardunias wrote:
“The question with the Amasis armor for me has always been was it considered amazing because it was a super high quality linen armor and the Greek examples were less so, or was it amazing because linen was too precious and difficult to work to find used throughout Greece. Egypt was a major linen source, but the best linen came from Colchis.”
There seems to be some misunderstanding and confusion regarding King Amasis’ gifts, and the use of the word ‘thoraka’. The word can refer to body armour made of any material, but it also has a generic meaning of ‘body protector’ or even just ‘body covering’ e.g. a garment [see LSJ]. Thus, as Paul Bardunias has alluded to earlier, in mythological and archaic times, animal pelts used as protection were ‘thoraka’.
The relevant passages of different authors are produced below, for readers without access to the sources.
Herodotus II.182.1
“Moreover, Amasis dedicated offerings in Hellas. He gave to Cyrene a gilt image of Athena and a painted picture of himself; to Athena of Lindus[Rhodes], two stone images and a marvellous linen body-protector/thoraka; and to Hera in Samos, two wooden statues of himself that were still standing in my time behind the doors in the great shrine.”
Herodotus III.47.2
“This body-protector/thorakos had been stolen by the Samians [from the Lacedaemonians] in the year before they took the bowl; it was of linen, decked with gold and cotton embroidery, and embroidered with many figures; but what makes it worthy of wonder is that each fine thread of the body-protector/ of which the material is woven, is made up of three hundred and sixty strands, each plainly seen. It is the exact counterpart of that one which Amasis dedicated to Athena in Lindus[on Rhodes]”
Pliny Natural History XIX. II.1
“Those, no doubt, will be astonished at this, who are not aware that there is preserved in the Temple of Minerva[Athena], at Lindus, in the Isle of Rhodes, the body protector/thorace of a former king of Egypt, Amasis by name, each thread employed in the texture of which is composed of three hundred and sixty-five other threads. Mucianus, who was three times consul, informs us that he saw this curiosity very recently, though there was but little then remaining of it, in consequence of the injury it had experienced at the hands of various persons who had tried to verify the fact.”
These three passages, then, describe the two fine ‘thoraka’ made of linen, which Amasis donated to two temples of Athena. This practise of donating gifts to a God or Goddess, which then became part of the ‘treasure’ held in that Goddess’ Temple was quite common. In Athens for example, the maidens wove a ‘peplos’/ full length garment for the annual lesser Panathenaic festival for Athena Polias. Every four years, at the Greater Panathenaic festival, the city’s professional male weavers provided a much larger ‘peplos’, which was displayed as a sail from the yardarm of the Panathenaic ship, and afterward displayed as a tapestry hung in the Temple on the Acropolis.
Amasis’ gifts, by contrast, were not clothing, but Athena’s ‘body protector’/thorakos. This was NOT a conventional Tube-and-Yoke corselet, or other conventional armour, and Athena was never, so far as I know, depicted thus. Each God and Goddess had their own attributes by which they could be recognised – Zeus’ thunderbolt, Poseidon’s trident and so on. One of Athena’s attributes was her ‘body-protector/thoraka’ which consisted of the Aegis, the scaly pelt of a dragon-like monster, to which was attached the head of the Gorgon Medusa, which had the power of turning to stone those unfortunate mortals who gazed upon it. ( see attached images).
The matter is put beyond doubt by a passage in Diodorus, describing Athena’s body protector/thoraka as the Aegis.
Diodorus III.70
“Athena, they say, overcoming the monster [the Aegis]partly through her intelligence and partly through her courage and bodily strength, slew it, and covering her breast with its [scaly] hide bore this about with her, both as a covering and protection for her body against later dangers, and as a memorial of her valour and of her well-merited fame.”
It is the Aegis that was reproduced in woven linen then [contra Dan’s twined linen], richly decorated with gold thread and cotton ( cotton even more valuable than linen)that Amasis donated. This was particularly fine linen (thread count 360 or 365 ), and as Paul B. Suggested “...considered amazing because it was a super high quality linen”. Pliny also describes how complex and difficult it was to process, so he was right on both counts!
I commented in a previous post on just how costly and expensive linen was, and certainly too expensive for any save super-rich Kings and nobles to wear linen armour, which like Dan, I believe to have been quilted, for that is what all our evidence points to, and this is quite likely one of the factors that influenced Alexander to wear a fine captured Persian example, probably belonging to Darieus, or one of his Friends/Relations. Pliny too has some relevant comments on just how valuable the best linens were ( he reckons there were over 20 odd varieties).
Pliny Natural History XIX.4-6
“The next rank is accorded to the tissue known as "byssus," an article which is held in the very highest estimation by females, and is produced in the vicinity of Elis, in Achaia. I find it stated by some writers that a scruple [1.14 grams] of this sold formerly at four denarii, the same rate, in fact, as gold.”...... (my emphasis - it was worth its weight in gold, literally)
...... “Linen, too, was highly valued as early as the Trojan war; for why else should it not have figured as much in battles as it did in shipwrecks? Thus Homer, we find, bears witness that there were but few among the warriors of those days who fought with cuirasses made of linen;”
On grounds of expense alone, then, we may rule out general use of multiple layers of glued linen as being the material of the typical Greek/Macedonian Tube-and-Yoke corselet.
Like Dan, I would like to add my protests and frustrations at trying to post in this current format.....it always takes a half dozen attempts to get a post right, even drafting in 'Word', because the format always 'stuffs up'......
Dan Howard wrote:
“There is also king Amasis' armour. Pliny said it was made of linen strands consisting of 365 threads and Herodotus said 360 threads. The exact number doesn't matter; what matters is that cords this thick are used in twined cloth, not woven cloth. So we have more data pointing to twined linen armour.”
Paul Bardunias wrote:
“The question with the Amasis armor for me has always been was it considered amazing because it was a super high quality linen armor and the Greek examples were less so, or was it amazing because linen was too precious and difficult to work to find used throughout Greece. Egypt was a major linen source, but the best linen came from Colchis.”
There seems to be some misunderstanding and confusion regarding King Amasis’ gifts, and the use of the word ‘thoraka’. The word can refer to body armour made of any material, but it also has a generic meaning of ‘body protector’ or even just ‘body covering’ e.g. a garment [see LSJ]. Thus, as Paul Bardunias has alluded to earlier, in mythological and archaic times, animal pelts used as protection were ‘thoraka’.
The relevant passages of different authors are produced below, for readers without access to the sources.
Herodotus II.182.1
“Moreover, Amasis dedicated offerings in Hellas. He gave to Cyrene a gilt image of Athena and a painted picture of himself; to Athena of Lindus[Rhodes], two stone images and a marvellous linen body-protector/thoraka; and to Hera in Samos, two wooden statues of himself that were still standing in my time behind the doors in the great shrine.”
Herodotus III.47.2
“This body-protector/thorakos had been stolen by the Samians [from the Lacedaemonians] in the year before they took the bowl; it was of linen, decked with gold and cotton embroidery, and embroidered with many figures; but what makes it worthy of wonder is that each fine thread of the body-protector/ of which the material is woven, is made up of three hundred and sixty strands, each plainly seen. It is the exact counterpart of that one which Amasis dedicated to Athena in Lindus[on Rhodes]”
Pliny Natural History XIX. II.1
“Those, no doubt, will be astonished at this, who are not aware that there is preserved in the Temple of Minerva[Athena], at Lindus, in the Isle of Rhodes, the body protector/thorace of a former king of Egypt, Amasis by name, each thread employed in the texture of which is composed of three hundred and sixty-five other threads. Mucianus, who was three times consul, informs us that he saw this curiosity very recently, though there was but little then remaining of it, in consequence of the injury it had experienced at the hands of various persons who had tried to verify the fact.”
These three passages, then, describe the two fine ‘thoraka’ made of linen, which Amasis donated to two temples of Athena. This practise of donating gifts to a God or Goddess, which then became part of the ‘treasure’ held in that Goddess’ Temple was quite common. In Athens for example, the maidens wove a ‘peplos’/ full length garment for the annual lesser Panathenaic festival for Athena Polias. Every four years, at the Greater Panathenaic festival, the city’s professional male weavers provided a much larger ‘peplos’, which was displayed as a sail from the yardarm of the Panathenaic ship, and afterward displayed as a tapestry hung in the Temple on the Acropolis.
Amasis’ gifts, by contrast, were not clothing, but Athena’s ‘body protector’/thorakos. This was NOT a conventional Tube-and-Yoke corselet, or other conventional armour, and Athena was never, so far as I know, depicted thus. Each God and Goddess had their own attributes by which they could be recognised – Zeus’ thunderbolt, Poseidon’s trident and so on. One of Athena’s attributes was her ‘body-protector/thoraka’ which consisted of the Aegis, the scaly pelt of a dragon-like monster, to which was attached the head of the Gorgon Medusa, which had the power of turning to stone those unfortunate mortals who gazed upon it. ( see attached images).
The matter is put beyond doubt by a passage in Diodorus, describing Athena’s body protector/thoraka as the Aegis.
Diodorus III.70
“Athena, they say, overcoming the monster [the Aegis]partly through her intelligence and partly through her courage and bodily strength, slew it, and covering her breast with its [scaly] hide bore this about with her, both as a covering and protection for her body against later dangers, and as a memorial of her valour and of her well-merited fame.”
It is the Aegis that was reproduced in woven linen then [contra Dan’s twined linen], richly decorated with gold thread and cotton ( cotton even more valuable than linen)that Amasis donated. This was particularly fine linen (thread count 360 or 365 ), and as Paul B. Suggested “...considered amazing because it was a super high quality linen”. Pliny also describes how complex and difficult it was to process, so he was right on both counts!
I commented in a previous post on just how costly and expensive linen was, and certainly too expensive for any save super-rich Kings and nobles to wear linen armour, which like Dan, I believe to have been quilted, for that is what all our evidence points to, and this is quite likely one of the factors that influenced Alexander to wear a fine captured Persian example, probably belonging to Darieus, or one of his Friends/Relations. Pliny too has some relevant comments on just how valuable the best linens were ( he reckons there were over 20 odd varieties).
Pliny Natural History XIX.4-6
“The next rank is accorded to the tissue known as "byssus," an article which is held in the very highest estimation by females, and is produced in the vicinity of Elis, in Achaia. I find it stated by some writers that a scruple [1.14 grams] of this sold formerly at four denarii, the same rate, in fact, as gold.”...... (my emphasis - it was worth its weight in gold, literally)
...... “Linen, too, was highly valued as early as the Trojan war; for why else should it not have figured as much in battles as it did in shipwrecks? Thus Homer, we find, bears witness that there were but few among the warriors of those days who fought with cuirasses made of linen;”
On grounds of expense alone, then, we may rule out general use of multiple layers of glued linen as being the material of the typical Greek/Macedonian Tube-and-Yoke corselet.
Like Dan, I would like to add my protests and frustrations at trying to post in this current format.....it always takes a half dozen attempts to get a post right, even drafting in 'Word', because the format always 'stuffs up'......
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
