09-26-2014, 07:21 PM
I don't think such evidence exists.
I think even the Spartans using lambda on their shields is just a very speculative conclusion scholars made following Xenophon's anecdote about Argives and Sikyonians and the sigma shield device.
The first actual evidence comes from 9th century AD?! if I recall.
I do think they used, especially until the end of the 5th BC, same as what other Greeks used, religious, magical or apotropaic symbols, metaphoric symbols, inscriptions, maybe clan or family emblem etc. At least that is what material and literary evidence says to us.
I think even the Spartans using lambda on their shields is just a very speculative conclusion scholars made following Xenophon's anecdote about Argives and Sikyonians and the sigma shield device.
The first actual evidence comes from 9th century AD?! if I recall.
I do think they used, especially until the end of the 5th BC, same as what other Greeks used, religious, magical or apotropaic symbols, metaphoric symbols, inscriptions, maybe clan or family emblem etc. At least that is what material and literary evidence says to us.
Gordan
,,The Greeks did not follow a straight path of military efficiency. They were guided, rather, by culture, especially by the legacy of their past.\'\'
,,The Greeks did not follow a straight path of military efficiency. They were guided, rather, by culture, especially by the legacy of their past.\'\'
