Excellent finds! Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by hrvsomerville
Very happy to see someone as interested in these as I am. It's also interesting that Parnell claims that the kopis is rarely portrayed in sculpture as these examples (of at least the hilts) were found in Dodona, where the first example she cites was found. Maybe she thinks that because they could appear to look like straight swords when sheathed? An example of that can be seen in the painting of one from the tomb of Lyson and Kallikles, interestingly seen with equipment similar to that found with the Kopis from Prodromi.
|
Would you consider a kopis blade on a xiphos hilt still a kopis? What about a xiphos blade on a kopis hilt? To be fair some kopis examples have almost straight blades, the Prodromi example and this
one, with a bit more work, look almost like xiphos blades.
I would argue that the only remaining distinguishing feature of a kopis, as opposed to a xiphos, might not be the forward curvature of the blade, but the asymmetric hilt. Actually, not the entire hilt even, sometimes just the hook shape at the end. Here are two examples with symmetric guards, but hooked ends.
Actually you can find a nice contrast between the two types in the Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles example you posted.
Source:
https://x-legio.com/en/wiki/kopis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A...de04a5a180.jpg
https://hetairoi.de/en/kopis-prodromi