Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Could the closed Greek helmet kill a warrior?

Jens Nordlunde · 27th May 2005, 04:37 PM

Hi Rick,

You wrote: ‘I do not think that any honour is taken from a man in the way he died on the field of battle, unless he was killed running away’.

I quite agree with you, but if someone died in real battle it must have been a bigger honour, so why tell the family other than ‘he died fighting’, and so he did – in a way.

Now I am at it, were any orders given during fighting, other than ‘ATTACK’? Be course with a full helmet on, or one with mail it must have been hard/impossible to hear anything in the noise of the battle. Besides, the way some helmets, with or without mail ‘curtains’ were made, it must have been very difficult to look to the sides to see if your ‘neighbours’ had left already, leaving you ‘alone’ on the battle field. As the uniforms were only invented rather late in India, it could have been difficult to judge, if you were surrounded by friends or by not so friendly enemies.

27th May 2005, 04:37 PM	#24
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	Hi Rick, You wrote: ‘I do not think that any honour is taken from a man in the way he died on the field of battle, unless he was killed running away’. I quite agree with you, but if someone died in real battle it must have been a bigger honour, so why tell the family other than ‘he died fighting’, and so he did – in a way. Now I am at it, were any orders given during fighting, other than ‘ATTACK’? Be course with a full helmet on, or one with mail it must have been hard/impossible to hear anything in the noise of the battle. Besides, the way some helmets, with or without mail ‘curtains’ were made, it must have been very difficult to look to the sides to see if your ‘neighbours’ had left already, leaving you ‘alone’ on the battle field. As the uniforms were only invented rather late in India, it could have been difficult to judge, if you were surrounded by friends or by not so friendly enemies.