GRST 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Hoplite, Odysseus, Iron Age

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Greek and Roman Studies
• Course: GRST 321
• Professor: Lesley Bolton

Document Summary

Military technology: soldiers and armies, cavalry, chariots, camps and fortifications, sieges, navies. Soldiers and armies: first army we see is the egyptian army in the bronze age. In some sense it was compulsory, the pharaoh could conscript members of his population: soldiers carrying spears and shields. Greek infantry (bronze age: soldiers from troy, odysseus, paris, etc, greek warfare primarily focused on the individual heroes who went into war and had stories written about him, some form of spear and shield. From the iliad, there is a description that odysseus wore a helmet of boars tusks and for the longest times it was thought that this was made up or misinterpreted until one such helmet was recovered in. The main difference across the ages is what the weapons are made of, the weapons in general stay the same and the technology is not changing very much. The method in how the soldiers and armies are deployed likely changes over time.