But Two Swords Never: A Hoplite Armed with a Kopis and a Xiphos?
By Ross Cowan
According to J.K. Anderson, a hoplite’s offensive weapons consisted of two spears (or spear and javelin), a sword and possibly a dagger, “but two swords never”. Anderson was aware of of an exception to this rule in the depiction of a duel between Achilles and Memnon on a volute-krater by the Berlin Painter in the British Museum (Fig. 1). Memnon is equipped with two xiphoi (cut-and-thrust swords), but Anderson concluded that the unusual armament “must be a mistake by the painter; there is no second scabbard” (Anderson 1991, 26 & 37).
Homer does not mention the duel in the Iliad and only alludes to Memnon in the Odyssey, but other traditions may have noted the hero carried two blades. Swords certainly broke, or were lost in battle, but the practice of carrying a spare was most unusual in the Ancient world. A rare example comes from a fragment of Claudius Quadrigarius’ history, in which it is stated that a Gallic champion was armed with gladios duos (two swords) at the Battle of the Anio in 361 BC (see AW 100)
The Attic pot painters of the late Archaic and Classical eras took great delight in equipping their subjects with the latest military equipment. There was no attempt to depict gods, heroes like Achilles and Memnon, giants or Amazons in archaic arms and armour. They were equipped like contemporary hoplites.
Another master of Attic red-figure took inspiration from the recent Persian Wars. In the National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh), a kylix attributed to the Triptolemos Painter shows a hoplite about to bring down his kopis on an unfortunate Persian archer. (Fig.2) The kopis (cleaver) was a single edged sword with a curved blade that could hack through armour and sever limbs. (Rover 2020)
A skull from the Theban mass grave at Chaironeia (338 BC), probably belonging to a member of Sacred Band, was “sliced from temple to temple across the top of the forehead, shearing off the face”. The terrible wound had been inflicted by a Macedonian kopis (Ma 2008, 75-76). Maria Liston describes the blow in graphic detail
The blade initially struck the frontal bone, probably near the hairline, at the top right of the forehead. The point of impact is indicated by a small semicircular fracture. The blade continued downward behind the eyes and nose to the top of the mandible, removing the front of the braincase and upper face. The force of the impact created an additional radiating fracture on the right side of the frontal bone, terminating at the coronal suture. This trauma would have been almost instantaneously fatal.
The kopis required a wide scabbard to accommodate its distinctive blade, but the Triptolemos Painter has a narrow xiphos-type scabbard hang by the hoplite’s left leg. Can we assume it was intended to suggest that the triumphant Greek warrior was equipped with a second sword, a slender xiphos?
Archaeological examples of kopides are not uncommon but surviving scabbards and fittings are rare. The ideal scabbard form is illustrated on pots by the Brygos and Kleophrades Painters.
The Selene Kylix by the Byrgos Painter (490 BC), depicts a dying giant with a large and distinctively-shaped kopis scabbard. (Fig 3) The Vivenzio Hydria, painted by the Kleophrades Painter, c. 490-480 BC, shows Neoptolemos about to slaughter Priam with a kopis. Neoptolemos’ scabbard is the right shape but is too small for the sword’s large blade.
Undersized scabbards, for kopides and xiphoi, are common on Attic painted pots of the later sixth and fifth centuries BC. For example, on a lekythos in the Met (New York) a youthful warrior cuts his hair with a xiphos, but the straight-sided scabbard is too narrow for the leaf-bladed sword.
On a stamnos by Tyszkiewicz Painter, a hydria by the Leningrad Painter (British Museum), and a lekythos by the Berlin Painter (Cleveland Museum of Art), the scabbards of kopides are of an appropriate length and broad enough at the mouth but taper towards the chape. A neck-amphora by the Providence Painter (Louvre) features a kopis in association with a scabbard that is too short and narrow. Unless such scabbards were split open on one side, which seems most unlikely, they could not accommodate kopides.
Returning to the narrow scabbard worn by the kopis-wielding hoplite on the kylix by the Triptolemos Painter in Edinburgh, was it intended to suggest the warrior carried a second sword? No. Despite their otherwise accurate depictions of arms and armour, Attic pot painters frequently illustrated drawn swords in association with undersized scabbards. The hoplite versus Persian kylix should be considered another example of this artistic convention.
References
- J.K. Anderson, ‘Hoplite Weapons and Offensive Arms’ in V.D. Hanson (ed.), Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience (London 1991), 15-37
- J. Ma, ‘Chaironeia 338: Topographies of Commemoration’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 128 (2008), 72-91
- M.A. Liston, ‘Skeletal Evidence for the Impact of Battle on Soldiers and Non-Iconography’, Journal of Conflict Studies 8 (2013), 3-21
- T.O. Rover, ‘The Combat Archaeology of the Fifth-Century BC Kopis: Hoplite Swordsmanship in the Archaic and Classical Periods’, International Journal of Military History and Historiography 40 (2020), 7-49
