Fig. 172.
forward, in order to fasten it there to the front piece of his cuirass. In Fig. [170], a heroic genre picture, we see this more clearly. Here Achilles bandages the arm of the wounded. Patroclus; the right shoulder-piece of Patroclus is fastened, but the left is opened in order not to hurt the wounded arm. The mode in which the shoulder-pieces were fastened to the cuirass is very clearly represented in the figure of Amphiaraus, in Fig. [171], a vase painting representing the “Farewell of Amphiaraus.” There were two kinds of cuirass: those with stiff plates, and those with scales. In the former, those plates are commonest which do not fit closely to the body, but only roughly represent its shape; of this kind are the cuirasses of the warriors in Figs. [167] and [167], and also that of Amphiaraus in Fig. [171]. In Fig. [172], taken from a bowl painted by Duris, the youth who is going to battle receives a cuirass of this kind (compare also Fig. [166]). Sometimes this cuirass was made in a shape common among the Romans, imitating the form of the human body and representing its chief features. The warriors in Fig. [170] wear scale armour; the cuirasses are evidently made of leather, covered with little brass plates, arranged one over another like scales. Some parts of the cuirasses seem also to be made of plates; for instance, the girdle of Achilles and a strip behind, also the upper part of the breast-plate of Patroclus; the shoulder-pieces, however, are made of scales, for flexibility was of special importance here. The belly was protected by leather strips or lappets, covered with metal, hanging down at the lower edge of the cuirass, and covering part of the thighs (compare Figs. [169] and [170]). The cuirass was generally fastened round the hips by a leathern belt, with brass coverings; perhaps this is the object which the boy in Fig. [168] is offering to the warrior putting on his armour.
Below the cuirass they wore a short chiton woven of especially strong threads, and frequently mentioned by Homer as twisted or woven; the sleeves were usually cut short, falling a little way below the shoulders, and it only descended over part of the thighs. (Compare the pictures.) Homer also makes mention of a broad girdle (μίτρα), plated with brass, worn immediately over the chiton in such a manner that the upper part of the girdle was covered by the cuirass, while the lower was exposed. This girdle seems to have fallen into disuse soon after the Homeric age, for we can find no trace of it on any works of art. The linen tunics mentioned in Homer, which became commoner in later times, were probably woven of strong thread, and covered with brass at the most exposed places.
Fig. 173.
Fig. 174. Fig. 175.
The helmet, which, even in the earliest ages, took
