Greek Warriors

Greek Warriors
Warfare played a constant and significant role in the development of Greek culture. This is apparent in the depiction of military conflicts on various artifacts which have survived over the centuries. The Greek warrior is located among the largest artifacts, buildings and statues, and among the smallest, coins. The warrior is also painted on vases. These objects are all reflective of Greek culture, and of the impact war had upon the people who created and used these objects. The most abundant of these artifacts are the hundreds of vases which have been collected over the years. Among these vases are the "Athenian Red-Figure vases and Attic Black Figure Vases." As an ideal, the Greek warrior combined superhuman and human qualities. The ideal characteristics included such factors as bravery, honor, and glory. The aim of every hero is to achieve kleos, the “glory” or “renown” that one wins in the eyes of others by performing great deeds. Honor is essential to the Homer’s heroes, so much so that life would be meaningless without it. For a Greek warrior honor is more important than life itself. A hero's honor is determined primarily by his courage and physical abilities and to a lesser degree by his social status and possessions. The highest honor can only be won in battle. When a hero is advised to be careful to avoid a life-threatening situation in battle, his only choice is to ignore this warning. When Hector's wife urges him not to re-enter the war, he answers (6.441-443): “Yet I would feel deep shame before the Trojans, and the Trojan women with trailing garments, if like a coward I were to shrink aside from the fighting.” Many Greek warriors were favored by the gods because they were most likely offspring or descendants of unions between gods and mortals, yet they maintained many human characteristics. Achilles was a great example of this because he was immortal except when he was injured in his “Achilles Heel”. When he was a child his mother dipped him in the river Styx so that he could have immortality, she held him by his heel making that part of him weak. In the Iliad, he is referred to as “swift-footed” (1.121) and is described as “lion-hearted who breaks men in battle” (7.228), which both suggest his physical superiority, as does the description of his being a “godlike” (1.131). He is often referred to as being the best of all warriors. Greek warriors were depicted as having weaknesses as