DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0056
GOLDEN RING OF HECTOR'S SPEAR-HEAD
circlet disappears as an organic feature. It is therefore of special interest,
as an illustration of the very early character of Epic sources, that Hector's
spear-head should be described as of bronze with a golden ring around it.1
Whether or not there was any suggestion in that case from Egypt,2
there is every reason for believing that the type of spear with the wrapped-
Fig. 31. Bronze Spear-head of Mainland Type with Shoe-like Socket (Sesklo).
Fig. 32. Bronze Halberd Blade with Gold-capped Rivets from Shaft Grave VI.
over socket was evolved in Minoan Crete towards the close of the Middle
Minoan Age. At this epoch it was as yet unknown on the European side.
A native class of bronze spear-head of a quite different kind was indeed in
vogue in Mainland Greece, and a fragmentary specimen of one of these
occurred in the Fourth Shaft Grave, showing an inchoate socket of a
quite different kind at the point. This very rudimentary form of spear-
head has a shoe-like socket on the face of a flat blade and is charac-
teristic of the 'Minyan' stratum of Mainland Greece (Fig. 31).
Nothing
1 II, vi. 320 and viii. 494 irdpoiOt Si Xd/x-
7r€TO Oovpoi j al^/xij yaAiccil^, irejn 8e ypuo*€OS $€€
7rd/>/o/s. Dr. Leaf, Notes on Homeric Armour
{J. H. S., iv, p. 300), and the Iliad of Homer
(i, p. 217) lias endeavoured to explain this
with reference to the earlier form of blade
fixed in the split end of the shaft. But the
parallel above suggested is nearer in date and
more obvious.
2 Professor Petrie informed me that he had
seen a socketed spear-head of this type from a
tomb of the First Dynasty. They also seem
to have existed in the time of the Twelfth
and Thirteenth Dynasties, but the specimens
given by De Morgan (Origines aVEgypte,
1896, p. 209, Fig. 266) as coming from the
Mastabas of Lisht have the appearance of
belonging to a considerably later date.
3 From Grave 56 at Sesklo, where was also
found, in a superficial deposit, a schist mould
for a similar spear-head (Tsountas, Upo'ia-T.
JA/cpo7r. AL/jirjviov Kal 2co"kXoi?, PI, IV, 10, and
pp. 334 and 354). A specimen of this type
occurred in Leukas (Karo, Arch. Aiiz., 1908,
p. 130, Fig. 2). It has been found also on
other Mainland sites, but its connexion with
circlet disappears as an organic feature. It is therefore of special interest,
as an illustration of the very early character of Epic sources, that Hector's
spear-head should be described as of bronze with a golden ring around it.1
Whether or not there was any suggestion in that case from Egypt,2
there is every reason for believing that the type of spear with the wrapped-
Fig. 31. Bronze Spear-head of Mainland Type with Shoe-like Socket (Sesklo).
Fig. 32. Bronze Halberd Blade with Gold-capped Rivets from Shaft Grave VI.
over socket was evolved in Minoan Crete towards the close of the Middle
Minoan Age. At this epoch it was as yet unknown on the European side.
A native class of bronze spear-head of a quite different kind was indeed in
vogue in Mainland Greece, and a fragmentary specimen of one of these
occurred in the Fourth Shaft Grave, showing an inchoate socket of a
quite different kind at the point. This very rudimentary form of spear-
head has a shoe-like socket on the face of a flat blade and is charac-
teristic of the 'Minyan' stratum of Mainland Greece (Fig. 31).
Nothing
1 II, vi. 320 and viii. 494 irdpoiOt Si Xd/x-
7r€TO Oovpoi j al^/xij yaAiccil^, irejn 8e ypuo*€OS $€€
7rd/>/o/s. Dr. Leaf, Notes on Homeric Armour
{J. H. S., iv, p. 300), and the Iliad of Homer
(i, p. 217) lias endeavoured to explain this
with reference to the earlier form of blade
fixed in the split end of the shaft. But the
parallel above suggested is nearer in date and
more obvious.
2 Professor Petrie informed me that he had
seen a socketed spear-head of this type from a
tomb of the First Dynasty. They also seem
to have existed in the time of the Twelfth
and Thirteenth Dynasties, but the specimens
given by De Morgan (Origines aVEgypte,
1896, p. 209, Fig. 266) as coming from the
Mastabas of Lisht have the appearance of
belonging to a considerably later date.
3 From Grave 56 at Sesklo, where was also
found, in a superficial deposit, a schist mould
for a similar spear-head (Tsountas, Upo'ia-T.
JA/cpo7r. AL/jirjviov Kal 2co"kXoi?, PI, IV, 10, and
pp. 334 and 354). A specimen of this type
occurred in Leukas (Karo, Arch. Aiiz., 1908,
p. 130, Fig. 2). It has been found also on
other Mainland sites, but its connexion with