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Stone's Glossary has xiphos being a name used by Homer for a sword. The entry in the book says that the sword had a double-edged blade widest at about two-thirds of its length from the point, and ending in a very long point. [2] The word is attested in Mycenaean Greek Linear B form as 𐀥𐀯𐀟𐀁, qi-si-pe-e.
The difference in meaning between kopis and makhaira (μάχαιρα, another Greek word, meaning "chopper" or "short sword", "dagger") is not entirely clear in ancient texts, [5] but modern specialists tend to discriminate between single-edged cutting swords, those with a forward curve being classed as kopides, those without as makhairai. [6]
Sword of Freyr, the sword of the Norse god of summer Frey, it is a magic sword which fought on its own. Gambanteinn , a sword which appears in two poems in the Poetic Edda. Gram , the sword that Odin struck into the world tree Barnstokkr which only Sigmund the Völsung was able to pull out.
Xiphos: Greek one-handed, double-edged Iron Age straight shortsword; Xyele: The short, slightly curved, one-edged sword of the Spartans. [3] Migration Period swords. Spatha: continuation, evolved into Ring-sword (ring-spatha, ring-hilt spatha), Merovingian period; Viking sword or Carolingian sword; Krefeld type
Makhaira entered classical Latin as machaera, "a sword". The dimachaerus was a type of Roman gladiator that fought with two swords. In modern Greek, μαχαίρι means "knife". Modern scholars distinguish the makhaira from the kopis (an ancient term of similar meaning) based on whether the blade is forward curved (kopis), or not (makhaira). [3]
The acinaces, also transliterated as akinakes (Greek ἀκῑνάκης) or akinaka (unattested Old Persian *akīnaka h, Sogdian kynʼk) is a type of dagger or xiphos (short sword) used mainly in the first millennium BCE in the eastern Mediterranean Basin, especially by the Medes, [1] Scythians, Persians and Caspians, [2] then by the Greeks.
The entire work is framed in terms of explaining art, its symbols and meaning, to a young audience. The author of the work in the introduction states that the ten-year-old son of his host was the immediate cause of the composition of this work and that the author will structure the book and each of its chapters as if this boy is being addressed.
The short sword was a secondary weapon, used if or when their spears were broken or lost, or if the phalanx broke rank. The xiphos usually had a blade around 60 centimetres (24 in) long; however, those used by the Spartans were often only 30–45 centimetres long.