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Modern reconstruction of a Greek xiphos and scabbard. Actaeon holding a xiphos. Painted vase from Metaponto, c. 390–380 BC. The xiphos (Ancient Greek: ξίφος; plural xiphe, Ancient Greek: ξίφη [ksípʰɛː]) [1] is a double-edged, one-handed Iron Age straight shortsword used by the ancient Greeks.
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.
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]
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
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.
A Greek hoplite with muscle cuirass, spear, shield, Corinthian helmet and sheathed sword. Ancient Greek weapons and armor were primarily geared towards combat between individuals. Their primary technique was called the phalanx , a formation consisting of massed shield wall, which required heavy frontal armor and medium-ranged weapons such as ...
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 labrys, or pelekys, is the double axe Zeus uses to invoke storm and, the relatively modern Greek word for lightning is "star-axe" (ἀστροπελέκι astropeleki) [17] The worship of the double axe was kept up in the Greek island of Tenedos and in several cities in the south-west of Asia Minor, and it appears in later historical times ...