ABSTRACT
The great round shield, the hoplon from which the hoplite derived his name, cannot be omitted from an account of ‘offensive arms,’ partly because it determined the conditions under which spear and sword were used; partly because it was used not merely passively, to ward off the enemy’s blows, but actively pressed forward in the pushing (othismos) 1 that decided the battle when two phalanxes met face to face. ‘Set foot against foot; strain shield against shield, crest upon crest, helmet upon helmet; breast to breast close with your man and fight him, grasping your sword’s hilt or long spear-shaft’ (Tyrtaeus 8.31–4). This exhortation to Spartans engaged in the Second Messenian War (first half of the seventh century BC?) is undoubtedly influenced by two famous passages in the Iliad (13.130–3 and 16.215–17). But the heroes of the Trojan War are described as packing closely together with their own friends, so that shield touches shield, helmet helmet—exceptionally, since Homeric battles are normally affairs of heroes moving about the field in chariots, from which they alight for single combat. What is new in Tyrtaeus is the shield pressed against the enemy’s shield.
