Ever wonder why the nose-pieces of Greek helmets are sometimes snapped off or bent out of shape? Nose guards on Corinthian helmets don’t bend easily…they tend to be thicker than the rest of the helmet, to protect that delicate cartilaginous protrusion beneath, and when they are bent and missing it’s no accident and nothing to
With a silver sheen to that hauntingly immobile face and empty slitted apertures for eyes, this helmet instantly projects an uncanny, otherworldly effect. And presumably that was exactly the point. Roman helmets of a similar typology have been found all over Europe, and this especially powerful one in Holland was found by chance in 1915
A famous passage in Herodotus describes Greek warriors as ‘men of bronze’ rising from the sea. Evocative and certainly describing the hoplites of his time, sheathed in gleaming metal. Was there anything more personal than armor to a man of fighting age? Not only was it protective, but also obscenely expensive (that’s a lot of