When we come to greaves, however, we will see that there is evidence for the use of linen, and there is also evidence for the use of linen body armour at this time, although it is less practical to attach bronze reinforcements to linen. When talking about corslets made of a material backing reinforced with bronze, I have referred to bronze-reinforced leather, because such illustrations as we have seem to suggest this. Most Homeric references can be securely dated to the Late Mycenaean or Dark Age periods. Finally, Dendra-style armour had gone out of use by 1300 and Homer rarely mentions items that were in use only in that earliest period the large body shield of Ajax is one of the few exceptions. Also the zoster is often described as having a golden clasp, which Dendra ‘belts’ did not have. The most telling argument perhaps is that Amphius wore a zoster with a linen corslet (Iliad II, 830 and V, 615), which is perfectly acceptable for a bronze waist belt, but not for an armoured skirt of Dendra style. King makes no mention of the mitra, and I imagine that it would have been superfluous to wear an armoured kilt under the Dendra-style skirt of bronze. Guala is too general a word to represent a specific item of equipment, and for something not to be mentioned in the arming scenes is not a strong argument. These arguments can be rejected on the following grounds. ![]() King also interprets guala as the shoulder guards as well as the inner cuirass. She argues that zoster is in fact the armoured skirt from the Dendra suit, which is why it is never mentioned separately in the arming scenes, since it was attached to the cuirass. ![]() 294) has taken a different line, in which she compares Homer’s descriptions to the Dendra-style armour. This would allow for the three layers of armour in the region of the waist for Menelaos’s arrow to penetrate, and fits well with the phrase ‘with the bronze they put on it’, since these kilts are generally agreed to have been leather with bronze studs. There is no archaeological evidence until the seventh century for the semicircular abdominal guards found mostly in Crete and misnamed mitras, and I think the word is most likely describing an armoured kilt such as is worn on the Mycenaean Warrior Vase. It was a visible part of the armour and perhaps attached to it, as seems likely from the epithet amitrachitones (literally ‘mitra-corsletted’ or mitra-tuniced’) (Iliad XVI, 419), and its use as a last defence against missiles suggests to me something more substantial than a waist belt. It is possible that it was a baldric rather than a waist belt, but I think this is unlikely. The zoster was a belt worn over the cuirass, whether it was bronze or linen. The word zoma is also used by Homer as something worn by boxers, and it is clear that it must be a loincloth. It is clear that Menelaos was wearing all three pieces of armour at the same time, and with a bronze cuirass. The objections to these conclusions can be found in the two above passages concerning Menelaos that we have been discussing. They say that the zoster, on the other hand, was a bronze belt worn over a tunic of linen and the zoma was a synonym for either word (ibid. 127) associate it with the belts worn by Dark Age warrior statuettes and say it was overlapped sometimes by a metal cuirass. In later times mitra can mean a boxer’s girdle, which is perhaps closest to its meaning here. It is worn over the cuirass, and the mitra was worn under the cuirass. It is described as well-wrought and shining, which tells us that it is metal, or perhaps metal plates on a leather belt (Liddell and Scott 1968, p. ![]() The word zoster means a belt in later times and that seems a reasonable translation here. ![]() The first passage gives us clearly enough the order in which the armour was worn. Describing the incident later (Iliad IV, 186), Menelaos says that the arrow was stopped by his zoster, his zoma and his mitra, which was either made by the bronzesmiths or had bronze put on it. It passes through this, and his cuirass, and then pierces the mitra, which he wore as a last defence against missiles. This arrow strikes the golden clasp of his zoster, which is made of bronze. One of the most enlightening passages in the Iliad is in Book IV, 132, when Menelaos is wounded by an arrow.
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