mykenaean

Updated: May 6, 2025

It seems that some critics cannot divest themselves of the idea that "the original poet" of the "kernel" was contemporary with them who slept in the shaft graves of Mycenae, covered with golden ornaments, and that for body armour he only knew their monstrous shields. Mr. Leaf writes: "The armour of Homeric heroes corresponds closely to that of the Mykenaean age as we learn it from the monuments.

Andrew Lang - Homer and His Age

The heroes wore no breastplate; their only defensive armour was the enormous Mykenaean shield...." This is only true if we excise all the passages which contradict the statement, and go on with Mr. Leaf to say, "by the seventh century B.C., or thereabouts, the idea of a panoply without a breastplate had become absurd. On the other hand, Mr. Surely this is rather arbitrary dealing!

Andrew Lang - Homer and His Age