Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 545

JOHN O. HYLAND

Christopher Newport University

Archery carried powerful symbolic associations in both the Ancient Near East and Greece. Achaemenid Persian reliefs avoid the image of the king in combat, but show him with bow in hand, confronting defeated enemies (BISITUN) or watching over loyal subjects (Naqsh‐i Rustam). Royal darics and sigloi minted in western Anatolia show the royal archer in more active stances, drawing his bow in Type II, and advancing with bow and spear (Type III). Herodotus is well aware of the bow’s associations with Persian masculinity and royal might (1.136.2; 3.30.1; 5.105.1). Greek perceptions of archery included the divine and heroic (APOLLO, ARTEMIS, HERACLES, and Odysseus), although a negative connotation, perhaps alluded to by HOMER (Il. 11.385–87), grew more common in the classical period.

In practice, units of archers formed important components of Ancient Near Eastern ARMIES. Regular Persian infantry were armed with both bow and spear, and some Persian CAVALRY carried bows instead of, or in addition to, javelins. Bowmen were common in early Greece, and although they declined in number during the later ARCHAIC AGE, some continued to support hoplite spearmen during the PERSIAN WARS (van Wees 2003, 170–71; Davis 2013). In 479 BCE, ATHENS’ archers helped HOPLITES repel Persian cavalry at ERYTHRAE in Boeotia, and PAUSANIAS requested their aid (too late) at PLATAEA (9.22.1, 60.3). Unfortunately, Herodotus does not number them; THUCYDIDES claims that Athens possessed 1,600 archers in 431, compared with 29,000 active hoplites and reservists (2.13.6–8).

Ancient archers used a great variety of bows. The simple bow, carved from a single piece of wood, was easiest to draw and least powerful; taller ones increased the string’s tension and the arrow’s velocity on release. Composite bows were constructed from two pieces of wood, reinforced with sinew, horn, and bone, which increased the tension on the string and released arrows with much greater force. The shape of the bow also affected its strength—re‐curved tips, common in tall Elamite and Persian bows, added tension to the string, as did the double curve of the shorter but more powerful “B‐shaped” Scythian bow (Zutterman 2003). The most common Greek bow, from the Bronze Age into the classical period, was the simple type, sometimes carved with a double arc, but Cretans preferred composite bows (Snodgrass 1999, 24, 40, 99). Greeks also gained familiarity with Scythian bows, often shown in images of Heracles, in the later archaic period. Persian and Scythian bows are most common in images of Achaemenid soldiers, although the empire’s subjects used other types as well (Hdt. 7.61.1, 64.1, 65, 69.1–2, 77).

Archers’ greatest advantages were the number and range of their missiles. The fifth‐century horseman Gadalyama, preparing for a royal muster in Babylonia, brought 120 arrows (Lutz 1928), and the Scythian gorytos quiver held between 200 and 300 (Snodgrass 1999, 82). Arrows released from composite bows at high angles might travel 300 meters or more, but the effective range was usually 150 or less. Individual shots were rarely accurate at more than 60 meters, and the power to penetrate armor declined with greater range (McLeod 1965; Krentz 2010, 26–27).

Archery played an important role in SIEGE WARFARE, as shown by the numerous arrowheads found in the remains of PAPHOS (cf. Hdt. 8.52.1 for Persian use of flaming arrows at Athens). Small numbers of archers also shot from the decks of TRIREMES in NAVAL WARFARE. In pitched battles on land, repeated barrages of arrows could inflict both physical wounds and psychological distress, alluded to in the Trachinian’s warning that Persian arrow volleys would blot out the sun at THERMOPYLAE (7.226.1). Nevertheless, they were unlikely to kill large numbers of well‐protected troops at significant distances. Archers could not use shields on their left arms, and were vulnerable to enemy weapons if not protected; in archaic‐age battle, some Greek archers sought protection between the ranks of shield‐bearing hoplites, and Herodotus depicts Persian archers at Plataea shooting from behind a barricade of tall wicker shields (gerra) fixed in the ground (9.61.3).

The Persians enjoyed a significant advantage in archery during the invasions of Greece, although the brevity of Herodotus’ battle accounts leaves its role obscure at important occasions such as MARATHON. Archers contributed to Persian victory at Thermopylae (7.218.2, 225.3), and horse archers separated the Greeks from their water supply during the Plataea campaign (9.49.2–3). Nevertheless, in the final battle at Plataea, archers were unable to stop the Spartans from tearing down their barricade and engaging at a fatally close range (9.62.1), and their failure played a major role in the Persian defeat.

SEE ALSO: Immortals; Orientalism; Persian Wars; Scythians; Warfare; Weapons and Armor