7 ms·
Weapons come before crowns etc. Although crowns are presumably abstracted from helmets.
by mirimir 7y ago
Weapons come before crowns etc.
Although crowns are presumably abstracted from helmets.
- mehrdadn 7y ago> Weapons come before crowns etc. I don't think anyone suggested weapons didn't exist before these swords either?
- thaumasiotes 7y agoIn the Iliad (much more recent than this sword, but nonetheless informative in some ways), swords are symbolic of nothing. The text is very clear on what the symbol of royal authority is -- it's a club. ("Scepter") I'd be pretty comfortable with the idea that clubs are no more recent than weapons in general.
- mirimir 7y agoSure, but didn't clubs become symbols because they were weapons?
- thaumasiotes 7y agoYes. One of the oldest Egyptian royal motifs is the king smiting a bound captive or a group of bound captives with a mace.
- inawarminister 7y agoYes, even until the Hellenistic era, the weapon of virtue and honour was... the spear. As exemplified by the poetic sense of a conqueror's demense: his spear-won land. However, other peoples from deep antiquity held sword to higher regard. Like the Celts and Germans. Especially the Germanic tribes, who couldn't make their own swords and need to win them in trade or raid.
- krapp 7y agoAlso IIRC, samurai initially prized archery and the spear over using a sword as marks of their noble status - melee combat with a blade for a samurai was a sign of desperation born of ineptitude with "proper" weapons and tactics. It wasn't until the Edo period when the samurai were relegated to a bureaucracy that the cult around the katana was formed, and sort of retroactively applied to the popular interpretation of history.