Hermes was also the god of boundaries and the travellers that cross them. Many Greeks would sacrifice to him before they travelled so they would have a safe journey. He also escorted people into the Underworld. In Homer's Iliad we are told that Hermes helped the Trojan King Priam to sneak into the Greek camp and convince Achilles to return to Priam his son Hektor's body.

Hermes was originally depicted as an older, bearded god but during the 6th century BC he was portrayed as a young, athletic god and these new statues were placed in gymnasia throughout Greece and Hermes became known as the god of athletics.

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Hesiod’s The Theogony is the only account we have which describes the birth of Athena from her father's head:
‘From his own head he gave birth to owl-eyed Athena,
the wonderful, battle-rousing, army-leading, untiring Lady,
whose pleasure is fighting and the metallic din of war.’

Athena was her father's favourite child and possessed the keys to his thunderbolts. She was the only one entitled to wear his aegis, his shield. In the centre of the aegis is the head of Medusa. Athena did not have the Medusa’s power – the ability to turn people into stone so Athena persuaded Perseus to kill Medusa and Hermes mounted Medusa’s head onto the aegis.

The Aegis was a shield that protected whoever wore it, however one required wisdom to benefit from it, or as Horace wrote:

Vis consili expers
Mole ruit sua.

‘Strength without wisdom falls by its own weight’

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Because of this, the Egyptians also recognized the need to develop a thicker type of body armour and one was made from leather and metal. Against armoured soldiers the ancient archers probably became proficient at aiming for the back of the neck, top of the central soldiers and lower lumbar region of the spine, the areas most exposed on the back of a running man.

Legionaires from the 1st century AD onwards wore various types of armour. Below I have listed 3 types of armour and briefly mentioned the various effects caused by arrows.

1) ring mail (lorica hamata) - easy to penetrate, the arrow would be locked into place by the damaged mail rings making the arrow difficult to extract or the arrow would break upon impact. (The latter can be seen in the case of Eurypylos and Aeneas.)
2) scale armour (lorica squamata) - fairly easy to penetrate
3) strip plate armour (lorica segmentata) - none of the arrowheads penetrated to a depth sufficient to cause a fatal wound even at a range of seven meters. (Yet a hail of missiles could make a serious dent in the morale of soldiers.)

From around c.1250 plate armour was introduced to reinforce chain mail reflecting the recognised need to respond to the development of the long bow, which dominated warfare for centuries to come.

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Born at dawn, he played the lyre in the afternoon
And he stole the cattle of Apollo the Archer
In the evening – all on the fourth day of the month,
The day he was born from the lady Maia.

Wise Zeus made them both friends.
And Hermes loved the son of Leto continually,
Even as he does now, from the proof that he gave
The lovely lyre to the Archer and taught him,
And Apollo played it skillfully upon his arm.

Then the Son of Leto said to Hermes:
‘Son of Maia, guide,
You who are full of tricks,
I’m afraid you might
Steal the lyre back from me
And my curved bow at the same time.'

Then the son of Maia nodded his head and promised
That he would never steal anything the Archer possessed
Then Apollo, son of Leto, nodded his head in a bond
Of friendship, and promised that never
Would there be anyone else among the immortals
Whom he would love more than Hermes,
Neither a god nor a man born from Zeus

I find the Homeric hymns fascinating because they also tell us something about the Greek view of the relationship between the divine and human worlds. In some cases the actual union of a deity with a mortal produces an exceptional human being; this was the origin of some of the greatest heroes in The Iliad such as Achilles or Sarpedon.

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I shall remember,
May I not forget,
Apollo the Archer.

The gods tremble at him
When he enters at the house of Zeus,
They spring up when he comes near them,
They all spring up from their seats
When he stretches back his bright bow.
Only Leto waits besides Zeus who loved thunder.

She unstrings the bow, she closes the quiver,
Taking it with her hands
Off his strong shoulders,
She hangs the bow on a golden peg
Against a pillar in his father’s house.
Then she leads him to a seat.

Queen Leto is full of joy
Because the son born to her
Is an archer and strong.
Be happy, blessed Leto,
You have given birth to glorious children,
The lord Apollo and Artemis who delights in arrows,

Phoebus Apollo addressed the immortal goddesses;
‘May the lyre and the curved bow be dear to me,
And I shall reveal to mortals
The infallible will of Zeus.’
With these words, Phoebus,
The long-haired, far-shooting god,
Began walking over the wide paths of the earth.

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It is usually believed that the tradition from which our surviving early Greek poetry grew was an ‘oral’ one, i.e. that singers composed without the aid of writing. Archaeological evidence points to a gap between the 12th and 9th centuries BC during which written records have not (at least as yet) been found in Greece or the Greek settlements around the area of the Aegean Sea.

Before this time the late Bronze Age cultures of Crete and Greece (known as Minoan and Mycenaean) wrote Greek in a syllabic script (called Linear B ) whereas the Greek alphabetic script appears only from the 8th century BC onwards when the Greeks took over and adapted the script used by the Phoenicians.

Below is one of the Homeric Hymns to Artemis:

Sing, Muse, of Artemis,
Sister of the Archer god,
The maiden who delights in arrows
Who grew up with Apollo.

By Meles, where the reeds are deep,
She harnesses her horses
And swiftly through Smyrna
She speeds her chariot
All in gold
To Klaros, the vine land,
Where Apollo sits waiting
With his silver bow

For Artemis
Who delights in arrows
And lets them fly from far away.

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These various enzymes have different functions in their action when secreted and therefore any type of venom is reliant on a multiple reaction to be effective. In general there are:
1) haemotoxin types which break down tissue
2) neurotoxin types which affect the central nervous system

In Europe the vipera berus is the most widespread poisonous snake. The long nosed viper or sand viper V.ammodytes can grow to be 75cm but some males have been recorded to reach around 90cm.

On some of the Greek islands the Malpolon monspessulanus can be found. They are very aggressive and usually between 100-150cm in length but some can get to 200cm long! Their venom is particularly powerful which produces immediate pain.

Unfortunately although scholars can not be certain what types of poisonous snakes were used by the Scythians but we can get some idea of the effect a poisoned arrow would have made on its victim. We believe that the Scythians used decomposed poisonous snakes and human blood incubated in a manure heap. The blood was a breeding ground for bacteria and the manure contained the germs of tetanus and gangrene. In most cases death would be within an hour, or after a day gangrene would set in and a few days later tetanus would kill.

I believe that ancient armies must have been demoralised by the mere sight of archers as they would not be sure if they were going to use poisoned arrows.

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Even Aristotle claimed that the Scythians used a deadly arrow poison concocted from a mixture of decomposed snake tissues and decomposing human blood! Even if the arrow did not kill outright, and if the victim survived the snake venom, severe infection from bacteria was inevitable.

The Greeks had two terms for this poison: skyticon (according to the provenance of the substance) and toxikon. This latter word is derived from the word toxon meaning a bow, and clearly describes the application of the poison. The term toxicology therefore reflects the name of this dreadful arrow poison.

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It has been argued that when the Romans conquered Spain they brought with them the Cult of Mithras and the central iconic act of killing the sacred bull later developed into modern Spanish bullfighting.

Other scholars argue that when the Emperor Claudius put a temporary ban on gladiator games he decided to introduce bullfights to Spain because they were similar to their human-animal games held in amphitheaters.

It is worth pointing out that many of the oldest bullrings in Spain are actually located on or adjacent to the sites of temples to Mithras.

The bull was also worshipped in many cultures but in Crete (Minoan culture) it was never killed. In ancient Egypt, the sacred Apis bull however was sacrificed. The Ptolemaic pharaohs during the 3rd century BC forced the Egyptians to make their religion both accessible and understandable to other cultures. Perhaps the Cult of Mithras had assimilated the Egyptian cult of the Apis Bull.

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I have come across the proverb ‘The gods help them that help themselves’ by Aesop, who was a Greek slave and fable author dating from c.620-560BC. Confucius is a little later and dates from c.551-479BC!

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In Mithraism the bull is a symbol of Spring, death and resurrection. It is also worth noting that during the Spring equinox the constellation of the bull (Taurus) can be seen. Mithras is often depicted cleansing himself in the blood of the bull as it was believed that washing in the bull’s blood brought eternal life and salvation. It was also believed that life could be created from eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the sacrificed bull.

A rite called the ‘taurobolium’ was used to baptise initiates into the cult of Mithras. The initiate was placed in a trench under a patterned roof whereupon the bull would be led on top of the roof where its throat would be cut. As the bull’s blood fell upon the initiate it was believed that it would purify him and lead him to be symbolically reborn into eternal life. The baptised initiates were then worshipped by their fellow cult members as semi-divine beings.

Mithras was believed to continually give up his own life in the form of bull sacrifices in order to bring about peace.

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The Greek ballistae are thought to have been primarily a siege weapon. All components that were not made of wood were transported and assembled with local wood, if necessary.

Usksider has asked me whether the ancient Greeks used a shipboard ballista. However, although they used the ballista in siege warfare it wasn’t until the late 4th century BC that ballistae were introduced onto ships. The first people to do this were the Macedonians and Alexander the Great would eventually transform the ballista into a compelling war machine!

In naval warfare ballistae would be used to catapult an incendiary substance (although we are not sure what it was made up of!) A fire on board a ship would create chaos allowing the enemy to use grappling hooks to board the ship and take control of it.

Caesar’s Gallic War tells us that in the conquest of Britain 55BC, the Romans used archers and ballistae on board their boats to fire at the British.

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In the 5th century BC the city guard of Athens was mostly recruited from Scythian slaves. Thucydides (an historian of the 5th century BC) says that during the Peloponnesian War (432-404BC) the Athenian army had 200 mounted archers and the 1600 foot archers included 1200 Scythians.

Ancient Greece relied more on their hoplites (a bit like a cavalry, armed with sword, lance etc.) than on their archers. Yet although the bow was neglected for military purposes, sea captains of the 7th century BC, whose entire fortune was perhaps tied up in his ship and cargo and who could expect to meet pirates etc., still needed archers to defend their ships. Archers were also used to defend Greek citizens of the new colonies as Athens expanded its empire.

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The whole weapon was quite short - to judge from contemporary pictures it must have been 30-40 inches (75-100cms). The Scythian bow is sometimes also referred to as Cupid’s bow. Below is a picture of a replica Scythian bow:

However the term ‘Scythian bow’ is very misleading since many different areas (i.e. Persia, Greece) used this weapon over such a long period. Even in antiquity it was already referred to as ‘Scythian arcus’.

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What makes the Scythians so fascinating is that a fifth of the female burials have been found to be accompanied by bows, arrows, and armour. The existence of such women was rather disturbing for the patriarchal society of ancient Greece, and Greek storytellers (presumably male) spun tales of how these wild women burnt off their right breasts, in order to pull back a bowstring.

Personally I think this is rubbish, all they needed was a chest guard which is what women (and some men!) use nowadays in archery. There is a word, still in the medical lexicon today, which indicates an absence of breasts: amazia. The Ancient Greeks therefore called the warrior women Amazons. The Amazons worshipped Artemis, goddess of hunting because of her associations with war and the bow.

The Amazon features on the right in the picture below:

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There was also a bowcase so the Pharaoh could store away his precious bows and protect them from damage caused by insects which could be a problem in ancient times. In the Odyssey, Odysseus turned his bow ‘on every side, making trail of it here and there in case grubs had eaten the pieces of horn’.

The bowcase shows Tutankhamun hunting and a chest also found in the tomb portrays him hunting with the composite bow. I don’t know if any of these will be on display in the O2 exhibition in London!

The British Museum have 4 Egyptian bows, which date from between 2,300-1,400BC. Three of them are made of acacia wood and they vary in length. The Egyptians used reed arrows which were fletched with three feathers and tipped with flint, hardwood and later with copper and bronze.

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Women however were excluded from Mithraism and some scholars argue that the eventual rise in popularity of Christianity was because it offered women a role, albeit usually a subordinate one.

As Tylluan pointed out the early Church had quite a few problems with Mithras. Roman Mithras was perhaps the greatest rival to early Christianity for many reasons. As well as being a popular Pagan religion practiced by the Roman army, Mithraism had many similarities to Christianity.

As Christianity gained strength and became the formal religion of the Roman Empire, the 'Cult of Mithras' was one of the first Pagan cults to come under attack in the fifth century. Temples of Mithras, like most other Pagan temples, were destroyed and Churches built on them. It is quite fortunate that some remains e.g. the temples at Hadrian's Wall, survive.

Mithraism was the last state Pagan religion in Europe however Mithras still influences our lives today even if we do not realize it. The Christian Church could not eradicate Mithraism completely and in particular could not prevent people celebrating his birthday. The Church therefore took over the festival and we know it as Christmas - December 25th!!

Here is a picture of the remains of the Temple of Mithras in London:

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Here is a picture of one of the temples excavated on Hadrian's Wall:

Members of Mithras were largely soldiers which may be due to the cults emphasis on truth, honour and courage. Mithraic groups were highly secretive, meeting in underground shrines called the mithraeum, with a complex hierarchy of 7 grades from ‘raven’ to ‘father’ through which the initiates (all male) had to pass.

These grades may have given a sense of purpose and fulfillment and each man had to wear a costume and headmask to symbolize his grade. Initiation into each grade involved severe tests and training. At Carrawburgh an 'ordeal pit' was found as well as a bench very close to a large fire which may have been used in the ordeals of heat, cold and fasting.

The geographical spread of Mithraism is best explained by the travels of its members who set up new centres in the places where they were sent by their military or commercial occupation. The benefits of initiation into Mithraism may have been the close feeling of community provided by membership of the all-male group. This may have been attractive to soldiers and merchants who were far from home and might have felt they lacked sufficient social support.

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The Mysteries of Mithras (or Mithraism as it is sometimes called today), first entered Europe when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor. When the Romans conquered the Kingdom of Pergamum, and stationed two legions of soldiers on the Euphrates, Mithraism grew to be a popular cult in the West. In particular it developed and spread within the Roman Empire during the reign of Nero.

Mithras is the Roman name for the Indo-Persian god Mitra/Mithra. Mitra is part of the Hindu pantheon, and Mithra is one of several minor deities in the Zoroastrian pantheon. However in both Hinduism and Zoroastrianism Mitra/Mithra lacked his own cult.

Mithra is the god of the light between heaven and earth; he is also associated with the light of the sun. Mitra is mentioned in the Hindu book Vedas, while Mithra is the subject of hymns in the Zoroastrian Avesta, a text compiled during the Sassanian period (224-640 AD) to preserve a much older oral tradition.

However the members of the Roman cult of Mithras (which is known as the ‘mystery’ cult) did not write anything down, and everything was done through initiation rites. This means our information about the sect derives mostly from Christian authors who had their own agenda and therefore must be treated with a certain amount of caution.

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An archer in ancient Egypt was first taught the basics on a self bow, made from a single piece of wood. Then, after undergoing exercises designed to develop their muscles and being taught how to stand, they would learn to shoot using the composite bow, made from several pieces of wood and horn glued together. On the left forearm archers wore a leather guard to protect against the kick of the string, this would help prevent bruising.

The Nubian mercenaries do not appear to have used quivers to carry their arrows. Quivers would have been carried on the back or hanging from the right hand side of the waist. In the tomb of Mesehti, a governor at Asyut during the Middle Kingdom (2040-1640BC) a model shows 40 Nubian archers in distinctive attire and armaments and as you can see below they are carrying their arrows in their right hand. They are probably the oldest military miniatures in the world.

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Personally I am surprised he killed even one. During Tuthmosis III reign Egyptian warfare was undergoing a transformation but it seems strange that this pharaoh had encountered elephants but had not decided to use them in battle.

Much later, in the ancient Greek and Roman world elephants could (and often did) almost solely determine the course of battle.

When Antiochas had won an elephant-victory over the terrified Gauls, he said, 'Shame my men, whose salvation came through these sixteen beasts. If the novelty of their appearance had not struck the enemy with panic, where should we have been?' Had Antiochas not possessed his sixteen elephants, he might well have lost the battle.

Elephants were not only terrifying in battle because of their size but also because as the Roman writer Arrian mentions their tusks were armed with sharp iron, and the Roman poet Silius Italicus refers to spears fastened to the tusks.

Elephants equipped like this could be used effectively to rout enemy cavalry. Polyaenus, another Roman writer, records that “Caesar had one large elephant, which was equipped with armour and carried archers and slingers in its tower.'

It could be Tuthmosis III chose not to use these animals because although tremendously potential, they were also unpredictable in battle. Therefore if they got out of hand and broke the line in a phalanx their mahouts had to kill them.

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In some reliefs we can see that both Tuthmosis and Amenhotep used the self bow along with the composite – suggesting that the self bow (made from a single piece of wood) had not been wiped out by the introduction of the more advanced powerful composite type (made from several pieces and glued together using sinew). Amenhotep II was found buried with a composite bow.

Amenhotep II claimed to have learned archery in his youth from the god Min who taught him to draw his bow to his ear. (How far you draw your bow is important and I’ll deal with it in later blogs).

The Stela of Amenhotep II (this is a large block of stone with information about the king written on it) tells us how the pharaoh drew three hundred bows in order to examine the workmanship. This is similar to the story of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey when he chose a perfect bow that only he was able to draw.

Here is a picture of the head of Amenhotep II made from black granite:

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What is so remarkable for me about this particular pharaoh is that he was never defeated in any battle!

In year 24 of his reign, (which is how the ancient Egyptians calculated time) the famous battle of Megiddo took place. The Annals of Tuthmosis III describes how the treasures of Megiddo were moved to Egypt after the defeat of the city and we are told that in year 25 of his reign the pharaoh built a botanical garden in Karnak temple to commemorate this campaign. Another of his famous battles was the Battle of Kadesh in year 29-32 of his reign.

Here is a picture of the Annals of Tuthmosis III at Karnak:

Tuthmosis was remarkable in many ways. He was the first pharaoh to use sea-power to carry out his attacks and also to cross the Euphrates. His dedicated troops even carried boats across land in order to carry out these military campaigns.

To stop rebellions he had a rather different approach to simply attacking and killing the male population and taking the women and children as slaves. Instead Tuthmosis took male members of certain families hostage and taught them Egyptian culture and language in order to increase their loyalty to him. This meant that the rulers of the city states of Syria and Palestine became servants to Egypt.

Tuthmosis III was the first Egyptian pharaoh to take his army as far as he did, thus spreading Egyptian culture.

Also for the first time in Egyptian history, bows are listed among captured items. In the Annals of Tuthmosis we are told that in year 35, bows were taken as booty and these are believed to have come from Syria. In Northern Syria during one of his campaigns, he organised an elephant hunt in which he killed 120 elephants using the bow and arrow!

Tuthmosis III was definitely an archer pharaoh!

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It would seem to be true that as Tylluan and Usksider pointed out, the wealthy hoplites disapproved of the poor classes for wounding and killing them with a bow and arrow, a weapon that did not allow the hoplites to fight the enemy hand-to-hand.

A passage in Herodotus mentions that the Spartan Kallikrates was shot in the side by an arrow at the battle of Plataea and died complaining that he had not struck a blow or done a deed to match his eagerness.

The added detail that Kallikrates was ‘sitting in his rank’ at the time suggests the Spartans sat on the ground to avoid the arrow-storm, presumably crouching under their shields. This may account for the reason why the Greeks always had an ambivalent attiude towards the bow, even though it was such an effective weapon.

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Tuthmosis III was a New Kingdom pharaoh and ruled from 1504-1450BC. Tuthmosis was his Greek name meaning 'Born of the God Thoth'; his Egyptian name would have been Djehutymes. In some of the ancient reliefs Tuthmosis III is depicted enjoying one of his favourite activities - this was to be driven fast in a chariot and shooting arrows at targets! He would make the Egyptian army watch him shoot his arrows into a thick plate of copper set up on a pole.

It was recorded that Tuthmosis managed to shoot his arrow into the copper with such force that it came out the other side. He had the plate (with the arrow still in it) set up in a temple dedicated to the god Amun. This is similar to the Greeks: Herakles bow was dedicated in the Temple of Apollo Alaios at Krimissa.

However modern scholars believe the penetrating power of these Pharaonic arrows was exaggerated. An arrow might be expected to pierce a metal plate 0.002-0.003m thick but not much more. As the ruler of Egypt and an intermediary between the Gods and mortals, the pharaoh reported his activities on a greater than human scale. It may have been a bit of royal propaganda!

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Kevin mentioned he would like to see a picture of Hathor. Here is a picture - Hathor is the cow goddess of Egypt and the picture is taken from the temple wall at Memphis, Egypt. She was worshipped as a cow deity from 2,700BC and was the goddess of love, beauty, music and dance.

The milk that flowed from her udders was seen as a way to heaven and she was also held responsible for the annually inundation of the Nile.
The Greeks associated Hathor with their own Aphrodite.

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Not only did the Hyksos introduce the composite bow into Egypt, they also introduced the horse. Eventually this would lead to the invention of the horse drawn chariot (Egyptian wrrt or mrkbt) which was the most crucial adaptation to Egyptian warfare.

Each chariot had a driver and a soldier who was armed with a spear, shield and composite bow. On the chariot was a quiver full of arrows for fast reloading, together with axes and javelins.

In some ancient reliefs we see that the driver of the chariot also served as an archer and therefore had to be protected by a shield. The reigns of the chariot are shown strapped around the waist of the driver-come-archer. This picture gives a good idea:

The chariot gave battlefield mobility and allowed them to chase after the retreating enemy - the killing ability was enhanced by the archer. In 1209BC, (New Kingdom) Merneptah, son of Ramesses II used his archers, both on foot and mounted on chariots, to defeat the Libyans killing approximately 9,400 Libyans in the battle.

Below is a picture of restored chariot found in Tutankhamun's tomb:

In ancient Greece the chariot was unsuitable for battle because of the mountainous terrain. Alexander the Great only used the chariot to arrive on the battlefield, he never actually fought from it!

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During the Old Kingdom (2575-2150BC) the Egyptians used a bow known as the ‘self bow’. It was between 1-2 meters in length and strung with twisted gut. It was made entirely of acacia wood which meant it was not flexible enough to shoot more than 200 metres effectively. This may not sound much, but if you ever stand in a field and measure it, you will see it is quite a distance!

When the Hyksos successfully invaded Egypt just before the New Kingdom (1580-1070BC), they brought with them the composite bow, which eventually lead to the transformation of ancient Egyptian warfare. This type of bow consists of layers of wood and sinew, which gives greater tension and compression, allowing greater power and accurate range for the archer.

The Egyptians realised that they had to change their weaponry and tactics in order to fight and expel their enemies. Many composite bows are made of Oryx horn and wood and they have been found in the tombs of the Pharaohs. However some of these are not of Egyptian manufacture, suggesting that they did not have the materials available to make them on a large scale. Instead they were probably imported from Syria and Asia Minor.

This may be the one of the earliest examples of arms dealing!

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Aristotle noted that in civil wars the lower classes ‘often’ defeated the rich because ‘being light armed they could easily compete with the cavalry and hoplites’, i.e. soldiers from the wealthier classes.

Maybe this was why the ancient Greeks were reluctant to use the bow as it gave the poorer classes more control and power over the outcome of a battle.

It must have been an embarrassment to the wealthy classes! No matter how much money they spent on weapons and horses, a poor man with a piece of wood could wipe them out in battle.

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The reason for the yew tree producing so few bows is because each bow requires a layer of heartwood. When you take a cross-section of a yew tree branch there is sapwood, which is elastic and good in tension and heartwood, which is great for compression, this is what gives the bow its strength.

Bow makers would cut the yew wood so the sapwood formed the back of the bow (outside) and the heartwood formed the belly (inside). So when the bow was pulled the heartwood would resist compression and the sapwood would help the bow spring back quickly from being bent.

The reason why Britain had the longbow during the medieval period (and not a short bow) is that bowmakers only had access to one type of material that was the best at stretching - yew wood.

In the East they used sinew (material made from animal bone) which allowed them to make short bows backed with thin sections of wood or bone wth sinew pasted onto it. By making the longbow they could store more energy than a short one without it snapping.

Believe me no-one wants to be shooting a bow to have it break and splinter on them!!

This is a picture of the ancient yew at Much Marcle, Herefordshire.

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