Dawn on the plain of Plataea. The battlefield lies in the distance.
The Hoplite’s World
By Johnathan Bracken
The allure of the hoplite’s panoply – with his shield, helmet, armor, and spear – is undeniable. They make for a striking image that, though ancient and primitive, seems to communicate across time, reaching deep into our consciousness and imagination. While these items are fundamental in our recreation of the hoplite, we believe it is equally as important to focus on the larger cultural and societal background of the citizen-soldier. There was far more to the life of the hoplite than fighting his foes, which comprised only a very small part of his life experience. Of equal or greater concern was his family, his household, community, religion, and the myriad daily practices and customs that defined life in Ancient Greece.
From this perspective, we strive to recreate and interpret a fully “fleshed out” representation of who the hoplite was, as best as we can know. At our living histories we start by setting up our interpretation of what an encampment might have looked like as the hoplite marched off on a limited campaign typically of several days length.
Explaining the hoplite’s diet and daily accouterments to visitors at the “Across The Centuries” timeline weekend at Ft. Loudon, PA.
This means bringing along basic elements that would ensure a safe and successful venture outward and homeward bound. We erect tentage made of leather or linen for shelter, lay out blankets and animal skins for warmth and comfort for rest and sleep, fill up whole goatskins to store water for drinking and cooking, and carry hollowed out gourds as water bottles. At night, we light clay oil lamps fueled with olive oil.
These goatskins were artisanally made in Spain for use in traditional bagpipes. We sealed ours with brewer’s pitch to hold water and wine. The tent in the background was sewn together from 22 goatskins.
Roasted duck by the fireside at the “Military Through the Ages” timeline event in Jamestown, VA.
Rabbits roast above a bubbling pot of Spartan “black broth,” made from pig’s blood and offal. Yum!
We spread out food fit for taking into the field, including whole wheat loaves of bread, olives and olive oil, goat and sheeps cheese, nuts, fresh and dried fruits, dried fish filets, onions, herbs and honey. Meat might be provided from a successful hunting party, so we stake out iron spits to roast the rabbit or game bird over a fire. And what is life without wine! In this case, wine diluted with water and mixed with herbs and spices just how the Ancient Greeks consumed it.
The Ancient Greek diet is essentially the modern Mediterranean diet, but without tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, corn, or anything else that came from the Americas.
Aside from these sundries, we also try to represent the larger, spiritual world of the Greeks, one that was deeply ritualistic and based in daily and seasonal practices. This is why we erect a small altar, a sacred space to establish communion with the divine and with the sacred dead. On the altar we have votives to various Greek gods and goddesses (lovingly carved by hand from wood) as a material embodiment of deities that a hoplite would have revered, paid homage to, and curried favor with in a gesture of good will and good faith. This acts as a portal to the other side, a spiritual communication channel. As gifts for the divine and for the beloved ancestors, we burn incense of myrrh, frankincense, and styrax, and provide an offering of wine and food. And as Greek commanders would do before going into battle, often as a precondition of it, we set up a divination station for hepatomancy — the reading of an animal liver to foretell signs and omens of what is to come.
Pigs’ hearts, calf’s liver, and calf’s kidney — organs that were used both for divination and later burned as offerings.
An offering of incense to our hand-carved votives of Zeus, Demeter, and Athena in our Plataea encampment. Because any type of open flame was prohibited in the highly flammable Greek countryside in summer, we fitted our goat-skin lanterns with warm LEDs to simulate candles and oil lamps.
Our ultimate goal is to create a 360 degree, in-depth representation of a “lived in” space in which to immerse both ourselves and the visiting public. To give a sense of stepping back into the time of the Ancient Greeks.