fortitude of the individual hoplites were, naturally, of great value to the polis, but the nature of the phalanx
ensured that those individual qualities contributed to the security of the polis only if they were confined
within a standard pattern, even to the extent of requiring hoplites who were naturally left-handed to fight
with their spear in their right hand.

PHALANX A   formation   of  heavily armed   infantrymen (HOPLITES)  drawn   up  in  close   order   and

carrying    spears  and overlapping shields (figure 27).

The success of the polis was both promoted and threatened by the rivalry of its leading citizens, whose
ambition was to fashion themselves into figures of the sort sung about by Homer. But the seventh-century
polis was not like Agamemnon’s Mycenae, nor did the battlefield of the Archaic Period resemble the
plain of Troy. These changed circumstances are reflected in the art and literature of the Archaic Period.
The kouros and the kore glorify the grace and beauty of the aristocratic body without representing an
identifiable individual. By contrast, much of the poetry of the Archaic Period celebrates the individuality
of the poet or of the poet’s acquaintances, but it does so by safely situating that individuality within a
range of roles acceptable to the polis. That is to say, the art and literature of the Archaic Period, indeed
every aspect of the period’s culture, encouraged the illusion of continuity with the “heroic” past and at the
same time encoded the new values of the present in a pleasing and harmonious format.

Zetemata: Questions for Discussion

Why is  it  that    the ancient Greeks  found   male    nudity  in  public  acceptable, but not female?

Given   that    Archaic sculpture   looks   (to us) so  stiff   and lifeless,   how is  it  possible    that    the ancient

Greeks  imagined    Daedalus’   statues to  be  so  lifelike    that    they    could   be  mistaken    for living  human

beings?

Why is  it  that    many    Archaic funerary    monuments,  like    that    for Theognis    (above),    whether they    include

a   statue  or  not,    are accompanied by  an  inscription that    represents  the monument    as  speaking    in  the first

person?

How confident   can we  be  that    we  know    exactly what    Archilochus or  Sappho, or  indeed  any ancient

author, said,   given   that    the evidence    for their   writing often   comes   from    hundreds    of  years   later   than    the

time    of  composition?

What    social  and political   developments    in  the Archaic Period  are likely  to  have    given   rise    to  the

hoplite phalanx?

Recommended for Further Reading

Easterling, P. E. and Knox, B. M. W. (eds.) Early Greek Poetry (Cambridge 1989): the section of the
Cambridge History of Classical Literature dealing with Archaic poetry, written by experts and including
extensive bibliography.

Hanson, V. D. (ed.) Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience (London and New York 1991): a
collection of essays by specialists on every aspect of hoplite warfare, edited by the influential and
controversial Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution.

Hurwit, J. M. The Art and Culture of Early Greece, 1100–480 bc (Ithaca 1985): an unusually well-