Each Greek nation had a different variation of Greek armor to be outfitted with. This is because ancient Greece was never truly unified. Sparta, Corinth, Athens, and many other nations made up Greece. However, each nation had many similarities when it came to creating body armor for their soldiers.
Archers and cavalry were not really a part of the battles waged between Grecian soldiers. They mostly had smaller fighting forces consisting of infantrymen that may or may not have also had civilian jobs within their nation. These forces liked to travel light and were not equipped with large pieces of battle armor. In this article I’ll go over the main characteristics of ancient Greek armor. I’ll even tell you where you can buy some Greek armor replicas for your home.
Firstly, you should note that most of the Greek armors were made out of bronze. This is important to note because bronze can last for centuries and historians and archeologists have a much easier time of finding fully intact Greek armor compared to some of the other medieval armors.
The medieval Greek armors basically consisted of a breast plate and a helmet. Bronze was the metal used to make these pieces durable and battle worthy. They did not provide any protection to the warriors arms, legs, and feet. They did however, give the soldier full range of movement in both their arms and legs.
Many times the breast plates were created in the shape of a muscular torso. Sharp abdominals and large pectoral muscles were beat into the breast plate. This gave each soldier the appearance of being very fit which was great for intimidating the enemy.
The breast plate rarely had any variations in it. Some armies had intricate designs and colors on their breast plates, but for the most part they were just plain muscular torsos. You can see some examples of these armors at Historical Clothing Realm . The variation in helmets was large between nations. There were helmets with plumes and helmets without plumes. Plume sizes and colors could vary among each nation. Cheek protector length varied among helmets. There were helmets with wide and long cheek protectors and some with very short and thin ones.
There were also some similarities in the ancient Greek helmets. For example, there were no horned or spiked helmets, only round ones. One final similarity of these helmets was the fact that they all had open faces.
