Ty nEa Εkheis? (That means “What’s new?” in ancient Greek.) I’m the Greek gumshoe. I’ve hunted out another weapon for you. It’s called the dory.
The dory was the main weapon of the ancient Greeks. This ten-foot spear was double bladed with a leaf-shaped spear blade in the front and a bronze butt-spike at the back. The main advantage of the dory is to keep an attacker at a distance. It, like any old sword, was held in the left hand so that the other hand could hold the shield, which we’ll talk about later.
For now let’s talk about the butt-spike. Its real name Sauroter is Greek for lizard killer. It could be used to stand the spear up or it could be used to fight if the tip of the spear was broken off. It’s great in a one-on-one fight and in the Greek phalanx. In a phalanx, the soldiers stood in a square made of several rows. The front row held their shields up and their spears out. If they were killed, the guy behind them took their place. Here’s a picture of a Greek hoplite (who was the Greeks’ main warrior) with a dory:
Tune in next time so that we can investigate another weapon.
(Thanks to //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dory_%28spear%29 and //nickny79.hubpages.com/hub/Greek-History–Lesson-2–The-Formation-of-the-Polis for the images.)
