Corinthian Helmet

Origin

The Corinthian helmet is thought to have first appeared around the 8th century BC in the region of Corinth on the Greek mainland, from which it takes its name. The one-piece method of beating it from a single sheet of bronze made it strong, having no seam, and it spread quickly as the standard gear of the citizen-soldier of the Greek city-states. It was used across the Greek world for some three centuries, from the 8th to the 5th century BC, the shape of the eye slits and the face line refined a little from age to age. But because of the limits of vision and hearing, from around the 5th century BC it was gradually replaced by more open forms, such as the Chalcidian helmet, which opened the ears and covered less of the face, or the simple conical Pilos helmet.

Features

• One-piece structure beaten from a single sheet of bronze
• Cheek guards and a nasal protecting the face almost completely
• Essential equipment of the hoplite (heavy infantry)
• Worn pushed up onto the forehead outside of battle
• A horsehair crest and a visual symbol of ancient Greece
• An ancient helmet used in the 8th to 5th centuries BC

Stories

The Corinthian helmet was the war gear of the Greek hoplite, used to guard the head and face from the front in the phalanx, where men pressed shoulder to shoulder with overlapping shields. Wrapping almost the whole face in bronze, it firmly turned a spear point or a blade coming from the front, and the lining within softened the shock. Before battle began or on the march, the stifling helmet was pushed up onto the forehead, so that with vision and breathing secured one could hear orders and watch the surroundings. At the very moment of clashing with the enemy it was pulled down to cover the face as one stepped into the formation.

Weakness

The greatest weakness of the Corinthian helmet is the limit on vision and hearing. Because it wrapped the face almost completely, one could see only through the narrow eye slits to the front, with the sides nearly invisible, and the bronze over the ears made sound hard to hear. For this it was very hard to receive a commander's orders on the battlefield, and once the formations clashed it was difficult for the individual to watch around or hear signals. The seamless bronze pressing on the whole face also tired the wearer quickly in the heat. For these limits it gave way in the end to more open helmets.

Cultural Significance

The Corinthian helmet is one of the visual symbols that represent the civilization of ancient Greece. Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, was commonly depicted with the helmet pushed up onto the forehead, and engraved on countless vase paintings, sculptures, and coins it became the classic image of the Greek warrior. The profile with the helmet pushed up in particular gives off both dignity and contemplation, and to this day it is a form that calls 'ancient Greece' to mind at a glance in museums, textbooks, and films. Joining defense and symbol in one, this helmet also holds the spirit of the polis society, where the citizen armed himself and guarded his city.

In Popular Culture

The Corinthian helmet appears in nearly every film, game, and artwork about ancient Greece. The look with the helmet pushed up onto the forehead in particular is familiarly drawn in films such as '300', engraved as the symbolic form of the Greek warrior. In games and fantasy it is often used as the helmet of an ancient-style warrior or a mythic hero. In fiction, however, it is often depicted as if one could see and hear freely even while wearing it, so that the fact of greatly limited vision and hearing is often not made clear.

Trivia

• The Corinthian helmet was beaten from a single sheet of bronze with no seam, which made it strong, and it takes its name from the region of Corinth where it first appeared.
• Outside of battle it was commonly worn pushed up onto the forehead, and this profile became the symbolic form of ancient Greece on the statue of Athena, on coins, and in films.
• Covering nearly the whole face, its protection was excellent but its vision and hearing were greatly limited, so from around the 5th century BC it was gradually replaced by the open-eared Chalcidian or the simple Pilos helmet.