The Memory of Greek Battle: Material Culture and/as Narrative of Combat

Abstract

Warfare in ancient Greece presents us with a fascinating insight not only into the workings of memory, but also into the intersections of memory, trauma, and material culture. From the Iliad to the Peloponnesian War and beyond, we constantly witness men at war, men who deliberated about war and commemorated it, who glorified it, denounced it, and incorporated it into their lives in countless ways. At each stage, not surprisingly, material culture served to underscore the process; whether as trophy, booty, armor, land, ships, money, monuments, and, even, temples, the aims, results, and consequences of warfare were deeply embedded within the material life of ancient Greece. Indeed, even the temples at the Athenian Akropolis, long a monument to Greek civilization, are redolent with material strategies to commemorate warfare.1 KeywordsMaterial CultureRelief WorkArchaic PeriodMohs HardnessActual BattleThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.