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The xiphos (Greek: ξίφος) is a double-edged, single-hand sword used by the ancient Greeks. It was a secondary battlefield weapon for the Greek armies after the spear or javelin. The blade was around 65 cm long. The xiphos was good for both cutting and stabbing attacks due to its leaf-shaped blade. It was generally used only when the spear was discarded.
The straight, double-edged design of the xiphos lends it the same overall martial versatility found in the swords used by infantry until the firearm supplanted the sword on the battlefield. Its design lent itself to cutting and thrusting.
Because of the nature of mounted combat, Xenophon recommended using the curved makhaira for cavalry in On Horsemanship 12:11.
It seems that the Spartans developed a shorter sword, about 30cm long, but otherwise similar to the common hoplite xiphos. This shorter version of the xiphos was useful in the close combat of the Greek warfare and was widely used by all Greeks during and after the Peloponnesian War, as is shown by art of that period. However, the longer hoplite sword never completely fell out of use.
One of the earliest Greek straight, double edged swords, it was introduced possibly by the Dorians around the 1st Millennium BCE. It was used by Greek Hoplite armies around the Mediterranean Sea and even the Black Sea. It is also possible it could have made its way into Iberia and have inspired the famous Roman sword, the Gladius.
Stone's Glossary has the xiphos being a name used by Homer for a sword. The entry in the book says that the sword had a double-edged blade widest at about two-thirds of its length from the point (so not necessarily as shown in the figure), and ended in a very long point.
The Mycenaean form of the word is attested in the dual, as qi-si-pe-e (𐀥𐀯𐀟𐀁; a sword is usually represented iconographically in Linear B, as 𐃉). Its etymology is unknown, apparently a loanword of non-Greek origin. A relation to Arabic saifun and Egyptian sēfet has been suggested, although this doesn't explain the presence of a labiovelar in Mycenaean. One suggestion (Čop KZ 74, p. 231 f) connects Ossetic äxsirf "sickle", which would point to a virtual Indo-European *kwsibhro-.
References
- Frisk, Griechisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch.
- George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor.
See also
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 9 November 2008, at 22:15.
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