Corinthian helmets

if you want to get yourself a classical Greek hoplite helmet well you'll probably want to get yourself one of these because it's the like the classic classical hoplite helmet isn't it it's the Corinthian style as worn around the time of the Peloponnesian War notice that this one doesn't have the cutouts for the ears I didn't want that so that wonder the earliest sort not the later Hellenistic rubbish now this one is not brilliantly authentic it's not been forged for instance out of a single lump of bronze as many of the originals were it is instead I'm afraid yes it's three pieces of steel welded together in India but they've done a reasonably good job of it and I'm reasonably happy with this shape notice that it makes my head look a lot bigger and I hope makes me look imposing even may perhaps terrifying well um that is one of their functions and Homer talks about the horsehair crests on the helmets of the Warriors nodding terribly this is clearly something that he felt was designed to frighten people and I think actually if I saw a lot of people wearing these I would be fairly frightened although it may be not just for the reason that it made their heads look bigger did they decorate them yes there are plenty of pictures suggesting that they decorated them so I've decorated mine damaged because I wanted to what that's going to say about it the cheek pieces and you've got a big slit in the middle through which I'm talking to you so I'm sure that's one of its principal functions so that you could shout also it means that less of your breath condenses on the inside of the faceplate and drips down though I imagine even and even so some would so a warrior had been in the field for a while would perhaps have a couple of little dew drops on the end of these two little points here it comes down quite a bit lower than my chin and yes if I do lower my head I can actually bash myself in the front of my queer ass or your ass whichever you prefer um and they did a little bit awkward but I prefer to have this because it protects my otherwise rather exposed neck from blows coming in like this I've just noted by seeing myself in the monitor on the camera but I do look a little bit like a Star Wars Imperial stormtrooper but I'm going to try to put that my mind now the eye socket the eye socket um doesn't interfere with forward vision at all I can see you absolutely fine I can see you can see the camera and neither does it interfere with upward vision much at all you can probably see that my eyebrows and the brows of the helmet are pretty much in the same sort of place so upward fine forward fine to the side yep my eyes only swivel about that far sideways anyway so these cutouts are definitely adequate for letting me see left and right as I'm used to note the real complete all the bad things down down I can't see well at all I've only got this slit to see through downwards but my eyes aren't in the middle of my face so this one sees through the slit that way and this one sees through the slit that way and if I put my hand just here yes that's right it's only the tip of it's about level with my little bit down from my nose and it's smack in front of it I can't see that I cannot see my right hand I can see it now through the slit I can see it now to the slit but it's hiding behind a sort of virtual faceplate I can see a a long at all trapezium shape it's wider at the top than at the bottom floating in front of my face I I can try to pick it up because it's not really there it's just a construct of my brain trying to put together the pictures of two contradictory eyes and there is this blank blind spot in the middle and I can't see anything here because of the cheap place and down is really bad if I want to be able to see my toes I have to do that which makes me very vulnerable and yeah I've done a lot of really light reenactment and we didn't actually have real dying people with real sharp stuff on the ground but you know I got the strong impression from reenactment that it be very important to be able to see where you're putting your feet because when there are real driving people in agony some of whom are not on your side and don't actually have your best interest at heart and you really want to be able to see down to have to dispatch them with your lizard killer or perhaps just to avoid them treading on a body is good footing and you don't want a trip over brambles or rocks or any other such things that exists in the classical world in profusion so my ability to see down being hampered so badly is a concern while I was gathering stuff together to make this video I was trying to rummage through some boxes and find some stuff and I got so frustrated because trying to look down into the box rag and rummage through the contents I couldn't see what I was doing so in frustration I had to take the helmet off to do a basic task like that yes so down but vision definitely encumbered that's for hearing I can hear the world around me reasonably well well I can hear how is myself massively amplified them far I'm not used to hearing my own voice caught on the inside of a helmet and then channel round to my ears so if I was shouting a lot I would have definite myself and certainly wouldn't be able to hear a lot of what else was going on and the doesn't go very low back but it's okay because the cure a salt cure a sieve refer queer ass covers the gap reasonably well so I feel pretty protected at the back and thanks to these my throat doesn't feel quite so vulnerable though of course an upward slanting blow would still get it and noise now I've heard the theory that one of these would ring perhaps like a Bell dong when hit and that's why I've been carrying this drumstick all the time because on - I want you to imagine that this that this is a helmet and that it rings when you hit it Beverly and you imagine that when you stuff it on someone's head it doesn't so much ring and when you've got the helmet on though there's a little bit of a ring from the face plates which are a clear of my head I don't know how long that sounded to user sustained but I could hear little after that after the blow but only on the top no it doesn't really ring not when you've stuffed your head in it now if someone would hit you right back over where your ear is and that would sound extremely loud a hard thing hitting a hard thing very hard right over your ear yes that would be deafening however the alternative of course is that the whatever it is goes slamming into the side of you head I definitely go for the loud noise every time right I ramble to a faster long as it is and that's all I can think of to say at the moment and about Corinthian helmets

Channel: Lindybeige

Views: 577,381

Rating: 4.9169002 out of 5

Keywords: helm, helmet, armour, ancient, classical, athenian, hoplite, warfare, greek, hellas, corinthian, armor

Id: X1e0jxxLzV4

Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2013