Boar's tusk helmet

The boar's tusk helmet is a type of military headwear used in Mycenaean Greece. The helmet was made of ivory from a boar's tusks and attached in rows onto a leather base padded with felt.

Mycenaean Greek boar's tusk helmet from Mycenae (14th century BC) shown at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Homeric epic

A description of a boar's tusk helmet appears in the tenth book of Homer's Iliad where Odysseus is armed for a night-raid against the Trojans.

Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on his head. On the inside there was a strong lining on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had been sewn in. The outside was cleverly adorned all around with rows of white tusks from a shiny-toothed boar, the tusks running in alternate directions in each row.

Μηριόνης δ' Ὀδυσῆϊ δίδου βιὸν ἠδὲ φαρέτρην
καὶ ξίφος, ἀμφὶ δέ οἱ κυνέην κεφαλῆφιν ἔθηκε
ῥινοῦ ποιητήν: πολέσιν δ' ἔντοσθεν ἱμᾶσιν
ἐντέτατο στερεῶς: ἔκτοσθε δὲ λευκοὶ ὀδόντες
ἀργιόδοντος ὑὸς θαμέες ἔχον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα

εὖ καὶ ἐπισταμένως: μέσσῃ δ' ἐνὶ πῖλος ἀρήρει.

— Homer, Iliad 10.260–5

The number of ivory plates needed to make a helmet ranges from 40 to 140. Also, around forty to fifty boars would have to be killed to make just one helmet.

Gallery

• 
  Boar's tusk helmet displayed in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

References

Sources

• Everson, Tim (2004). Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great. Brimscombe Port: The History Press. ISBN 9780752495064.
• Kilian-Dirlmeier, Imma, ed. (1997). Das mittelbronzezeitliche Schachtgrab von Αegina. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. ISBN 9783805319928.
• Komita, Nobuo (1982). "The Grave Circles at Mycenae and the Early Indo-Europeans" (pdf). Research Reports of Ikutoku Technical University (A-7): 59–70.
• Rutter, Jeremy B. (1996). "Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean". Trustees of Dartmouth College and the Foundation of the Hellenic World. Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2021.

Further reading

• Mödlinger, Marianne (2013). "From Greek Boar's-Tusk Helmets to the First European Metal Helmets: New Approaches on Development and Chronology". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 32 (4): 391–412. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12021.