Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Fighting Men, Ancient and Mythical Warriors Pt.1













Heroics by Paul Freeman

Heroics by Paul Freeman



 300 (the movie) The Battle of Thermopylae
300 (the movie) The Battle of Thermopylae
300 (the movie) The Battle of Thermopylae
300 (the movie) as Xerxes 
300 (the movie) The Battle of Thermopylae
300 (the movie) The Battle of Thermopylae
300 (the movie) The Battle of Thermopylae




Naked Celt warriors

Thor and his hammer
Thor's Battle Against the Jötnar (1872)






Alan Valdez
Achilles

Achilles slays Hector

 Amazon Warriors

 Amazon Warriors


Greek soldiers
Greek soldiers


 Andy Whitfield Australian star of SPARTACUS
"[The Celts] wear bronze helmets with figures picked out on them, even horns, which made them look even taller than they already are...while others cover themselves with breast-armour made out of chains. But most content themselves with the weapons nature gave them: they go naked into battle...Weird, discordant horns were sounded, [they shouted in chorus with their] deep and harsh voices, they beat their swords rhythmically against their shields.” Written by Diodorus, a Roman historian

Celtic Warrior

Young warrior Ares. Roman copy of Greek original—the original is housed in the Museum of the Villa Canope at the Villa Adriana in Tivoli.


Pre-Christian Celtic warriors are mentioned as going into battle naked on a number of occasions. The Celts that invaded Italy in the 4th Century BC fought naked, as did the Gaesati mercenary band that the Boii and Insubres called upon late in the 3rd Century. The consul Manlius Volso told his men that the Galatian tribes still fought naked in the 2nd Century, and as late as the 5th Century AD the Picts are still alleged to have fought naked.
Some Celtic warriors used lime (like we use hair mousse today) to dress their hair into spikes and tattooed their skin with blue dye, called woad (the name Picts comes from the Latin for 'painted people')

Berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources. Most historians believe that berserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think that they might have consumed drugged foods.

Valkyries in Norse mythology, (from Old Norse valkyrja "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who decide who dies and wins in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's afterlife field Fólkvangr)
Berserker



Greek soldier running







Heroics by Paul Freeman

Heroics by Paul Freeman

Marc Singer the Beastmaster