A Gripping Controversy: Examining Hoplite Spear Grip Positions in Art, Practice, and Context

The Greek Hoplite was the principal warrior of Archaic and Classical period Greece. The citizen militiaman was outfitted primarily with a large shield and spear, which he used in a dense Phalanx formation to combat foes for nearly three centuries. In the absence of written records detailing how individual hoplites fought, historians have turned to the artistic record. Archaic and Classical age vase paintings, depicting hoplites in combat, have served as the basis for nearly all reconstructions of hoplite warfare. The majority of these vase paintings depict hoplites holding their spears overhead in an overhand grip position. This grip position, while being the basis of nearly all previous models of hoplite combat, is not convincing when placed under logical scrutiny. This study uses archeological reconstruction to show that an underhand grip is far more likely to have been the way hoplites wielded their spears in the phalanx, thus necessitating a reexamination of previous scholarship. This research also proves, through artistic and literary analysis, that this new model of hoplite warfare is not inconsistent with pictorial evidence. It shows that the overhand grip is instead an inherited artistic convention based on Homeric descriptions of warfare, and an enshrinement of the Greek virtues of heroism, competition, and individual prowess.