The Greek Shield: More Than a Weapon

When the first American ships appeared off the coast of Japan, they found a land frozen in time... A land where a legendary sword, the mighty "Katana," reigned supreme as both an instrument of death and a symbol, one that reflected the ideals of an entire class of warrior-nobles, the "Samurai." But at the other end of space and time, the Greeks of Homer's time developed a way of fighting that reflected ideals of a different sort. Ideals that would lead to democracy. It was called the "Phalanx" and in the place occupied by the Japanese sword, the Greek soldier honoured a different weapon, one that protected his small egalitarian communities against whole empires. It was called "hoplon" or shield.