Note 245 — Chapter XX
L. Dora Schmitz translation
Few coincidences have struck us more than the comparison of these helmet-crests with the frequent allusions in Homer, especially where “Hector of the dancing helmet-crest” (κορυθαίολος Ἕκτωρ), takes off the helmet that frightened his child (Iliad, VI. 469, foll.):—
Ταρβήσας χαλκόν τε ἰδὲ λόφον ἱππιοχαίτην Δεινὸν ἀπ’ ἀκροτάτης κόρυθος νεύοντα νοήσας. “Scared by the brazen helm and horse-hair plume, That nodded, fearful, on the warrior’s crest.”
No such plumed helmets are found among the remains of “pre-historic” barbarous races. The skeletons, with the helmets and lances beside them, bear striking witness to a city taken by storm. In Homer, the Trojans under the command of “the crested Hector” are “valiant with lances” (μεμαότες ἐγχείῃσιν, Iliad, II. 816-818).—[Ed.]