The Royal Ontario Museum has always been a fascinating place to visit; the building structure

is an odd mix of 1800 different documents of masonry and modern architecture in the form of
indistinguishable shapes made out of metal and glass. ​The place houses countless exhibits of
all interests (CONNECT SENTENCE).​ From Europe to Asia, from the prehistoric dinosaurs
to present day, and everything in between, the Royal Ontario Museum or simply the ROM has
something to spark everyone’s interest. The Greek exhibits at the ROM in particular are truly
an interesting sight. The scores of artifacts big and small displayed in crystal-clear glass cases
are mere shadows of their former glory. Now these objects of both luxury and those of
everyday use are sitting thousands of miles away from their homes, and displayed so that
people can understand more about lifestyles in the ancient world. The Greek exhibits range
greatly, many of which are black-figure vases depicting military prowess or stuff of legend,
and since the purpose of many of their pottery was for propaganda reasons, as each of the
independent Greek city-states are trying to prove their superiority over one another. Other
exhibits include sculptures and busts of Greek deities or important citizens of Greece, most of
which are broken and damaged, but few manage to stay fully intact to show the craftsmanship
of these past artisans. What were most interesting were the armour and equipment discovered
from the many conflicts of Greece, both from internal, the many rivalry and disputes between
each independent city-state as they fight for dominance, and external conflict mostly against
the looming presence of the mighty Persian Empire, which was always too eager to devour
Greece.

The ancient Greeks were probably most famous for their military, often depicted in modern
popular culture, such as the films “300” and “Troy”. The characteristic style of warfare in
archaic Greece was infantry warfare. Infantrymen were called hoplites after the type of hoplon
heavy shield that they used. The design of the shield’s grip was such that it protected half of
its owner’s body and extended outward to protect half of the body of the man standing to the
owner’s right. It was designed for use in a rigid formation called a phalanx, wherein soldiers
lined up almost shoulder-to-shoulder and each rank almost treading on the heels of the one in
front of it. Phalanx fighting was simple in the extreme sense. When two phalanxes would
combat, they would charge at one another and collide. The more ranks, the more effective the
charge. In its developed form, the phalanx was normally eight rows deeps. The hoplite’s main
weapon was his long thrusting spear. After the initial collision, the short slashing sword is used
instead of the spear, due to the lack of room for jabbing with the spear. (Ancient Greece)

The full panoply, which developed over centuries, included a large round hoplon shield, a
bronze helmet that covered the head and face, a heavy bronze corselet, bronze greaves that
protected the knees and shins, and an iron-tipped spear used for thrusting at close quarters.
Hoplites also carried a short sword as a back-up weapon. This equipment was cumbersome,
and useful only in pitched battles on flat ground.

Hoplites were usually required to furnish their own armour. The normal qualification for
hoplite status was property qualification-they had to be landowners in order to be a phalanx.
But hoplite armour, while not cheap, was not exceptionally expensive either; most landowners
in a given polis probably would have belonged to the hoplite class. The hoplite style of
warfare reflects the importance of the landowning peasant in the Greek polis and the
egalitarian ideas behind the polis-all hoplites had similar equipment and fought side-by-side.

Of all the armour and tools of war on display (​WHERE​?), what stood out was the
“Corinthian” helmet, found in 1834, at the Battle of Marathon. It is a “standard” hoplite
helmet, but what makes it special is the fact that it contained nearly a perfectly intact upper
portion of a human skull, preserved by the thick bronze material when it was discovered.

Corinth was a one of the major city-states in Greece, unlike Sparta, which was well known for
its military, and Athens, which was known for its cultural-centre, Corinth was known for its
commerce. (GIVE Brief SENTENCE Describing WHERE CORINTH IS SITUATED) . After
the Dark Age in Ancient Greece, many people began to get more into the trading business.
Many commodities such as glass jars, perfume, pottery, wine, furs, and many others started
traveling back and forth between Asia, Greece and Italy. A lot of these traders traveling on
both Phoenician and Greek ships had to go through Corinth because of its location in Greece,
and the narrow piece of land that joins the southernmost part of Greece to the mainland called
the Isthmus of Corinth. The Tyrant of Corinth named Periander built a large stone track across
it, so that ships could be dragged over the land from coast to coast using large numbers of
slaves. Thus Corinth extracted large sums of money through tolls.

Corinth was also known for its pottery, decorated with a watery clay mixture instead of
painting it. When the pot was baked in a kiln, the areas painted with clay mixture turned black,
unpainted areas turned a light brown or reddish brown colour, varying on the type of clay used.
For nearly 200 years the Corinthians sold their pottery all over the Greek world, and Corinth
became a wealthy and prosperous trading centre.

Although Corinth was famous for its prosperous economy, it also did maintain its own army of
heavily equipment army. The Corinthians played a major role in the many conflicts that took
place in ancient Greece. They fight fought along the united Greek front against the Persian
invasions, and later they sided with Sparta and fought against the Athenians in the
Peloponnesian War. The helmet that was discovered was found to be lost at the Battle of
Marathon; it has been identified as being made with a Corinthian pattern.

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BCE, one of the many battles that took place during
the Persian expedition in Greece. The victory over the Persian invaders gave the fledgling
Greek city states confidence in their ability to defend themselves and belief in their continued
existence. The battle is therefore considered a defining moment in the development of
European culture.

The Persian invasion started as retaliation against the Athenian Greeks, due to their support of
their Ionian cousins in a revolt against their Persian rulers. In September of 490 BCE,
approximately 20,000 infantry and cavalry and an armada of 600 Persian ships left Persia for
Greece. Despite the clear numerical superiority of the invaders, Athens mobilized 10,000
Greek hoplites to confront the Persian threat. On a grassy Plain of Marathon, twenty-six miles
north of Athens the battle took place, The terrain at Marathon was a flat surrounded by hills
and sea, which was ideal for the Persian cavalry. Surveying the enemy force and the terrain, the
Greek generals hesitated.
It was not until one of the Greek generals, Miltiades finally drew up a battle plan and
convinced his fellow generals to take the initiative and attack the Persians first. The plan had
all the Greek hoplites to form into a phalanx equal in length to that of the Persians. Then, the
hoplites were to smash into the Persian line at a dead run. During the melee, the middle of the
Greek line thinned and gave away, but the flanks were able to engulf and slaughter and trap the
Persians. An estimated 6,400 Persians were killed, while the Greeks only lost 192 men. The
helmet on display at the ROM is presumably one of these fallen soldiers.

All the citizens in a city-state are responsible in providing their own armour, thus making the
armour varies from hoplite to hoplite. However, there is a standard to which all the equipment
is constructed, with each city-state varying only slightly in terms of construction. Because the
way the Greeks fought: in close formations, the hoplon was not use merely to ward off enemy
blows, but also actively pressed forward in the pushing that decided the battle when two battle
formations met face to face. “Set food against foot; strain shield against shield, crest upon
crest, helmet upon helmet, breast to breast close with your man and fight him, grasping your
sword’s hilt or long spear-shaft.” (Tytaeus 8.31-4) In the battle, the hoplon was large enough to
cover the man on the left, allowing hoplites to fight shoulder to shoulder with half of their body
protected by the next man’s shield. Seen from the front, a phalanx presented nearly a solid wall
of shields, helmeted heads, and spears. The way formation the formation leaves the head
exposed, helmets became vital equipment as a last line of defense ensuring survival to the
hoplite.

As it is shown in the Corinthian version which was developed in the 8​th​ Century BCE, the
helmet covers the entire head in a single thick piece of bronze. This is different from the
previous six piece helmet, which included the cap that was formed into the shape of the head;
the falos, a metal ridge on top of the helmet running up from the back as a support for the crest;
the crest itself usually made of bits of horse hair, and ending off with horse tail, called the
lofos. The helmet is completed with a visor that has openings for the eyes and mouth and nose
guard running down the centre of the visor. Movable cheek pieces, and a neckpiece are present
on the helmet so as to protect the back of the head. Because of the popularity of the heavy
Corinthian style helmet, it is difficult to determine the origin of hoplite, whether he was an
Athenian, or a hoplite from an allied city-state. Regardless of which case it is, the Corinthian
helmet remained the most used helmet throughout the Archaic and Classic Greek periods
mostly due to its effective ability to protect the wearer. The Corinthian helmet often depicted
Greek stories and legends, for instance Herodotus’s accounts of the ritual dueling between the
fair maidens Machlyes and the Auseans as celebration to the virgin god Athena. “Before the
girls are set fighting, the whole people choose the fairest maid, and arm her with a ​Corinthian
helmet​ and ​Greek​ panoply, to be then mounted on a chariot and drawn all along the lake
shore.” (Herodotus, ​The Histories​ [ed. A. D. Godley]) The helmets themselves were made,
after the proper measurement of the buyer’s head was acquired, by forming a plate of bronze
using a wooden pole. The process of making such a helmet was often very difficult and
expensive, thus the helmets as well as the rest of the armour essentially become family
heirlooms as the armor is passed on from father to son. Also because of its artisan
craftsmanship, the helmets are often decorated with a crest of horsehair, engraves and
drawings. The particular Corinthian helmet on display at the ROM lacks the extreme fine
craftsmanship, or maybe the design had faded into nothingness with time, whatever the case, it
definitely does not lack in the protectiveness of a Greek helmet. The Corinthian type helmet is
a closed helmet, constructed from a single piece of bronze plate beaten into an egg-shaped
bowl. And it covers nearly the full face; the back of the helmet extends all the way past the
neck, deflecting blows that could potentially decapitate the hoplite. The cheek plates were not
attached separately, but together in one piece with the helmet, it curves inwards to provide a
better fit for the owner’s head. The nose guard is a long strip of curved metal coming out of the
helmet extending pass the nose, ending slightly above the mouth with a point at the end. The
eye slit on the helmet somewhat resembles a sideways teardrop and is wide enough for a good
frontal view. Though, even with the eye slit curving slightly backwards in the shape of the
round helmet, such helmet provided little in terms of peripheral vision. On a side view, the
cheek piece of the helmet smoothly bends up upwards as it joins with the back of the helmet.
The back is hammered into such a shape that it bends upwards in a nice smooth curve to about
parallel to the frontal cheek plates. All the smooth bends and curves create a simple yet elegant
look to the helmet. The lower edges of the helmet are dotted with little holes for the purpose of
attaching a lining, to provide a better fit to the wearer, and also provide a cushion to reduce any
traumatic blows to the head. This kind of absolute head protection comes at a price however,
unlike the Chalcidian style helmet where the ears are exposed. By sacrificing the greater field
of vision and the ability to hear things clearly, The Corinthian style helmet is more protective.

The surface of the helmet was covered with an incrustation ranging in colour from a
turquoise green to a light grey upon the dull bronze material. The front of the helmet
suffering minor surface rust, creating unevenness on the bronze material, but the back
suffered greater corrosion, as big parts of the helmet has rusted away. A large portion of the
upper back of the helmet is missing, with area surrounding the hole thinned and cracked
due to the rust. This is due to the many chips and cracks created by the missing piece,
which led to many other minor holes in the back and upper region of the helmet. The
region near the missing part of the helmet appears significantly thinner compared to the rest
of the helmet. Surprisingly enough, the helmet did not suffer any visible battle damage, but
it is always possible the rusting started due to the fact that there was damage dealt to the
upper region of the helmet, and the rust using the wound as a starting point, ate away the
rest of the upper helmet.

What was most astonishing was not what was on the helmet, but rather, what was found within
the helmet. Reportedly, a skeletal head was discovered within in the helmet. The skull which
has survived nearly 2500 years, mostly undamaged save for some minor problem round the
mouth which was not cover by the helmet. The skull itself is able to serve as a testament to the
protective capabilities of a Corinthian Style helmet, as any part of the skull that was protected
by the helmet was able to stay full intact. The skull itself is displayed in an independent glass
case just below the helmet. The colour of the skull has turned from a natural bone colour to a
more brown dirt colour, showing only remnants of the bone colour around the brow area, and
slightly on the forehead. Due to the lack of protection to the mouth offered by the Corinthian
style helmet, the mouth and jaw region long cease to exist. (THERE WERE NO VISBLE
WOUNDS TO THE SKULL MEANING THAT THE CAUSE OF DEATH WAS NOT TO
THE SKULL, Unless IT WERE TO THE JAW) Below the nasal bone, nothing else cease to
exist, as it is just nasal bone connecting to the cheek bones, with the upper and bottom part of
the mouth decayed into nothingness long ago.

In conclusion, the visit to the Royal Ontario Museum was an interesting experience, viewing
and researching an Ancient Greek artifact that can be almost seen as the trademark of Greece,
the Corinthian helmet was so popular, despite its lack of vision as well as the hearing
drawbacks. Most characters in Greek sculptures and art are seen donning a form of Corinthian
helmet, usually pushed back on the head fully exposing the face. In fact, some statues of
Athena are often depicted with her wearing a Corinthian helmet pushed upwards.