Building a cavalryman vs. building a charioteer

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by whswhs

A historical note that might be relevant is that after the wars between the Greeks and Persians, Greek iconography changed. Before that, Heracles was shown carrying a bow. After that, the bow was disliked as a Persian weapon (perhaps even with something like the dislike more recent troops apparently have felt toward snipers?) and Heracles was shown carrying a club. That seems like an actual case of the militarily effective bow being rejected because it was the weapon of an alien power. . . .

When I think of archery in Greek myth, I think of two things—(1) hunters like Artemis (2) Odysseus showing off his prowess as an archer to prove his identity. I think at least one other archer is mentioned in the Iliad but the IIRC the Iliad gives the impression of the Greeks only having a few archers in their army, not using massed archery tactics. I've also heard it suggested that the hoplites' large, heavy shields made archery fairly ineffective against them. So this may be less a case of an effective weapon being rejected for cultural reasons as a weapon's associations shifting from "hunting weapon" to "foreign weapon".