Swords in Geometric and Archaic Greece were of bronze or ferrous materials, with two edges, a point, a grip, and a pommel. They were roughly symmetrical along their long axis. These properties meant that swords designed as weapons can be distinguished from edged tools designed for other purposes such as working wood, slaughtering animals, or clearing brush. Scholars debate when the medium-sized, singleedged blades in graves and sanctuaries become dedicated weapons, as distinct from ‘sacrificial knives’, which could be used against human beings but were not specifically made for that purpose.
The earliest Greek text to clearly distinguish between these two types of weapons is Xenophon's On Horsemanship (12.11) from the fourth century BC, which calls the two-edged swords xiphe (singular xiphos) and the single-edged, cleaver-like ones kopides (singular kopis).
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Archaic Greece was a long time ago, and Greece has few bogs or rivers which protect steel from oxygen. Most early steel swords from Greece are badly rusted, and many were
