THEME: Hunting in antiquity THEME HOPLITES HUNTING AS TRAINING FOR WAR
Hunting was a core activity in ancient Greek society. Stories of hunting fill Greek myth, whether it be the Calydonian Boar or Actaeon hunting and accidentally coming across the goddess Artemis only to be turned into a deer and killed by his own dogs. Even before Xenophon’s claim that hunting was how “men become good in war” and, indeed, in all things ( 1.18), there was, however, a connection between hunting and warfare. In the Homeric epics, many of the descriptions of the heroes’ conduct in battle are couched in hunting similes, and hunting was used as a metaphor for a multitude of other activities. These men were, however, already great warriors and the idea that hunting made them so or kept them in shape is not emphasized. Yet Homeric heroes (and others) remained role models for later Greek (and Roman) men in all manner of pursuits – and hunting remained prominent for those
