SciFi and Fantasy Art: Athenian Phalanx (or indeed Hoplite)

Hi there, John. Don't worry too much about how well others can use colored pencils--just keep practicing. And just FYI, a phalanx is actually an infantry formation (multiple ranks/files) usually in an arrow-shaped group. An individual Greek infantryman was sometimes called a hoplite. Keep up the good work!

Eh? I always thought that a member of a phalanx was called a phalangite, with individual warriors called hoplites. Oh well. Hey, maybe he *is* a phalanx, only, he's super big. He's like, the Trojan Horse, but he's the Trojan Man, and he's so realistic, really stupid people like to make Warhammer miniatures from him. And when the time comes, all the little hoplites crawl out of his helmet.. You might want to take a look at one of them really famous Corinthian bronze helmets for reference when drawing that, btw. Right now, he sorta looks like Boba Fett.

Nice job on the hoplite! It is a great drawing and looks alot like a picture of a hoplite in my history book. Its okay about the color, you should keep working at it.

don't worry about the colors... it comes with time. i personally can't use colors, so you've got that more then more of some of us. As for tips, you could maybe go more into shadings.. use a darker green and turn it into a lighter green maybe! annnnnnnnnnnnnnnyhow, im going to ramble my way to other drawings. laters maybe.

Nice drawing. Am looking for hoplite representations and found your site.

You may be interested, though, that a hoplite's shield was about 3 feet in diameter (should be larger on yours) and the shield is worn on the forearm of the left arm (that's why phalanx formations were vulnerable on their right flanks and were employed accordingly).

Fred - US Army War College class of '02

Its a good picture, but i thought that a phalanx is made up of whole army of people not just one, so maybe it should be called a member of the phalanx, im a student and learning about the phalanx, and i think that u should add some more soldiers to complete the full picture or change the title.

It's a pretty fair portrayal, however there exists some inaccuracies. Firstly, as many have pointed out, a phalanx is a number of individual hoplites. Secondly, the hoplite ALWAYS carries the shield or hoplon on his left arm where he carries a short sword, while the spear is always carried in the right hand.

Thank you, Ryan, for being the first person stupid enough that I could find in 2 hours that said a hoplon was a shield. Wrong. The hoplite was not named after his shield, either. The shield is called an aspis. Hoplon are any number of instruments of war, which means a spear is a hoplon, so is a sword and breastplate. Hoplite means 'Man for war.' Also, Elven Angel, you are correct. A member of a phalanx is a phalangite and hoplite. You made my day, Ryan, I love correcting stupid people like you. P.S. you just got your butt kicked by a thirteen year old. How's it feel?

I admire your drawing skills. I'm a visitor to the site and think it's great. keep up with the Greek stuff.

The term ’phalangite’ as far as I know doesn’t appear until the very end of the Classical Greek period, i.e after the defeat of Sparta and the brief period of Theban rule, and only became common in the Hellenistic period. Before then I’d say it was quite correct to call a member of a phalanx in the classical period a ’hoplite’ rather than a ’phalangite’. If any one knows of ’phalangite’ being used in either Herodotus or Thucydides I’d be interested to know! I suspect the term ’phalangite’ only came about after the standard 8 man rank phalanx became obsolete after the tactics employed by Epaminondas and the subsequent move towards much deeper ranks, concentrated forces and more flexible tactics. As the ’hoplon’ debate, that is a bit like saying an M-16 isn’t a gun, it’s an M-16, rather pedantic. Technically speaking the shield was called an aspis but it was also refered to as a ’hoplon’.