Little Things II: Goliath

Some time ago I wrote an article concerning two little historical theories, that might or might not be correct, but are nevertheless fascinating, because they are unconventional without being too far out. And they throw new light on some topic or event without forcing us to overthrow everything we thought we knew. I like things like that, and I always will.

It looks as if eventually I will make a series of articles like that, starting today with a second one. My topic today will be Goliath.

I do not think I have to recount the story from the Bible to you. The bit that interests me is the physical description of Goliath (from the authorized King James version, Samuel 1, chapter 17).

And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

(What is meant by a target of brass in this context? Certainly not a target for his enemies to better aim at Goliath’s back. I think it is only a weird translation. My German Bible says it was a curved sword.)

A historian immediately would notice that that is not the description of a typical Philistine warrior. How do we know? Because each time the ancient Egyptians fought wars and won them (and they won a lot, otherwise their kingdom would not have survived for more than 2000 years) they carved steles and reliefs glorifying the deeds of their king in which they depicted columns of enemy prisoners of war. These depictions were always very realistic, the enemies were not stereotyped barbarians but shown with their characteristic clothes and weapons, and, in some cases, skin colors as well. There are depictions of Philistines too and from these we can see that they were lightly armed, went barefoot and wore feather crowns instead of heavy helmets. Look here, for example. In fact, no warriors from the region at David’s time wore heavy armor.

But when you read the description in the Bible, it may still ring a bell, especially after some of the recent movies. Look at this fellow:

Looks just like Goliath, doesn’t he? It is a Greek hoplite. Helmet, greaves, heavy thrusting spear, shield, everything there. They also packed curved swords called kopis as secondary weapons. The Bible says Goliath’s body armor was in the form of a mail coat, and there were such hoplites as well, like these. Complete hoplite gear weighed up to 30kg. (By the way: In the graphic novel and movie 300 the spartan hoplites do not wear any body armor which is, historically, pure nonsense. But then again there are 1001 reasons to treat that work as a piece of complete fiction.)

Another thing is that at that period Greeks were typically larger than Palestinians, so it might have been easy for a Greek to appear like a giant to the Israelites. Additionally there seem to be narrative similarities between the Goliath story and some passages from the Iliad.

So Goliath was a hoplite, right? Well, probably not. There’s a catch. The trouble is that the hoplite armor and fighting style was only invented several hundred years after king David is estimated to have lived. Several historians have suggested that Goliath could have been a Greek hoplite but for that reason it is not very well possible. But there is another solution to the problem, which I think might be the true one.

It was developed by the archeologist Israel Finkelstein in his book David and Salomon. He reminds us that the tales of king David were passed down orally for many generations before they were recorded in writing during or after the Babylonian exile period. At that time not only did hoplites exist, it seems also some of them had found their way into Canaan as mercenaries. They were the ultimate fighting machine of the day (except for war chariots maybe). So when the Jewish scholars set out to write down the traditional stories of their people and they came across a story about a giant and terrfying enemy warrior, what would have been easier to them than give him the appearance of the most awe-inspiring type of warrior they knew?

In fact, the habit of depicting people in historical scenes in attire contemporary to the artist has always been around. Just look at the paintings of Biblical scenes from the Renaissance. They even showed Roman legionaries in medieval plate armor. This painting is an example. And it is my opinion that this deplorable habit is still around in movies, especially concerning hairstyles and makeup. Helen of Troy should not look like someone from 21st century Hollywood. She would be beautiful in ancient Greek makeup as well. Trust me!

[I just noticed there is a certain unintended irony in listing the giant Goliath as a “little thing.” Well, such is life. By the way: To see all articles in this series just click on the search key “little things”!]