Promachos
Military unit
In ancient Greece and during the Byzantine era, the Promachoi (singular: Promachos; Greek: πρόμαχος) were the men fighting in the first rank of the phalanx. The word can also be used as an adjective as in "promachos line" referring to the first line of battle.
The first use of the word is recorded in Homer's Iliad. An obsolete English literal translation of promachos is forefighter, in Dutch voorvechter.
01Name
02Sanctuaries - Statues
- Athena Promachos, the famous bronze statue by Phidias that towered over the Parthenon.
- Hermes Promachos, a sanctuary at Tanagra was dedicated to him.
- Heracles Promachos, a white marble statue of Heracles in the Heracles Sanctuary at Thebes. The Thebans Xenocrites (Ξενοκρίτης) and Eubius (Εὔβιος) created the statue.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Promachos”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Greek Phalanx.jpg by Unknown author, Public domain
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