Lucanian horse and rider - tomb art

Salvete Omnes, 

city of Herakleia - Lucania - Herakles and the lions

in southern Italy, after the era of Greek colonization  and establishment of the Magna Graecia towns along the Italian coast, there was an Italic tribe known as the Lucanians(of the southern Samnites) speaking a South Oscan language, who had hired themselves to the Greek city states, were traders, timber merchants and laborers to the Greeks and Romans in  central Italy. 

from a young male grave indicating a warrior ethos - Gaudo tomb 

Eventually their tribal movement led them to conquer, dominate, inhabit and populate  their new southern country known as Lucania - VI-V century BC, to the south of their cousins, the Samnites. Living in cities and town in a Greek fashion and within the spectrum of the dominant  Hellenic culture, they were still very bellicose, often allied with or  fighting against their neighbors.  About 400 BC they took a Greek city called Poseidonia, later  Paestum. 

After the 2nd Punic War the Lucanians, allies of Hannibal, were defeated and incorporated into the Roman Republic.
They rose against the Rome rule during the Social War of 91-87 BC, but were defeated 

The Lucanian tomb art from the Museum of Paestum  is spectacular display of their martial arts and equestrian prowess. 

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a victorious warrior wearing an Attic helmet, triple-disc cuirass and carrying a tropaion 

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warriors at duel 

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a horseman carrying a shield and a crested Attic helmet, armed with a stabbing spear and a kopis

kopis/copis sword and bronze belt from Poseidonia/Paestum

enjoy

Valete 

Heracles & Hippolyte's belt

 Salvete Omnes,

April 1st or April Fools Day -  what a Spring day to behold .. 

so let me invite you to the ancient Greek mythological  hero's adventure - the lion pelt clad and with armed with a bow and club Heracles, son of Alcmene and god Zeus, sailed on his quest for the belt of Hippolyte, the queen of Amazons. Accordingly the name Amazon was meant to mean ' without a breast, because the right breast was cut off, that it might not hinder the use of  bow' and javelin.

According to Apollodorus, in his 9th labor Heracles was ordered by the 'evil' Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, to fetch him the belt of Hippolyte (belt of Ares), the queen of the Amazon warrior-women from the river Thermodon [in Pontus according to Strabo]. 

Apollodorus stated that 'these warrior-women cultivated male virtues,' while Diodorus Siculus wrote in his Book II that the women of Thermodon river held the 'sovereignty in their hand and performed services of was just as did the men. Of these women one, who possessed the royal authority, was remarkable for the prowess in war and her bodily strength, and gathering together an army of women she drilled it in the use of arms and subdued in was some of the neighbouring peoples[..], and as the tide of her fortune continued favorable, she was so filled with pride that she gave herself the appellation of  Daughter of Ares.' Greek god  Ares had a belt made for the queen, known as the belt of Ares. Their capital was called Themiscyra, in the mouth of Thermodon.

Heracles, according to Apollodorus, came by ship with his companions, and having put into the harbor of Themiscyra was visited by queen Hippolyte wearing the belt. Goddess Hera, always trying to derail Heracles in his efforts, arrived in the likeness of an Amazon warrior and went up and down the horde of Amazons saying the strangers who had arrived were carrying off the queen. So the Amazons in arms charged astride their horses down the harbor. But when Heracles saw them in arms, he suspected treachery, and killing Hippolyte stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest[of the Amazon host] he sailed awaya dna touched at Troy.'

Diodorus, Book II, 4-16.,  gives a detailed description of the battle between Heracles and the Amazons. 

enjoy

valete