Hellen Dünyasında Ok, Yay ve Okçuluk

Okçuluk, Üst Paleolitik Dönem’de ortaya çıkan bir av ve savaş yöntemidir. Günümüzde de bir spor dalı olarak varlığını sürdüren ve modern Olimpiyat Oyunları’nda yer alan okçuluk Antik Olimpiyatlarda yer almadığı gibi mitolojide de birkaç örnek dışında okçuluk yarışmalarına rastlanmaz. Hellenlerin okçuluğa yaklaşımı oldukça karmaşıktır. Bir yandan Artemis ve Apollon gibi iki önemli tanrıya okçulukla ilgili üstün yetenekler atfedilirken diğer yandan okçuluğa olumlu bakılmaz. Beceri gerektiren ok ve yay kullanımı savaş alanında büyük üstünlük sağlar; ancak çoğu zaman anlaşmazlık içerisinde oldukları Persler okçuluk konusunda kendilerinden daha ustadırlar ki bu karmaşık yaklaşımın önemli bir sebebi olabilir. Zehirli anlamında kullanılan “toksik” sözcüğünün kökeni Eski Hellencedeki “τοξικός”, yani “ok zehri” ve “yay/yayla ilgili - ok/okla ilgili” anlamına gelen sıfata dayanmaktadır. Görüldüğü üzere ok-yay ve zehir kelimeleri iç içe geçmiştir. Bu bildiride tarihi kaynaklar kullanılarak Hellenlerin okçuluğa bakışı irdelenecektir.

Arrow, Bow and Archery in Hellenic World

Archery is a hunting and battle practice known since Upper Paleolithic. Although contemporarily archery is a sport practice and has a category in Modern Olympics, it was not included in Ancient Olympics and any other prestigious competitions besides a funerary game. Ancient Greeks had a complex point of view on archery. In one hand, two important deities; Apollo and Artemis are gifted with archery skills and on the other hand archery was condescended in battlefield. Archenemies of the Greeks, the Persians were much more skilled than the Greek archers in the battlefield, which could be the reason of the hypocrisy on archery. Etymologically the word “toxic” which means “poisonous” is derived from the Ancient Greek word “τοξικός” which means “bow/ bow related - arrow/ arrow related”. In this paper, Greek point of view to archery will be discussed.

___

  • Aiskhines Aiskhines, Peri Thes Parapresbeias (Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919).
  • Apollodoros Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (The Library, Ed. J.G. Frazer, Volume I, Books 1-3, LOEB Classical Library Press, London, 1921).
  • Aristophanes Aristophanes, Akharneis (Edited and translated by Jeffrey Henderson. Loeb Classical Library 178. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998).
  • Arrianos Anabasis Arrianos, Anabasis (Arrian. Anabasis of Alexander, Volume I: Books 1-4. Translated by P. A. Brunt. Loeb Classical Library 236. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).
  • Cicero Cicero, Brutus (Ed.Jones, E., LOEB Classical Library Press, London, 1876).
  • Diodoros Sikeliotos Diodoros Sikeliotos, Bibliotheke Historike (Diodorus of Sicily I-XI, C. H. Oldfather – C. L. Sherman – C. B. Welles – R. M. Geer – F. R. Walton 1947-1970)
  • Euripides Euripides, Herakles (The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Heracles, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House, 1938).
  • Herodotos Historiai Herodotos, Historia (Çev. M. Ökmen, İstanbul, İş Bankası Yayınları, 2006).
  • Homeros Homeros, Ilias (Iliad, Volume I: Books 1-12. Translated by A. T. Murray. Revised by William F. Wyatt. Loeb Classical Library 170.
  • Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1924 ve İlyada, Çev. Azra Erhat – A. Kadir, Can Yayınları, İstanbul, 1984).
  • Pausanias Pausanias, Periegesis Tes Hellados (Pausanias, Description of Greece, Translated by W.H.S. Jones, H.A. Ormerod, London, LOEB Classical Library Press, 1926).
  • Plinius Plinius, Naturalis Historia (Çev. H. Rackham, London, Harvard Unversity Press, 1966).
  • Quintus Smrynaeus Quintus Smrynaeus, Posthomerika (The Fall of Troy, ed. By G.P. Goold, William Heinemann LTD, MCMLXXXIV, London,1913).
  • Sophokles Sophokles. Philoktetes (Sophocles. Vol 2: Ajax. Electra. Trachiniae. Philoctetes. English translation by F. Storr. The Loeb classical library, 21.
  • Francis Storr. London; New York. William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company. 1913).
  • Souda Tau Souda (Suidae Lexicon I-IV, Edited by:A. Adler, 1928-1971)
  • Strabon Strabon, Geographika (Translated by: H.L. Jones, The Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 2007).
  • Theophratos Theophrastos, Peri Phyton Historia (Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants. 1, Book I-V. Translated and edited by.Hort A.F., New York: Loeb Classical Library/G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1916).
  • Thukydides Thukydides, Historia Tou Peloponnesiakou Polemou (History of the Peloponnesian War, Vol. IV, (Greek and English Edition) , Harvard University Press, 1965).
  • Xenophon Anabasis Xenophon, Anabasis (Loeb Classical Library, (English and Greek Edition) Revised Edition, Harvard University Press, 1998).
  • Albright 1942: Albright, William F. and George Mendenhall. “The Creation of the Composite Bow in Canaanite Mythology.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1.2, 1942: 227-229.
  • Andrae 1962: Andreae, Bernard, “Herakles und Alkyoneus’’, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts 77, 1962: 130-210.
  • Balfour 1921: Balfour, Henry, “The Archer’s Bow In The Homeric Poems’’, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 51, Jul. - Dec., 1921: 289-309.
  • Barringer 2004: Barringer, Judith M. “Scythian Hunters on Attic Vases.” In Greek Vases: Images,Contexts, and Controversies, Ed. Clemente Marconi. Leiden, Brill, 2004.
  • Borthwick 1991: Borthwick, E. Kerr. “The Wise Man and the Bow in Aristides Quintilianus.” Classical Quarterly 41.1, 1991: 275-278.
  • Bradford 2001: Bradford, Alfred Z., With Arrow, Sword and Spear – A History of Warfare in the Ancient World, London, 2001.
  • Braund 1997: Braund, David, “Scythian Archers, Athenian Democracy and a Fragmentary Inscription from Erythrae’’, A special volume in honour of the 70th birthday of V.I. Kadeyev, Ed. V.F. Meshcheryakov, 48-56. Kharkov, 1997.
  • Cartledge 2002: Cartledge, Paul, The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002.
  • Davis 2013: Davis, Todd A., Archery in Archaic Greece, Phd Thesis, Columbia University, 2013.
  • Echols 1949: Echols, Edward C. “The Ancient Slinger.’’ The Classical Weekly 43, no. 15,1949-50: 227-230.
  • Grayson vd. 2007: Grayson, Charles E.; French, Mary; O'Brien, Michael J.; Glover, Daniel S., Traditional Archery from Six Continents: The Charles E. Grayson Collection, University of Missouri Press, 2007.
  • Hutchinson 1997: Hutchinson, Grant, “Words To The Wise: Poison Arrows’’, British Medical Journal 314, 1997: 7082.
  • Longman 1895: Longman, Charles J., “The Bows of the Ancient Assyrians and Egyptians’’, The Journal of Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.24, 1895: 49-57.
  • Mayor 2003: Mayor, Adrienne, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, New York, Overlook Books, 2003.
  • McLeod 1966: McLeod, Wallace. The Bow in Ancient Greece, with Particular Reference to Homeric Poems, Ph.D.diss., Harvard University, 1966.
  • McLeod 1968: McLeod, Wallace, “The Ancient Cretan Bow’’ Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries 11, 1968: 30-31.
  • McLeod 1970: Mc Leod, Wallace, “The Bowshot and Marathon’’, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 90, 1970: 197-199.
  • Molloy 2012: Molloy, Barry P.C., “Martial Minoans? War As Social Process, Practce and Eventin Bronz Age Crete’’, The Annual of British School in Athens, Vol. 107, 2012: 87-142.
  • Müller 1839: Müller, Karl Otfried, The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, London, 1839.
  • Rudenko 1970: Rudenko, Sergei I., Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of IronAge Horsemen, Çev. M.W. Thompson, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, 1970.
  • Selby 2000: Selby, Stephen, Chinese Archery, Hong Kong University Press, 2000.
  • Snodgrass 1964: Snodgrass, Anthony, Early Greek Armour and Weapons, Aldine (Hawthorne, NY), 1964.
  • Snodgrass 1999: Snodgrass, Anthony. Arms and Armor of the Greeks, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
  • Snodgrass 2000: Snodgrass, Anthony. The Dark Age of Greece. New York, Routledge, 2000.
  • Sutherland 2001: Sutherland, Caroline, “Archery in The Homeric Epics’’, Classics Ireland, Vol. 8, 2001: 111-120.
  • West 2003: Greek Epic Fragments From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, Ed. Martin L. West, LOEB Classical Library Press, London, 2003.
  • Baughman 2003: Baughman, Elizabeth, (2003). Scythian Archers. Erişim Tarihi: Kasım 12,2016 http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/scythian_archers.pdf
  • Kambouris 2014: Kambouris, Manousos, (2014). The Arrow Shooting of Ancient Greek Practice and Tactics. Erişim Tarihi: Kasım 11, 2016. https://koryvantesstudies.org/studies-in-english-language/page210-2/
  • Nikiteas 2013: Nikiteas, Yiorgos, (2013). Battle in the Shade. Erişim Tarihi: Kasım 11, 2016. https://www.academia.edu/4167779/BATTLE_IN_THE_SHADE_- _Yiorgos_Nikiteas