Xiphos

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Antique swords, fig. 1-3: Xiphos, fig. 4: Makhaira.
Antique swords, fig. 1-3: Xiphos, fig. 4: Makhaira.

The xiphos (ξίφος) is a double-edged, single-hand sword used by the ancient Greeks. It was a primary battlefield weapon for the Greek armies along with the spear or javelin. The blade was around 60 cm long. The xiphos was good for both cutting and stabbing attacks due to its leaf-shaped blade. It was generally used only when the spear was discarded.

The straight, double-edged design of the xiphos lends it the same overall martial versatility found in the swords used by infantry until the firearm supplanted the sword on the battlefield. Its design lent itself to cutting and thrusting.

Because of the nature of mounted combat, Xenophon recommended using the curved makhaira for cavalry in On Horsemanship 12:11.

It seems that the Spartans developed a shorter sword, about 30cm long, but otherwise similar to the common hoplite xiphos. This shorter version of the xiphos was useful in the close combat of the Greek warfare and was widely used by all Greeks during and after the Peloponnesian War, as we are shown by art of that period. However the longer hoplite sword never ceased to exist.[citation needed]

A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor, by George Cameron Stone, has the xiphos being a name used by Homer for a sword. The entry in the book says that the sword had a double-edged blade widest at about two-thirds of its length from the point (so not necessarily as shown in the figure), and ended in a very long point.


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