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Short description

The well-trained Ephebes of Elis can both fight as skirmishers from afar and as light Hoplites in close combat.

Description

These young men are the Ephebes of Elis, a proud city in the north western Peloponnese that controls the Olympic Games. They have received and still are receiving a thorough education and training, so that they may become full citizens of Elis, dauntless Hoplites, impressive athletes, and sound thinkers. When armed, their main task is to defend the borders of the chora, the territory of the polis Elis. The youngsters have already been equipped with the classic Hoplite shield, the Aspis, but fight without heavy body armour, instead relying on the range of their javelins. Yet, if needed, they are brave enough to join the adult citizens in melee and fight with the dory, the Hoplite spear. These boys are the future of Elis, and they will eagerly prove their worth.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Elis (Dorian: Ális, Elian: Wális) was the name of a fertile region in the north western Peloponnese and its capital city, which was only founded in 472/471 BC (Diod. 11.54.1; Strab. 8.3.2). During the 5th century, Triphylia (Hdt. 4.148) and Lepreon (Thuk. 5.31.2) were conquered, and Olympia had been under Elian control since Archaic times. After several setbacks and gains in the Peloponnesian War and 4th century – and the permanent loss of Triphylia – Elis became an ally of the Aitolian League by the 270s BC. The Aitolians helped Elis to regain Triphylia and other areas in 245 BC (Lafond, Elis). However, in 219/218 BC, Elis was defeated by Philip V of Macedon and lost Triphylia once more, but the Romans re-added it to Elian territory for good in 146 BC. During all of its history, Elis, after the role model of Sparta, remained free of walls (Strab. 8.3.33; Xen. Hell. 3.2.27). Instead, its men were its walls, and this was especially true for the 18 to 20 year old men, the Ephebes, who probably occupied the border forts of the chora.

Like other poleis, Elis seems to have mainly trained its Ephebes in skirmishing and archery, probably a relic of tradition. That they trained as archers is suggested by the Byzantine writer Photios, who calls them Scythians (Phot. Lex. sv. Synephebos), but this may also refer to the practice of stationing Ephebes in border forts – Scythia would then refer to the distance to the city (Hartog, Mirror of Herodotus (1988), pp. 52-54). Some authors even speculated the comparison with Scythians meant that the Elian ephebes wore Scythian clothes (Mayor, The Amazons (2016), p. 440), but with the barbaric image in mind that the Greeks had of the Scythians, this seems highly unlikely. It is more probable that, if Photios did not only refer to the patrolling duties on the Elian borders, he implied a connection with Artemis. The cult of Artemis, the goddess of hunting and archery, was often connected with the region of southern Scythia and the Cimmerian Bosporus in antiquity. In Elis, the sanctuary of Artemis was located just next to the gymnasion, where the Ephebes met and trained (Braund, Greek Religion (2018), p. 78). Hence, Artemis may have been their protector goddess. As every well-read Percy Jackson fan knows, Artemis was usually the patron deity of girls and the upholder of virginity. And in fact, at Elis, there also existed a female Ephebeia – although sworn to Hera. As the Greek travel writer Pausanias (2nd century AD), who probably hailed from Lydia, writes:

"Every fourth year there is woven for Hera a robe by the sixteen women, and the same also hold games called Heraia. The games consist of foot-races for maidens. These are not all of the same age. The first to run are the youngest; after them come the next in age, and the last to run are the oldest of the maidens." (Paus. 5.16.2)

The games were organised by married women, he adds, who crowned the winners with crowns of olive (Paus. 5.16.3). These sixteen women had once been assembled by Hippodameia, who was kidnapped by centaurs prior to the Trojan War before her relatives freed her (Hom. Il. 2.740-744), and later came to Elis. According to Pausanias, she chose one woman from each settlement in the landscape Elis to form a religious committee (Paus. 5.16.5-6). She also introduced a ritual to purify the participants before each event. After sacrificing a pig, they would take a bath at the spring of Piera. That Pausanias knew where exactly this spring was located is a bit suspicious, though… (Paus. 5.16.8).

In any case, the various Ephebeias at Elis were all connected with the virtuous and abstinent goddesses Artemis and Hera. Yet, Pausanias was probably not the only one who had some fun in Elis. From Xenophon (Symp. 8, 34) we know that the adult Elian Hoplite regiments were made up of couples of male lovers. It is likely that these were often already formed during their time as Ephebes. And who knows, the same may have been true for the girls. Let’s not forget that during the training in the gymnasion and the athletic contests, the participants were usually nude…

Since Elis controlled the Olympic Games and they were so central to its identity, many Elians also did their utmost to win at the event. Hypenos of Elis won the double race (ca. 400m) in 724 BC and may have been one of the earliest Elian winners (Euseb. p. 193). Possibly the most famous Elian Olympic winner was Hysmon, who was rheumatic as a boy and trained to cure the illness. He won the pentathlon at the Olympic Games and the Nemean Games, and the pankration at the Olympics. The famous sculptor Kleon of Sikyon later produced a statue of him, which our dear Pausanias saw in the Altis, the sacred precinct of Olympia (Paus. 6.3.10). More dubious was the story of Troilos, who won two chariot races in 372 BC while also being the referee! (Paus. 6.3.4) One can only imagine the controversy…

With all that said, we have decided to represent the Elian Ephebes as a unit halfway between Hoplites and skirmishers, with Aspis, Dory and javelins and a mix of both exomis and chiton for clothes and Phrygian caps and Pilos helmets for head protection. Use them well and think of all the great anecdotes in this description when doing so.