Stanza 10
You have the Pyrrhic* dance as yet,
Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone?
Of two such lessons, why forget
The nobler and the manlier one?
You have the letters Cadmus* gave—
Think ye he meant them for a slave?
In short - for those who do not want too much history -
- Lord Byron is hitting at the men of Greece by reminding them that although the Pyrrhic dance is still performed, the more manly and noble Phalanx formation which led to many Greek victories has been forgotten.
- He follows this by reminding his fellow Greeks again that when they were given the alphabet by Cadmus, he did not expect them to be slaves, he thought he was giving it to those who were worthy of it.
And now for the detailed history -
*Pyrrhic Dance –
A general name for dance in armor that is known generally as "Pyrrhiche" (Pyrrhic dance).
These martial dances are part of the basic military education in both Athens and Sparta accompanied by the sound of a flute.
The four divisions were,
- the podism or footing a quick motion such as might be required for overtaking the enemy (or for fleeing from him)
- the Xiphism, or sham fight
- the Kosmos with very high leaping or vaulting a training for the jumping of ditches or walls
- the Tetracomos a square figure with slow majestic measure.
There are variations of these armed dances and different origins:
In Athens, pyrrhic dance contests were held at the Panathenaia festival. These dances were associated with Athena who was considered the inventor of the dance.
According to Cretan mythology the Kouretes protected the infant Zeus from Kronos making noise with their shields and were assumed to be the inventors of this dance in armour. One of these Kouretes, was Pyrrhikos. In Creta there was an associated Kouretes armed dance with swords.
1035. ... The Idæi Dactyli found Iron in mount Ida in Crete, and worked it into armour and iron tools, and thereby gave a start to the trades of smiths and armourers in Europe; and by singing and dancing in their armour, and keeping time by striking upon one another's armour with their swords, they brought in Music and Poetry; and at the same time they nursed up the Cretan Jupiter in a cave of the same mountain, dancing about him in their armour. Sir Isaac Newton
One other possible mythological origin of the name: Pyrrhus (known also as Neoptolemos) (a son of Achilles).
The Pyrrhic dance was performed in different ways at various times and in various countries, for it was by no means confined to the Doric* states (Doric - The inhabitants of the Peloponnese in southern Greece were called the Dorians and the dialect they spoke was called Doric.)
Plato describes it as rapid movements of the body in the way in which missiles and blows from weapons were avoided, and also the mode in which the enemy was attacked. In the non-Doric states it was probably not practised as training for war, but only as a mimetic dance.
*The Greek phalanx was a column formation of heavy infantry carrying long spears, or pikes, and swords.
The pikes were six to twelve feet long, much longer than spears of the past.
Men in the phalanx carried a round shield called a hoplon, from which the infantry took their name, hoplites.
The hoplites wore metal armor on their chests, forearms, and shins at least, plus a metal helmet that covered the head down to the neck.
The addition of armor classified the hoplites as heavy infantry, as opposed to light infantry that wore little or no armor.
A typical phalanx unit was ten men across the front rank and ten men deep, but many such units were combined into one larger unit.
*The Pyrrhic War initially started as a minor conflict between Rome and the city of Tarentum over a naval treaty violation by one of the Roman consuls. Tarentum had, however, lent aid to the Greek ruler Pyrrhus of Epirus in his conflict with Corcyra, and requested military aid from Epirus. Pyrrhus honored his obligation to Tarentum and joined the complex series of conflicts involving Tarentum, the Romans, Samnites, Etruscans, and Thurii (as well as other cities of Magna Graecia).
To further complicate historical analysis of the conflict, Pyrrhus also involved himself in the internal political conflicts of Sicily, as well as the Sicilian struggle against Carthaginian dominance.
Pyrrhus' involvement in the regional conflicts of Sicily reduced the Carthaginian influence in Sicily drastically. In Italy, his involvement seems to have been mostly ineffectual but had long term implications. The Pyrrhic war proved both that the states of ancient Greece had essentially become incapable of defending the independent colonies of Magna Graecia and that the Roman legions were capable of competing with the armies of the Hellenistic kingdoms — the dominant Mediterranean powers of the time.
This opened the way for Roman dominance over the city states of Magna Graecia and advanced the Roman consolidation of power in Italy greatly. Rome's proven record in international military conflicts would also aid its resolve in its rivalry with Carthage, which was eventually to culminate in the Punic Wars. Linguistically, the Pyrrhic War is the source of the expression "Pyrrhic victory," a term for a victory won at too high a cost.
It is attributed to Pyrrhus himself by Plutarch, who described Pyrrhus' reaction to the report of a victorious battle:
The two armies separated; and we are told that Pyrrhus said to one who was congratulating him on his victory, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."
The patchwork of Italian and Sicilian cultures and nations had resulted in an ongoing web of conflicts and territory changes, which many would argue had seen a steady expansion of Roman influence over Italy.
Rome was, however, a "local Italian concern", never having tried its hand in the larger international affairs of the Mediterranean, nor pitted its military strength against any of the dominant Greek cultures.
The Pyrrhic war would change both of these facts.
*Cadmus, legendary founder of Thebes, was not a Greek by birth, but a Phoenician who brought the alphabet to Boeotia, a part of ancient Greece where he started the Theban royal family familiar to us from Greek tragedy.
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