The ancient greek helmets used from the archaic period through classical period of greece. From the Persian invasions and the peoponnesian war the helmets ancient Athens and Sparta used.

Ancient Greek helmets:

Attic helmet

The Attic helmet was a type of helmet that originated in Classical Greece and was widely used in Italy and the Hellenistic world until well into the Roman Empire. Its name is a modern historiographic convention: "Terms such as Illyrian and Attic are used in archaeology for convenience to denote a particular type of helmet and do not imply its origin".

The Attic helmet was similar to the Chalcidian helmet but lacked a nose guard. Although in Greece itself its use was not as widespread as the Corinthian or Phrygian types, the Attic helmet became very popular in Italy, where most examples have been found. Many Italian peoples used variations of the attic helmet, but archaeologically it has been especially prominent in Samnite and Lucanian burials and their associated art (frescos etc.).

As an artistic motif, variations of the Attic helmet long outlasted other contemporary helmet types, being used to impart an archaic look to depictions of generals, emperors and Praetorians throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods. As such, a form of Attic helmet has become part of the popular image of a Roman officer, as found in art from the Renaissance onwards or in earlier Hollywood productions. However, no archaeological remains of this type of helmet have been found to date. The closest surviving Imperial Roman helmet to the type illustrated in relief sculpture dates to the 2nd century AD, and was found in Bavaria. It has been classified as a "pseudo-Attic" helmet by some scholars. It is of tinned bronze and is very elaborately decorated with an integral crest raised from the skull incorporating an eagle.

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Boar's tusk helmet

Helmets using ivory from boar's tusks were known in the Mycenaean world from the 17th century BC (Shaft Graves, Mycenae) to the 10th century BC (Elateia, Central Greece). The helmet was made through the use of slivers of boar tusks which were attached to a leather base, padded with felt, in rows. A description of a boar's tusk helmet appears in book ten of Homer's Iliad, as Odysseus is armed for a night raid to be conducted against the Trojans.

Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on his head. On the inside there was a strong lining on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had been sewn in. The outside was cleverly adorned all around with rows of white tusks from a shiny-toothed boar, the tusks running in alternate directions in each row.

Μηριόνης δ' Ὀδυσῆϊ δίδου βιὸν ἠδὲ φαρέτρην
καὶ ξίφος, ἀμφὶ δέ οἱ κυνέην κεφαλῆφιν ἔθηκε
ῥινοῦ ποιητήν: πολέσιν δ' ἔντοσθεν ἱμᾶσιν
ἐντέτατο στερεῶς: ἔκτοσθε δὲ λευκοὶ ὀδόντες
ἀργιόδοντος ὑὸς θαμέες ἔχον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα

εὖ καὶ ἐπισταμένως: μέσσῃ δ' ἐνὶ πῖλος ἀρήρει.

— Homer, Iliad 10.260–5

Fragments of ivory which might have come from helmets of this kind have been discovered on Mycenaean sites (at Dendra, for instance, fragments were found alongside the bronze panoply excavated in 1960) and an ivory plaque, also from a Mycenaean site, represents a helmet of this kind. Although they would not provide as good protection as a metal helmet, they may have been worn by some leaders as a status symbol, or a means of identification.

Homer specifies that the helmet given by Meriones to Odysseus was an heirloom, passed down through the generations, a detail which perhaps suggests its value. Although the number of plates required to make an entire helmet varies - anything from 40 to 140 can be required - it has been estimated that forty to fifty boars would have to be killed to make just one helmet.

Boeotian helmet

Boeotian bronze helmet found in the Tigris river in Iraq, the front of the helmet is to the right (held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford)

The Boeotian helmet was a type of military helmet used in Ancient Greece during the classical and Hellenistic periods, as well as in Ancient Rome; it possibly originated in the Greek region of Boeotia.

The Boeotian helmet was an open helmet, allowing good peripheral vision and unimpaired hearing. It had a domed skull surrounded by a wide, flaring, down-sloping brim. The brim came down at the rear to protect the back of the neck, projected forward over the forehead and was worked into a complex shape at the sides, with downward pointing folds affording some lateral protection to the face. A long falling plume was sometimes attached to this type of helmet. The need for unimpeded vision and good hearing was particularly acute for cavalrymen, therefore this type of helmet was used primarily by mounted troops. It was modelled on the shape of a folded-down Boeotian variant of the petasos, a type of Greek sun hat, usually made of felt.

This type of helmet was beaten from a single sheet of bronze using a helmet-shaped "former," one of which, made of limestone, is extant. An excellently preserved example of this type of helmet, now in the Ashmolean Museum, was recovered from the Tigris River in Iraq. It may have belonged to one of Alexander the Great's cavalrymen. In Late Hellenistic times, the Boeotian helmet evolved into a type with a taller, more conical skull and often a reduced brim.

Thessalian cavalryman from the Alexander Sarcophagus wearing a Boeotian helmet.

The Athenian military expert and author Xenophon particularly recommended the Boeotian helmet for cavalry, saying "...the Boeotian type [of helmet]. For this not only gives the greatest protection to all the parts above the cuirass, but allows free vision." This piece of advice was taken up by Alexander the Great, who equipped his cavalry with this helmet. Both the Alexander sarcophagus and Alexander mosaic show cavalrymen of the Ancient Macedonian army wearing Boeotian helmets. As a specialised cavalry helmet, its use was not as widespread as some other ancient helmets such as the Corinthian or Phrygian types. The helmet was used by Roman citizen cavalry in the Republican period. On the altar of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (a consul in 122 BC), a Roman cavalryman is depicted wearing it with the later more conical skull and furnished with a falling horsehair plume.

The naming conventions and typology of ancient helmets are largely of modern origin and do not reflect contemporary usage. The term "Boeotian helmet", however, is an exception since it was employed by Xenophon and is therefore of contemporary usage. Another piece of martial equipment linked to the region of Boeotia is the Boeotian shield; however, no surviving examples have been found, and its association with the region is largely through depictions on local coinage.

Chalcidian helmet

A Chalcidian helmet or Chalcidian type helmet was a helmet made of bronze and worn by ancient warriors of the Hellenic world, especially popular in Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. The helmet was also worn extensively in the Greek (southern) parts of Italy in the same period.

The helmet is so-called because it was first, and is most commonly, depicted on pottery once thought to derive from the Euboean city of Chalcis. In fact, it is not known whether the helmet originated in Chalcis; indeed, it is not even known whether the pottery in question was Chalcidian.

The helmet appears to have been a development of the Corinthian helmet, its improvements in design giving the wearer better hearing and vision, resulting in a lighter and less bulky helmet.It consisted of a hemispherical dome, and below that, generally inset from the top dome, a pair of cheek pieces and a neck guard, with a substantial loop on either side for the wearer's ears. In the front, between the two cheek pieces, was a small nasal bar to protect the wearer's nose. The helmet could be entirely one piece, or the cheek pieces could be attached separately by hinges, which eased construction and made putting the helmet on easier. In Italy, the helmet with fixed cheek pieces is referred to as Chalcidian, its variant with hinged cheek pieces is called a Lucanian helmet because it was widely used in Lucania.The helmet would commonly have a hole pierced on each cheek piece or elsewhere in order to accept an inner lining which was made of leather. Adornments such as combs and other protuberances were usually placed on the top of the helmet.

Chalcidian pottery depicting Heracles fighting the monster Geryon, each of whose three heads is wearing a Chalcidian helmet.

By the time of Alexander the Great, the helmet was still worn by armoured soldiers, especially Hoplites, the spear-armed heavy infantrymen (other than those of the Spartans, who instead wore the much plainer pilos helmet). It is likely that some of the Macedonian soldiers who ruled the rest of Greece and went on to forge a substantial Hellenistic empire also wore the Chalcidian helmet. The helmet is thought to have developed in turn into the Attic helmet which is iconic of classical soldiers.

Corinthian helmet

The Corinthian helmet originated in ancient Greece and took its name from the city-state of Corinth. It was a helmet made of bronze which in its later styles covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth. A large curved projection protected the nape of the neck.

Out of combat, a Greek hoplite would wear the helmet tipped upward for comfort. This practice gave rise to a series of variant forms in Italy, where the slits were almost closed, since the helmet was no longer pulled over the face but worn cap-like. Although the classical Corinthian helmet fell out of use among the Greeks in favour of more open types, the Italo-Corinthian types remained in use until the 1st century AD, being used, among others, by the Roman army.

Apparently (judging from artistic and archaeological evidence) the most popular helmet during the Archaic and early Classical periods, the style gradually gave way to the more open Thracian helmet, Chalcidian helmet and the much simpler pilos type, which was less expensive to manufacture and did not obstruct the wearer's critical senses of vision and hearing as the Corinthian helmet did. Numerous examples of Corinthian helmets have been excavated, and they are frequently depicted on pottery.

Leucippus on a coin, with Corinthian helmet

The Corinthian helmet was depicted on more sculpture than any other helmet; it seems the Greeks romantically associated it with glory and the past. The Romans also revered it, from copies of Greek originals to sculpture of their own. Based on the sparse pictorial evidence of the republican Roman army, in Italy the Corinthian helmet evolved into a jockey-cap style helmet called the Italo-Corinthian, Etrusco-Corinthian or Apulo-Corinthian helmet, with the characteristic nose guard and eye slits becoming mere decorations on its face. Given many Roman appropriations of ancient Greek ideas, this change was probably inspired by the "over the forehead" position common in Greek art. This helmet remained in use well into the 1st century AD.

Venus being seduced by Mars (wearing a plumed Corinthian helmet), fresco from Pompeii, 1st century AD

Herodotus mentions the Corinthian helmet in his Histories when writing of the Machlyes and Auseans, two tribes living along the River Triton in ancient Libya (the portion of ancient Libya he describes is most likely in modern Tunisia). The tribes chose annually two teams of the fairest maidens who fought each other ceremonially with sticks and stones. They were dressed in the finest Greek panoply topped off with a Corinthian helmet. The ritual fight was part of a festival honoring the virgin goddess Athena. Young women who succumbed to their wounds during the ordeal were thought to have been punished by the goddess for lying about their virginity (Histories, 4.180).

Illyrian type helmet

Greek "Illyrian type" bronze helmet from Argolis (6th–5th centuries BC).

The "Illyrian type helmet" (or "Greco-Illyrian" type helmet) is a style of bronze helmet, which in its later variations covered the entire head and neck, and was open-faced in all of its forms. It originated in Peloponnese, ancient Greece, and was developed during the 8th and 7th centuries BC (700–640 BC). Accurate representations on Corinthian vases are sufficient to indicate that the "Illyrian" type helmet was developed before 600 BC. The helmet was misleadingly named as an "Illyrian" type due to many early finds coming from Illyria.

According to archaeological evidence, the "Illyrian" type helmet evolved from the Kegelhelm (or Kegel type) of the Archaic Period found in Argos. The earliest "Illyrian" type helmets were developed in a workshop located in the northwestern Peloponnese (possibly Olympia), although the first Type II "Illyrian" helmets were created in Corinthian workshops. The first Type III helmets were created in workshops situated somewhere on the Illyrian coast of the Adriatic. The "Illyrian" type helmet did not obstruct the wearer's critical senses of vision though the first two varieties hampered hearing. There were four types of these helmets and all were open faced:

· Type I (c. 700–640 BC) left the neck unprotected and hampered hearing.

· Type II (c. 600 BC) offered neck protection and again hampered hearing.

· Type III (c. 550 BC) offered neck protection and allowed better hearing.

· Type IV (c. 500 BC) was similar to Type III but hearing was not impaired at all.

The Illyrian type helmet was used by the ancient Greeks, Etruscans, Scythians, and became popular with the Illyrians who later adopted it. A variety of the helm had also spread to Italy based on its appearance on ivory reliefs and on a silver bowl at the "Bernardini" tomb at Praeneste. The helmet became obsolete in most parts of Greece in the early 5th century BC. Its use in Illyria had ended by the 4th century BC.

kegel helmet

The Kegel or Kegel type is a type of helmet. It is an open-faced helmet of roughly conical shape, sometimes with extensions at the sides to protect the cheeks, or a crest-holder on top. It was made of bronze, sometimes in several pieces. It was the progenitor of many Greek helmets, especially the "Illyrian" type helmet. It did not outlast the eighth century BC.

Konos helmet

Konos (Ancient Greek: κῶνος: cone, spinning top) is a conical Macedonianian helmet worn in combat during the Hellenistic era. Its pointed shape is similar to the pilos helmet that is placed underneath a konos as an interior protector. Although close in design, a pilos helmet has a small visor around the opening and a konos helmet is created to have a thin brim protruding from its base and closely fits around the warrior's head. Bronze ear guards that hang to the jawbone were later added for further protection, also differing from the pilos. Spiral characteristics from the Ionic order are engraved across the front of the helmet for design. The Greek crest is fixed across the ridges of the helmet as a way to demonstrate tribe recognition.

The konos and pilos helmet belong to one of five standard types of ancient Greek headgear and weaponry. A clause of military regulation from Amphipolis proclaims that the konos is to be the helmet of phalangites—infantry standing in close rectangular or squared formation. According to the Military Decree of Amphipolis, "...those not bearing the weapons appropriate to them are to be fined: two obols for the kotthybos, the same amount for the konos, three obols for the sarissa..."

Phrygian helmet

The Phrygian helmet, also known as the Thracian helmet, was a type of helmet that originated in Classical Greece and was widely used in Thrace, Dacia, Magna Graecia and the Hellenistic world until well into the Roman Empire.

The names given to this type of helmet are derived from its shape, in particular the high and forward inclined apex, in which it resembles the caps (usually of leather) habitually worn by Phrygian and Thracian peoples. Like other types of Greek helmet, the vast majority of Phrygian helmets were made of bronze. The skull of the helmet was usually raised from a single sheet of bronze, though the forward-pointing apex was sometimes made separately and riveted to the skull. The skull was often drawn out into a peak at the front, this shaded the wearer's eyes and offered protection to the upper part of the face from downward blows. The face was further protected by large cheekpieces, made separately from the skullpiece. Sometimes these cheekpieces were so large that they met in the centre leaving a gap for the nose and eyes. When constructed in this manner they would have embossed and engraved decoration to mimic a beard and moustache.

The Phrygian helmet was worn by Macedonian cavalry in King Philip's day but his son Alexander is said to have preferred the open-faced Boeotian helmet for his cavalry, as recommended by Xenophon. The royal burial in the Vergina Tomb contained a helmet which was a variation on the Phrygian type, exceptionally made of iron, this would support its use by cavalry. The Phrygian helmet is prominently worn in representations of the infantry of Alexander the Great's army, such on the contemporary Alexander sarcophagus. The Phrygian helmet was in prominent use at the end of the Classical Era and into the Hellenistic period, replacing the earlier 'Corinthian' type from the 5th century BC.

Pileus (hat) helmet

Ancient Greek red-figure plate from Apulia, third quarter of the 4th century BC, Louvre

The pileus (Greek: πῖλος, pîlos; also pilleus or pilleum in Latin) was a brimless, felt cap worn in Ancient Greece, Etruria, Illyria, Epirus, Pannonia and surrounding regions, later also introduced in Ancient Rome. In the 5th century BC a bronze version began to appear in Ancient Greece and during the Hellenistic era and it became a popular infantry helmet. It occasionally had a horsehair crest. The Greek πιλίδιον (pilidion) and Latin pilleolus were smaller versions, similar to a skullcap.