xiphos

The xiphos (Ancient Greek: ξίφος [ksípʰos]; plural xiphe, Ancient Greek: ξίφη [ksípʰɛː]) is a double-edged, one-handed Iron Age straight shortsword used by the ancient Greeks. It was a secondary battlefield weapon for the Greek armies after the dory or javelin. The classic blade was generally about 45–60 cm (18–24 in) long, although the Spartans supposedly started to use blades as short as 30 cm (12 in) around the era of the Greco-Persian Wars. The xiphos sometimes has a midrib, and is diamond or lenticular in cross-section. It was generally hung from a baldric under the left arm. The xiphos was generally used only when the spear was broken, taken by the enemy, or discarded for close combat. Very few xiphe seem to have survived.
Stone's Glossary has 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, and ending in a very long point. The name xiphos apparently means something in the way of "penetrating light" according to researcher and swordsmith Peter Johnsson.The xiphos' leaf-shaped design lent itself to both cutting and thrusting. The design has most likely been in existence since the appearance of the first swords. Blades in bronze and iron are suitable for a leaf shape due to the softness of the metals in comparison to steel. Bronze swords are cast and are thus more easily formed into a leaf shape than iron swords, which need to be forged.
The early xiphos was a bronze sword, and in the classical period, would have been made of iron. The early Celtic La Tène short sword, contemporary with the xiphos, had a virtually identical blade design as the xiphos.The leaf-shaped short swords were not limited to Greece, as mentioned, but can be found throughout Europe in the late Bronze Age under various names. Bronze leaf-shaped swords from as early as the late second millennium still survive. The Urnfield culture is associated with the use of the leaf shaped bronze short sword. It is generally thought that iron swords had replaced bronze swords by the early La Tène culture about 500 BC. During the Halstatt culture a mixture of bronze and iron swords seem to have existed side by side. Notwithstanding, it can be assumed bronze cast swords were held by families and armies for generations, while ironworking slowly permeated the Classical Age. Iron tends to become severely oxidized (rusted) over the years, and few iron swords have survived, in contrast to bronze swords that age very well. Surviving examples of Bronze Xiphe can exist in polished condition for generations, in comparison to their ferrous counterparts. Bronze disease is subsequently a rare possibility in the degradation of bronze artifacts, and has likely claimed countless swords as victims over the millennia.
Thus, much is known regarding the sword during the Bronze Age but less so in the early Iron Age. Bronze thrusting swords from the second millennium still exist in excellent condition. Reproduction continues to this day as a preservation of Greek sandcasting technique, and many examples of adapted three dimensional printing exist.

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