Trojan War Hero - Sarpedon, King of Lycia

 

Here's a Trojan War hero for Midgard Heroic Battles that I've just finished painting. He is Sarpedon, King of the Lukka (Lycians), who was an ally of the Trojans in Homer's Iliad. Figures are by Redoubt Enterprises who have an excellent Trojan Wars range. I already have Sea People Lukka and Pelset chariots and warriors painted that I can use for Lycians, as allies for the Trojan side. Homer has a great description of him in the Iliad when the Trojans storm the rampart to the Achaeans' camp:

But not even now would Trojans and Prince Hector

have burst appart the rampart's gates and huge bar

if Zeus the Master Strategist had not driven

his own son Sarpedon straight at the Argives,

strong as a lion raiding crooked-horn cattle.

Quickly Sarpedon swung his shield before him -

balanced and handsome beaten bronze a bronzesmith

hammered out with layer on layer of hide inside

and stitched with gold rivets on the rim.

That splendid shield he gripped before his chest

and shaking a pair of spears went stalking out

like a mountain lion starved for meat too long

and the lordly heart inside him fires him up

to raid some stormproof fold, to go at the sheep,

and even if he should light on herdsmen at the spot,

guarding their flocks with dogs and bristling spears,

the marauder has no mind to be driven off that steading,

not without an attack. All or nothing - he charges flocks

and hauls of bloody prey or he's run through himself

at the first assault with a fast spear driven home.

Homer Iliad 13.337-356 translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1998, pp.334-335.

Sea Peoples Chariots and Warriors

 

Here are some Sea Peoples from the archives. The Pelset and Lukka chariots above are by Cutting Edge/Warlord Games and the Lukka warriors below are by Wargames Foundry. These are the two best ranges around, for Bronze Age armies.

Sea Peoples' Chariots and Median Guardsmen WIP

Here's another post from the archives, two Sea People chariots, by Cutting Edge Miniatures/Warlord Games. The first one is Pelset, the crew have crested helmets, and they eventually settled in modern Israel and became the Philistines. The other are Lukka (Lycians) with horned helmets.

I've also included a work in progress shot of some Median Guardsmen from the new Wargames Atlantic plastic Persian infantry set, at the end of the post. I initially ordered a single box of these but then ordered a further two as you're able to make a twenty four figure Immortal unit in campaign dress (they are only eight torsos with scale armour in a box). The best and most accurate early Persian range around is still the Xyston 15mm one, but this set gives a lot of variety with head options and is particularly good for early Persian sparabara and archers (you can even do Assyrians). I'm planning on further units of Immortals, Kissians, Iranians and Persians/Medes.