Traditional archery at mound OETA, on location " Funeral Pyre of HERCULES ", 27 April 2013

On Saturday 27 April 2013, members of our Association’s Archery Team traveled to mountainous Phthiotis in Central Greece. On mount Oeta on an Alpine plateau named "Hercules Funeral Pyre” our members trained in traditional archery at a place that for us “KORYvANTES” has special symbolic importance.

The sacred area, in which according the Greek Ancestral Tradition the Archer-Warrior Hercules blazing was deified on his funeral pyre, and our forefathers honored him with the construction of the temple dedicated to the Hero, was for us a chance to simply train but also an opportunity to pay homage to our Traditions and to the History of Greek Archery.

Numerous Greek Vases depict the Progenitor Hercules as an Archer, who during his Labors and his myriad campaigns often used his bow and deadly arrows to fight his enemies. The Archer Hero, in this historic place handed his legendary bow of to Poias, who in his turn handed it to his son Philoctetes, who was destined to play one of the most crucial roles in the Trojan war, fulfilling the prophecy of Helenus that said: "Troy would fall into the hands of the Achaeans with only the bow of Hercules".

In the Spring-decorated fields of Doric Land, at an altitude around 2,000 meters above sea level, our archers had the chance to shoot dozens of arrows in maximum-range shooting (flight shooting), reaping an important first experience in an informal archery "contest” who was known to the Greeks from Antiquity and is widely prevalent even today abroad.

At the same time, the ongoing extensive study of our Association on the late Byzantine Archery, led us to testing the use of an experimentally reconstructed Byzantine Shield of the 12th century, with the use of baldric, in various shooting poses Important recordings of our conclusions will be included in our study which will be announced in the near future.

Association of Historical Studies "KORYVANTES "