The Odyssey of leather

Mike Redwood

Columnist

International Leather Maker

Leather was not a marginal material in the ancient world; it was one of the essential substances that made transport on foot or horseback, combat and daily life possible. In Homer, it appears in everything from sandals and straps to bags, sails, shields and disguise. That is not accidental ornament. It reflects a long material system in which hides, tanning, craft skill and trade turned animal byproducts into a versatile industrial input.

Hides and skins, some raw, but most treated in ways that made them suited to a wide variety of end uses were everywhere. Almost nothing could match leather’s versatility and usefulness at that time. In fact, ever since, as new materials have come along and taken some of leather’s share in the material space, leather has remained dominant. Only since we began to use plastic to answer all our material problems has leather faltered and it is proving uncomfortable for our society to accept that plastic is no substitute at all but an expensive problem.

Odyssey movie

You will have been reminded of this if you have already seen this year’s top movie, The Odyssey. We watched it on its opening day at our local cinema with a big crowd on a large screen offering a great experience despite not being the intended IMAX.

Judging from the Iliad telling us that the 1,200 ships that started out for the ten-year battle over Troy and then the arduous journey home, the best estimates suggest a starting army of 60,000 dwindling over the two decades to only Odysseus himself making it back to Ithaca.

That meant a formidable amount of leather. Think of consumer durables such as belts and sandals, and longer lasting items like quivers, wrist protectors for archers, scabbards for swords, leather water and wine carriers. All the straps holding weapons, helmet linings and straps, as well as under pieces for armour. One of the first ever craftsmen to be named in western literature is Tychius of Hyle who is described in the Iliad as one of the greatest leather workers of his time. He was famed for producing the tower shield of Telamonian Ajax. This involved seven layers of ox hide covered in bronze. Homer makes it clear that leather was essential to Mycenaean military gear and the naming of Tychius demonstrates that specialist leatherworkers were embedded in the supply chain of the Trojan War.

During the siege, the troops would have also needed more leather for bridles, reins and harness straps for the chariot corps. A chariot floor was often heavyweight leather and the sides either wicker or ox-hide.

Leather on Odysseus’s ten-year voyage

The film covers the ten-year voyage home with a much smaller group of about 12 ships and 600 men, a maritime leg full of misadventure and destruction.

The wonderful translation by Emily Wilson, which I am hurriedly looking at again to clarify different parts of this magnificent film, mentions leather more often in the Odyssey than in the Iliad and given that terms like thong, strap and skin were frequently used in ways that make it clear they were assumed to be of leather, emphasises its role as the enabling material of everyday life as well as warfare.

Ships of the time used leather for fastenings where hemp or flax cord was not strong or long-lasting enough – hide ropes, leather cables, rigging and lashings such as bindings for oars (thole straps). Barley provisions packed in “sturdy leather bags” and wine- or water-carrying skins were vital on long, open-water legs.

Other mentions include Athena disguising Odysseus in a “massive leather deerskin” cloak as a beggar and Eumaeus, the swineherd, dropping his “leatherwork” (his craft/tools) to chase off dogs. Most interesting is that in the final longbow-testing scene, Odysseus describes an inlaid chest with “ox-leather straps… dyed purple.”

These, along with leather patches on leggings as protection against thorn bushes, doors fastened with leather thongs plus crew personal wear including jackets and sandals, demonstrate the sheer mundanity of leather and its availability for use in all aspects of daily life without a second thought. If handled by skilled artisans, leather might be used for exceptional situations, as with the Tower Shields or when dyed red or purple, make a luxury item.

In enjoying The Odyssey – and readers should seek to see out the widest screen possible – we should not concern ourselves with arguments about the armour. The film uses leather armour, when in reality it was probably tied bronze strips. For me, the film was no less engrossing for this and with 5300 costumes required, the majority in leather, some tanners and leather workers around the world will have had an enjoyable time helping the production.

Ignoring the armour, leather was clearly abundant enough across the Aegean and wider Greek world to support continuous replacement of military and transport equipment, because hides were a byproduct of ordinary animal consumption, sacrifice and trade, and because tanners and leatherworkers were established specialists. It was less of a luxury than other materials such as bronze or silk, and more of a basic industrial input tied to the meat and dairy economy and to craft production. As a leather industry, we should celebrate seeing leather sitting inside a long-running material system rather than a single heroic expedition.

mike@internationalleathermaker.com

You can find Dr Mike Redwood across social media at @michaelredwood.

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