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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/7/2018, SPi
WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE IN HOMERIC EPIC

Women of
Substance in
Homeric Epic
Objects, Gender, Agency
LILAH GRACE CANEVARO
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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© Lilah Grace Canevaro 2018
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First Edition published in 2018
Impression: 1
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contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
Preface
Women in Greek epic are treated as objects, as commodities to be

exchanged in marriage or as the spoils of warfare. However, women
also use objects to negotiate their own agency, subverting the male
viewpoint by using the very form they themselves are thought by men
to embody. This book follows the ways in which women in Homeric
epic use objects to negotiate their agency, to express themselves,
and to contribute in their own way to the action. Female objects in
Homer can be symbolically significant and powerfully characterizing.
They can be tools of recognition and identification. They can pause
narrative and be used agonistically. They can send messages and be
vessels for memory.
This book brings together Gender Theory and the burgeoning field
of New Materialisms, combining an approach predicated on the idea
of the woman as object with one which questions the very distinction
between subject and object. This productive tension leads us to
decentre the male subject—and to put centre stage not only the
woman as object but also the agency of women and objects. This
book is an expression of a wider phenomenon, what Vital Materialist
Jane Bennett has called ‘attentiveness to things’. It uses a backdrop of
Thing Theory in its manifold manifestations to unpack the key ideas
of ‘object’ and ‘agent’, providing a model of agency which operates on
a sliding scale, governed by role in society and narrative and coloured
by gender. Male and female models of agency through objects are
teased apart in terms of narrative progression, boundaries, symbol-
ism, and chronology. Liminal women like Helen and Penelope, torn
between lives and outside normal kyrios control, are separated out as
a particular category with a striking degree of autonomy through
objects. Odysseus is highlighted as a unique male character with a
unique relationship to objects, subordinated for much of his epic by
the textiles of the women who seek to shape him, and foregrounded as
creator, repurposer, and manipulator of materials. Objects are shown
to be powerful, yet not infallible, as ultimately Homer reflects on their
limitations and establishes a hierarchy of memory in which mortals
and materials are outdone by epic poetry.
vi Preface
Attentiveness to things in Homeric epic has implications not only
for our reading of character and narrative, but also for our under-
standing of the role of women in Homeric society. The gender roles
and the human/object interactions explored have to mean something
to their audience, and in order for this to be the case the poet must be
reflecting, at least to some degree, cultural norms and social truths.
Combining anthropological and memory studies with gender studies,
this book reveals a nuanced awareness of the female role, codes, and
viewpoint on the part of Homer which is testament both to a poetic
sensitivity and to a social one. Gender Theory and New Materialisms
are brought together to reveal that Homeric women are not only
objectified but are also well-versed users of objects. This is something
that Homer portrays clearly, that Odysseus understands—but that
has often escaped many other men, from Odysseus’ alter ego Aethon
in Odyssey 19 to modern experts on Homeric epic.
Acknowledgements
This book began as a postdoctoral project funded by the Alexander

von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Heidelberg. For that,
I have Jonas Grethlein to thank—my Humboldt sponsor, and a fellow
object enthusiast. Work on the book continued at the University of
Edinburgh under the aegis of the Leverhulme Trust, where I have had
the privilege of bringing together a dream team of scholars at a series
of conferences and panels. I learned a lot from visitors such as Jon
Hesk, Mario Telò, Nancy Worman, and Froma Zeitlin—and it is my
great fortune to continue to collaborate with Melissa Mueller. Drafts
have been shaped and reshaped in response to comments from Felix
Budelmann, Douglas Cairns, Michael Carroll, Deborah Lyons, Alex
Purves, and the readers and editors at OUP, and discussions with
Katharine Earnshaw have been invaluable in shaping my thinking on
things. I am grateful to Maureen Alden for guiding me to the book’s
cover image, and to Stephanie Winder for her help with the final
hurdles. A word of thanks also to James Corke-Webster, whose casual
mention of Object-Oriented Ontology set me on the path of theory.
I have taken particular pleasure in exploring questions of female
agency and identity while finding my feet in academia as a new
mother. Thanks to my son, Layton, for the company, the cuddles,
and the crash course in time management.
Finally, I dedicate this book to a woman of more substance than
she knows what to do with—my Mam.
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: The Proggy Mat 1

1. How Far Are We from a Hot Bath? 11
1.1. Women, Objects, Things 11
1.2. Society and Sandals 28
1.3. The Memory of Objects 43
2. The Politics of Objects 55
2.1. Words and Weaving 55
2.2. Stuck in the Middle with You 67
2.3. Managing the House, Managing the Narrative 84
2.4. Gathering the Threads 97
3. Object-Oriented Odysseus 109
3.1. Odysseus in the Middle 109
3.2. Tying the Knot 117
3.3. All Hands on Deck 129
3.4. Here’s One I Made Earlier 143
4. Beyond the Veil 167
4.1. Uprights and Subversions 167
4.2. Mortality and Material Memory 181
4.3. When the Gods Move Furniture 202
4.4. Architectural Anxieties 234
5. Uncontainable Things 245
5.1. When Is a Door Not a Door? 245
5.2. Cataloguing Women and Objects 259
Epilogue: Revealing Garments 275
Bibliography 281
Index of Passages 299
Subject Index 307
List of Illustrations
2.1 and 2.2. Drinking cup (skyphos) with the departure and recovery
of Helen. Painter: Makron; potter: Hieron; place of
manufacture: Athens, c.490–480 BC. Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912,
13.186. 78
4.1. John William Waterhouse, Ulysses and the Sirens,
1891, oil on canvas 100.6 202.0 cm, National Gallery
of Victoria, Melbourne, Purchased 1891 (p. 396.3–1). 168
5.1. Red-figure neck amphora attributed to the Owl Pillar
Group, c.450–430 BC. Depicting (possibly) Zeus
and Pandora/Elpis. British Museum, F147. 258
Abbreviations
Abbreviations of the names of classical authors and works are those

used in S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds) (2012), Oxford Classical
Dictionary, 4th edition, Oxford.
Journal names are abbreviated according to the usage of L’Année Philologique.
The Iliad text used is the Teubner edition of M. L. West (vol. 1 1998, vol. 2
2000), and the Odyssey text is that of H. van Thiel (1991). The Theogony text
is West’s 1966 edition, and the Works and Days his 1978 edition. Texts of
the Shield of Heracles and the Catalogue of Women are taken from Glenn
Most’s 2007 Loeb edition.
Introduction: The Proggy Mat
My Nana used to tell a story. The women were making their proggy
mats, exchanging scraps of textile and gossip both. That day, one of
the girls had rather a lot of fabric to use. ‘He’s gone off,’ she explained
succinctly. The fabric came from clothes that had been ‘his’—now
shredded, destined to be poked and progged, to festoon the floor and
be trodden down. The message was clear.
In this story, the objects say as much as do the women—if not
more. People and things communicate with and through each other.
There is a subtext to the textiles, encoded and decoded by the women.
In order fully to understand the story, we have to read object as well
as character; listen to what is not said but is expressed through a
material medium. We have to be attentive to things.
This is a story. But it is a true story, of real people and real objects.
It is also a story that takes place against a backdrop familiar to its
audience (there was probably a proggy mat on the floor when my
Nana was telling it). Interpretation is straightforward within its
context, minimal extrapolation required. What, then, happens when
we transfer our attention to things in a more complex and layered
narrative? What happens, first of all, when we do not have my Nana,
but rather a whole set of questions about authorship and tradition?
Second, what happens when the women and their objects are found
not in a living room in the north-east of England, but in a quasi-
mythical setting probably as unfamiliar to an original audience as to
subsequent ones? In taking my Nana’s story out of its cultural
context, we already run into difficulties of comprehension—how
many of this book’s readers actually know what a proggy mat is?1
1
A northern breed of rag rug, if you were wondering.
2 Women of Substance in Homeric Epic

And third, what happens when the eyewitness account of objects seen
and touched is replaced by a poetic description of imagined things?
This book is concerned with women and objects in Homeric epic. It is
a book about materiality and about agency—but it is also a book
about the poetic representation of them.
The story of the proggy mat stars women, and was told by a woman,
to a female audience. None of this finds its parallel in the Homeric epic
tradition (unless, of course, you are Samuel Butler—more on him
later). And yet, what I shall call ‘the politics of objects’ pertains to
both stories. In being attentive to things, we can give voice to silenced
women; bring marginalized female characters into the spotlight;
reveal a complex code of communication and negotiation of agency
operating within gender constraints. It is not, of course, only Homeric
women who use objects: the Homeric male domain has its own
materiality too. But the relationship between objects and agency is
one that is coloured, influenced, even constituted by gender roles.
Chapter 1, ‘How Far Are We from a Hot Bath?’, sets the context
and parameters of the analysis, first by placing this book against a
backdrop of New Materialism—or, more accurately, New Material-
isms. This is a rapidly evolving field in philosophy, anthropology, and
the social sciences, and it is one with which I engage throughout this
book. It is a field which at its best productively engenders ‘attentive-
ness to things’, and I hope that this book will both show Homer to
have such attentiveness and encourage readers to develop this atten-
tiveness themselves. In Chapter 1.1 I use the framework of Thing
Theory in its various manifestations to unpack seemingly innocuous
but in reality surprisingly loaded terms like ‘object’ and ‘agent’, and
begin to define and locate agency, a key concept for this book. This
section relates the non- or post-Cartesian approaches of the New
Materialisms to Homeric epic, raising the question of boundaries: to
what extent does the Materialist slogan ‘Things are us!’ apply to
Homer? Most of the foundational studies in the field of object or
‘thing’ theory are concerned with the direct, real-world relation
between people and things, and comparatively little work has been
done on representations of that relation: that is, the relationship as
presented or as conceived in literature, in art, in drama, or through
other media. Drawing on the work of Alfred Gell, Chapter 1.1 argues
that this representational factor is of paramount importance, as it
makes a substantial difference to the status of objects and to the
location of agency. The section concludes with an exploration of the

productive tension between this book’s core approaches: Gender
Theory and New Materialism.
With Chapter 1.1 having laid the theoretical groundwork, Chapter
1.2 then addresses the historical and social ramifications of this book.
The importance of objects in elite male gift exchange is explored
through the complex example of the exchange of armour between
Glaucus and Diomedes in Iliad 6—a scene whose meaning has been
contested since Homer’s authorial comment onwards. This discus-
sion is balanced by a consideration of the importance of objects at the
other end of the social scale, through the scene of Odysseus’ meeting
with the swineherd Eumaeus in which objects proliferate. Most
importantly, the implications of ‘attentiveness to things’ for our
reading of Homeric society—and specifically the role of women in
Homeric society—are worked out. Chapter 1.3 then begins to draw
out some initial dichotomies and categories, starting with the differ-
ences between male and female interactions with objects. It focuses
on one function of objects that is intrinsic to both the context and
aims of the Homeric poems: that of memory and, more specifically,
memorialization. Using studies of cultural and collective memory and
anthropological studies of gift giving, this section broadly defines
male objects as operating on a continuum of memory. The idea of
the cultural biography of things is introduced, and objects of latent
power such as Agamemnon’s sceptre and Odysseus’ bow are used as
examples of items with provenance and lineage. Female objects, on the
other hand, are defined as primarily prospective, preserving memory
of the present for posterity—and the key factor here is that of creation.
Homeric women are foregrounded as producers of objects, and just as
they create an object and imbue it with a symbolic resonance, so too
do they handle memory in much the same way. The question of
boundaries is revisited, and a distinction made between men as users
of objects with permeable boundaries between person and thing, and
women as conscious of the creative process and thus linked to, yet at
one remove from, the objects they produce.
Chapter 2, ‘The Politics of Objects’, opens with a discussion of
different models and parameters of female agency. Iliadic and Odys-
sean women are differentiated in terms of their roles in war- and
peacetime respectively, and the ways in which Andromache and
Helen weave are used as case studies for ‘normal’ and ‘exceptional’
female characters. Chapter 2.2 engages more closely with these excep-
tional women, bringing together Helen and Penelope in terms of their

liminal position in society. Such a position, with the elevated auton-
omy it involves, is shown to be reflected in these women’s use of
objects, and in particular in their expressed awareness of kleos and the
mechanisms for achieving it. Each woman makes an explicit link with
the other, forging a connection through their lack of male guardian-
ship. Chapter 2.3 examines the guardian of the limen itself, Eurycleia,
and her agent objects: the door and the lock. This introduces, on the
one hand, female proximity to the house as a physical object: some-
thing which Penelope exemplifies throughout the Odyssey, as in many
of her appearances she is standing beside a pillar. Through her
opening and closing of doors onto the action, Eurycleia also intro-
duces the cinematic potential of epic objects, and the effect this has on
narrative pace. A narratorial focus or ‘zooming in’ on objects slows
the rhythm of the narrative. When the ‘camera’ is on the objects,
though we know the story is continuing, we cannot see it. The pace
necessarily slows in this material moment. When Penelope uses
textiles to pause time in Ithaca, the only object that can get time
moving again is her and Odysseus’ marital bed. Chapter 2.3 presents
the bed as a constitutive symbol with resonance for both genders. It is
inalienable, and a site of agonism for Penelope’s hand, for Odysseus’
identity, and ultimately for the dynamics of their reconciliation. The
bed and the raft are both objects made by Odysseus, but are starkly
contrasted, suggesting a corresponding female agonism: between
Calypso, who donates material for a sail, and Penelope, who, should
Odysseus ever arrive home, will recognize the material as a gift from
another woman. Such a message transmitted through textiles is one
example of the coded communication with which the rest of this
chapter is concerned. Drawing on feminist literature on female com-
municative channels and the potentially liberating power of technol-
ogy, this chapter takes these ideas back to before the jacquard loom,
before the telephone switchboard, and argues that such channels are
embedded in Homeric epic. Through the creation and distribution of
textiles, these supposedly ‘commodified’ characters create their own
kind of commerce, and their own way of communicating. This is the
politics of objects: material means of sending messages beyond the
household, promoting one’s own household and (in exceptional
cases) oneself, and mapping alliances through the distribution of
one’s household production.
Chapter 3, ‘Object-Oriented Odysseus’, turns to the eponymous
and exceptional hero. His relationship with objects is a unique one,

and one that deserves its own chapter even within a book on Homeric
women. The ways in which Odysseus uses objects raise questions
about the sliding scale of agency and how it relates to gender.
Chapter 2 showed how the bed allows Odysseus to reclaim both his
wife and himself: that is, the part of himself that is τέκτων, an
Odysseus who has been concealed under textiles for much of the
poem. Chapter 3.1 follows the string of women who try to use textiles
to shape Odysseus into what they want him to be. Odysseus is shown
to be a liminal figure, far from home, yet unable to put down roots
elsewhere, torn between women, their agent objects, and the potential
lives they represent. As a unique male character in the Homeric
poems, Odysseus expresses himself through objects in a unique
way. Being male, this expression can hardly come in the form of
increased agency; it manifests itself, therefore, with a twist. That this
twist is coloured by the female sphere points towards the parallels
between his liminal position and that of his wife, as well as the
homophrosynē that binds them. It also highlights the very cause of
his liminality: the many women between whom he is caught.
Chapter 3.2 focuses on one particular object: the chest given to
Odysseus by Arete in Odyssey 8. Close reading of this passage is
combined with research on psychology and the emotions, showing
this to be an example of Homeric nostalgia as the object triggers a
reverie which takes the narrator, the audience, and Odysseus himself
from Arete to Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa. Crucially, and against the
expectations of both the psychological and Homeric scholarship, this
is an instance of nostalgic longing for something other than nostos.
Drawing on scholarship on entangled objects and the anthropology of
the gift, Chapter 3.2 suggests that in this striking passage Homer
reverses the ontological polarity of person and thing, as it is not the
object but Odysseus who has been passed from one possessor to the
next, and in the process he has become the gift upon which memories
are inscribed. Chapter 3.3 revisits the gendered model of creation,
focusing on handiwork and, more specifically, the hands themselves.
The hand is a contact point between person and thing, a point at
which the boundary becomes blurred. The transformative effects of
touch are explored, in terms of metonymy and hybrid agency and
focusing on Odysseus’ proximity to parts of his sailing vessels.
Chapter 3.4 then shifts from Odysseus’ creation of objects to his
repurposing of them, engaging with ‘Stuff Theory’ and exploring
the much-discussed theme of Odysseus’ fluid identity through his

use, not of words (the medium more generally associated with him)
but of objects. Odysseus’ propensity for repurposing is tracked also
in simile, with the reconceptualizing function of simile mobilized
especially in relation to the man of many turns. Through simile this
Chapter revisits the different behaviours of objects in the Iliad and the
Odyssey, and considers the extent to which objects are ‘enlivened’ in
figurative language.
Chapter 4, ‘Beyond the Veil’, returns to the theme of memory,
beginning this time with its limitations. Chapter 4.1 explores subver-
sions, suppressions, and perversions of memory, through the Sirens
and the Muses who claim to memorialize but do so with ambivalent
results and (importantly) without objects, and through the pharmaka
used by Circe and by Helen to take away memory. Odysseus appears
again throughout this section, as a male counterpoint to the elevated
female agency described. Then in Chapter 4.2 material and mortal
memory are pushed to their limits. Much of the book up until this
point is concerned with what objects can do; in this section, however,
it is argued that objects are not infallible. The Homeric poems are
shown to reflect on the limitations of objects; how the memories
encased in objects are presented as transient; how this transience
has a gendered aspect; and how objects as commemorators are
consistently presented by the poet as inferior to the medium of
poetry. A hierarchy is set up between modes of memory, going
from mortals and materials to epic. A further distinction is made
between oral memory in general, such as stories attached to objects,
and epic poetry in particular as the most durable channel for memory.
As many of the passages discussed in this section show, the entangle-
ment of objects is a precarious thing. Drawing on Jan Vansina’s
concept of the ‘floating gap’ in oral traditional memory, this chapter
uses its reading of objects to show that Homer is doing something
striking: he displays an awareness of this floating gap by pointing out
the cracks in memory, revealing that there is in fact a remote past that
is lost to his heroes.
Chapter 4.3 then offers a way in which objects might be able to
overcome their limitations: through entanglement with immortality,
with the divine. Though issues of agency and memory may seem
almost redundant when it comes to the divine sphere, even on
Olympus there are gender roles in operation and so the relative
agency of male and female is up for negotiation. Through a series of
examples, Chapter 4.3 considers whether female goddesses have less

agency than male gods, and to what extent these positions are estab-
lished, expressed, and manipulated through objects. It also examines
divine interactions with mortals, considering the gender roles
assumed by the immortals when they appear on earth and the gender
roles they propagate for mortals, and how both manifest in terms of
objects. A key figure in this section is Athena, a female goddess who
reaches across the gender boundary, and does so specifically through
objects. She is patron of crafts, both male (shipbuilding) and female
(weaving): she governs the ἱστός in both its gendered incarnations.
A discussion of the aegis shows that, as well as being entangled in the
immortality and power of its possessors, it also becomes linked with,
even shaped by, their gender, and being linked with both genders
(used by both Zeus and Athena), it develops something of an identity
crisis. The focus then turns to the Shield of Achilles, and the ability of
ekphrasis to bridge the gap between material memory and epic
memory, compensating for the failings of the former with the lon-
gevity of the latter. The section then offers two examples of inter-
actions between goddesses and mortal women, showing how the
politics of objects can cross over between the immortal and mortal
worlds. The first, the presentation of a robe to Athena in Iliad 6,
revisits the question of female coded communication, and more
specifically constitutes an example of miscommunication. The sec-
ond, Aphrodite’s use of objects in Iliad 3, revisits categories of agency
as it shows a close affinity to Helen and an understanding of her
precarious liminal position. Objects are defined by those who use
them: they acquire biographies and are entangled in status and
gender. They are also entangled in the mortality of their possessors.
As the earlier sections of this chapter show, mortals are flawed
memorializers, as they can keep memory alive only for one lifetime.
According to Homer, objects cannot do much more. But to compli-
cate things further, not even the immortals feel secure in the longevity
of their objects. Chapter 4.4 tempers the preceding section through a
consideration of the Achaean teichopoiia and Poseidon’s anxiety about
the durability of his own wall’s memory. It concludes with a consid-
eration of architectural elements and the ways in which dynamics of
gender and agency play out on a large scale.
Chapter 5, ‘Uncontainable Things’, deploys a range of case studies to
push the analysis beyond the bounds of the Homeric poems, into the
Hesiodic corpus (broadly defined). Chapter 5.1 is a test of intertextual-
ity through objects, and also of what we might call ‘interobjectivity’.

One type of object, the container, is followed from Zeus’ two jars of fate
in Iliad 24, through the nymphs’ jars in Odyssey 13, to Pandora’s jar in
Hesiod’s Works and Days and (notably) its absence from the Theogony.
This section adds to the composite image of the objectification of
women by considering the object-like depiction of woman, the blend-
ing of animate and inanimate. One recurring object type is used to
compare the central themes, concerns, and perspectives of each of the
poems in which it appears, in order to offer an example of the extent
to which ‘attentiveness to things’ can nuance our reading, not only of
one poem, but of a range of poetry together. Reading objects more
broadly can enhance our understanding of Homeric objects, in terms
of their resonance for an audience, their embeddedness in poetic
diction, and particular uses of more generally mobilized motifs. The
motif of the jar is then followed into material culture, with two
examples of real-world things that show Pandora’s inextricable con-
nection with her agent object.
Chapter 5.2 explores the relationship between women, objects, and
agency in the Catalogue of Women. The story of Mestra is compared
with Penelope’s soliciting of gifts in Odyssey 18, to provide a picture of
women’s control of wealth in the domestic sphere. As Penelope’s role
shifts when her son comes of age and she must shift her strategy
to compensate, so Mestra mobilizes this idea of agentic shifting at
the mythical level, as she can physically change shape—and, like
Penelope, she uses her abilities as part of a strategy to support her
family finances. Mestra becomes a commodity that keeps on circu-
lating. The story of Alcmene is used as another case study in inter-
textuality through objects, this time focusing on bonds: the bonds
from which Amphitryon has escaped, recalling not only tales of
Prometheus, Heracles, and Hephaestus but also Odysseus. Odysseus
has been at risk of being bound by various women; Amphitryon has
been on his own journey, but has escaped from powerful bonds—
were they, too, the bonds of female allure? This potentiality takes on
an ironic cast in the context, as in this story it is the wife, not the
husband, who has famously been unfaithful. Atalanta is discussed as
another liminal character, and it is shown that the reversal of norms and
the conflation of social processes in this episode are conveyed through a
series of objects. Finally, the key episode of the suitors of Helen is
approached in terms of Helen’s elevated agency, and the telltale gifts
offered by each of the suitors. Odyssey 18 is again utilized intertextually
in decoding Odysseus’ half-hearted wooing strategy in the Catalogue, in
which words are given precedence over objects.

As the summary suggests, this book has a multifaceted theoretical
framework, incorporating cultural and collective memory and
anthropological studies of gift giving, feminist literary theory, narra-
tology, cinematography, psychology, and the study of emotions.
What brings all of these elements together, however, is ‘attentiveness
to things’: a new and productive way of looking at the world and our
position in it. A strong impetus behind this book is that of the New
Materialisms: from Thing Theory to Vibrant Materialism, Stuff The-
ory to Actor Network Theory, Object-Oriented Ontology to Material
Engagement Theory. In their detail, these theoretical approaches may
not always be entirely relevant to the study of Homeric epic. How-
ever, by allowing these theories to play out in the background,
underpinning our readings—by testing a range of New Materialist
theories to discover which are more useful and for what—we inevit-
ably bring objects to the fore, and keep them there. Traditional
literary analysis foregrounds the text, the language, the style, the
poetics. None of these elements can or should be neglected, and yet
we might approach them from another angle. It is easy to slip back
into standard exegetical modes, even whilst professing to focus on
literary objects rather than literature. But the New Materialisms have
generated a new enthusiasm for things; they have problematized the
ingrained Cartesian dichotomy between man and material; they have
initiated a debate that is not semiotic, but primarily ontological.2 From
such a vantage point—by letting objects lead our interpretation—we
can truly tackle old problems in new ways. Reading ancient literature
is the most fundamental activity of every classicist. One aim of this
book is to develop a new approach to this most essential of endeav-
ours. It aims to add to the classicist’s toolkit an approach drawn from
outside the discipline, yet compellingly compatible with it. The New
Materialisms give us a new way in to ancient texts, by asking different
questions of the texts and the authors and societies that produced
them, by foregrounding different actants, by a ground-breaking pro-
gramme of ‘anthropodecentrism’. By focusing on objects first and
foremost, we resist, revisit, or revise standard modes of literary exe-
gesis. By shaking up our own ingrained ways of thinking about things,
we leave ourselves open to new readings and new understandings of
ancient works and ancient world views. How can murder weapons
stand trial in an Athenian law court? Do props in Greek drama have a
2
Or ‘ontical’: see Brown 2015: 24.

stage life of their own? When Theocritus addresses a distaff, does it
answer him back? What can a Proboulos learn from a sewing basket?
If Ajax is a bulwark, the gods build walls, and Ajax and Odysseus
wrestle like rafters, what kind of house has Homer built?
In this book, New Materialisms and Gender Theory are brought
together with exciting results. Women do not always fit what counts
as a subject in the Homeric value system. So what can we learn about
them when we decentre the subject? And what happens when a focus
on the woman as object is combined with an approach that questions
the very notion of the object?
How Far Are We from a Hot Bath?
1.1 WOMEN, OBJECTS, THINGS
Through social processes as diverse as marriage and the spoils of

warfare, the women of Greek epic are caught up in a male-controlled
network of exchange.1 In fact the first woman is given to mankind as
part of an exchange of tricks between Zeus and Prometheus (The-
ogony 534–601, Works and Days 42–105), and indeed Pandora’s very
name connects her with gift giving (Works and Days 80–2).2 The list
of prizes Achilles provides for Patroclus’ funeral games runs seam-
lessly from cattle to women to metal, with little differentiation
between them:
νηῶν δ’ ἔκφερ’ ἄεθλα, λέβητάς τε τρίποδάς τε
ἵππους θ’ ἡμιόνους τε βοῶν τ’ ἴφθιμα κάρηνα
ἠδὲ γυναῖκας ἐϋζώνους πολιόν τε σίδηρον.
He brought out prizes from his ships: cauldrons and tripods,
horses and mules and strong heads of oxen,
and well-girdled women and grey iron.
Iliad 23.259–61
Hesiod would be on board with the juxtaposition of women and iron
here, given the role he attributes to the female sex in the establishment
1
Franco 2012: 57: ‘the Iliad stresses the role of women as the objects over which
men fight each other.’
2
For more on Pandora and her connection with objects, see Chapter 5.1 with
Fraser 2011 and Canevaro 2015a: 108–15 and 187–8.

of the Iron Age human condition.3 Similarly, when Agamemnon
appeases Achilles with gifts, they include animate and inanimate alike:
ἑπτὰ μὲν ἐκ κλισίης τρίποδας φέρον, οὕς οἱ ὑπέστη,
αἴθωνας δὲ λέβητας ἐείκοσι, δώδεκα δ’ ἵππους·
ἐκ δ’ ἄγον αἶψα γυναῖκας ἀμύμονα ἔργ’ εἰδυίας
ἕπτ’, ἀτὰρ ὀγδοάτην Βρισηΐδα καλλιπάρηον·
They brought seven tripods from the hut, those which he had promised,
and twenty shining cauldrons, and twelve horses.
And they brought straightaway seven women whose work was blameless,
and the eighth was fair-cheeked Briseis.
Iliad 19.243–64
Helene Foley 2005: 105 notes that ‘Women play a critical role as
objects of exchange between men,’ and Hanna Roisman 2006: 4
describes ‘Helen’s position as possession’. Homeric women even
have prices put on them: we know that Eurycleia is bought by Laertes
for the price of twenty oxen (Od.1.431 ἐεικοσάβοια δ’ ἔδωκεν). In the
giving of dowries and bridewealth, women’s worth becomes quanti-
fied, measured against or along with material goods.5 In this sense
women become more specifically commodities: objects which exist
for the purpose of, or find their identity in, exchange.6 And yet, as
Deborah Lyons 2012: 19 writes: ‘As much as men may define women
as exchange objects, there is always the possibility that women will
find a way to express their own agency’. In the Iliad 19 passage given
above, the women are prized for their ἔργα, the work of their hands,
which in Homeric epic implies more often than not the production of
woven objects. Homeric women use objects to express and negotiate
their agency: a subversion of the male viewpoint, as women enact
their agency through the very form they themselves are thought by
3
Note also, though, that women are for Hesiod a necessary evil: two of the items
listed here, the woman and the ox, are listed too by Hesiod as first essentials in setting
up one’s oikos (WD.405). For more on Hesiod’s attitude to women, see Canevaro 2013
and 2015a: 115–22.
4
Both Briseis and Chryseis are often described as a γέρας or ‘prize’: Chryseis
Il.1.120 and passim, Briseis Il.1.185 and passim.
5
For a recent discussion of bride-gifts in Homer, see Ormand 2014: 54–60. He
describes ‘marriage as a competitive event’ (60). See also Scodel 2008: 80 on ‘bound-
less’ bride-gifts: she suggests that this use of the epithet shows that ‘the value of a
woman in marriage is limitless both to her natal family and to her husband’. A price is
put on women, but Homer acknowledges that in reality they are priceless.
6
On commodities, see Appadurai 1986 and van Binsbergen and Geschiere 2005.
How Far Are We from a Hot Bath? 13

their men to embody. It is these kinds of objects, created by women,
used by them, and seen to define and give value to them, which will be
the focus of this book. Neither ‘object’ nor ‘agency’ is a straightfor-
ward term, or without a vast body of literature behind it, and thus it is
necessary to bring both to the fore from the outset and explore what
they mean to us as readers, and what they have been taken to mean by
scholarship in various fields.
The relationship between people and things has been at the centre
of many recent philosophical studies, and from there discussion has
spread to the social sciences, and on to, for example, archaeology.7
A range of non- or post-Cartesian approaches have reacted against
an anthropocentric, subjectivist approach which sees a stark divide
between mind and body, between subject and object, between person
and thing.8 Bill Brown rightly asks about the twentieth century as a
whole: ‘what decade of the century didn’t have its own thing about
things?’9 Indeed, the persistence of the topic is one of its compelling
features: an indicator that there is something about things that con-
tinues and will continue to capture our attention. And yet, the end of
the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first have seen a
real proliferation of Thing Theories.
One valuable branch of recent research in this respect is that of the
cognitive sciences. The Cartesian dichotomies have been countered
by theories of distributed cognition—the so-called ‘4E’ perspective of
extended, embodied, embedded, and enactive cognition—all of which
suggest permeable boundaries between internal and external facets of
cognition. According to Extended Mind Theory, for example, non-
neural parts of the body and parts of the environment need to be
attributed the same status as neural parts of the body (Clark 2008), and
Sutton 2002 has raised the possibility that there may be a ‘cognitive life
of things’.10 Cognitive scientists, however, are not the only theorists
probing the relationship between people and things. Many of the
theories grouped as the ‘New Materialisms’ not only treat objects as
7
For an overview of the New Materialisms and their uses in archaeology, see
Witmore 2014.
8
A good summary of attempts in anthropology, sociology, and philosophy to
problematize and move past the people/things dichotomy is provided by Ago 2013.
9
Brown 2004b: 13.
10
A reference point for classicists interested in cognitive approaches to the human-
ities is the ‘Cognitive Classics’ website (https://cognitiveclassics.blogs.sas.ac.uk), set up
and managed by Felix Budelmann, Katharine Earnshaw, and Emily Troscianko.

extensions of human cognition but move away from an anthropocen-
tric view altogether and treat things as ontologically equal to people.11
Cognitive Theory tends to look always outward, from the (embodied)
mind to its environment. New Materialism provides the ideal ‘anthro-
podecentric’ complement, beginning with objects in the world.
The antivitalist Cartesian stance has been countered by Vital
Materialists such as Jane Bennett, and Graham Harman’s Object-
Oriented Ontology posits that objects are ontologically prior to their
relations. Lambros Malafouris’s Material Engagement Theory proposes
the inseparability of thoughts, actions, and material things, and Ian
Hodder’s Entanglement Theory formulates a similar interconnected-
ness in an archaeological setting. The sociologist Bruno Latour’s Actor
Network Theory focuses on the associations between entities rather
than the entities themselves, thus avoiding privileging animate over
inanimate entity. The theoretical standpoints on the issue of materi-
ality are manifold, all intimately related, yet subtly diverse in their
points of detail. Indeed Simon Goldhill 2015: 11n.7 describes the field
as ‘A set of questions, rather than a coherent theory’. The New
Materialisms each have their own unique contribution to make—
but more generally, they combine in innovating on important theor-
etical traditions within philosophies of immanence by disrupting the
binaries that persist in scholarly thought, such as mind–body, word–
world, nature–culture, idealism–materialism, and transcendence–
immanence. Moreover, the New Materialisms are valuable in that
they propagate what Bennett 2010: xiv refers to as ‘attentiveness to
things’. Objects are not approached as passive instruments with or to
which people do things, but as complex and open entities with which
we interact in dynamic networks. The New Materialisms supply new
methodologies for making sense of objects: methodologies which take
us beyond models of signification and broaden the range of what
things are and what they can do.
Most of the theoretical standpoints of the New Materialisms are
based on the real-world interactions between people and things: the
relationship as seen through cognitive science, philosophy, philosophy
of science, anthropology. Comparatively little work has been done on
11
The New Materialisms engage with a broad spectrum of matter—from discrete
physical objects to matter on a quantum level (Barad 2007); from landscape and
ecology to the body and biology. For the purposes of a single book I focus primarily on
discrete objects created and handled, used and exchanged.
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lower end of the operating lever handle which engages the block
carrier lever catch, thus preventing any rotary motion of the
breechblock at the instant of firing. The firing pin receives the blow of
the percussion hammer and fires the primer. The flame passes
through the vent in the obturator spindle, igniting the propelling
charge. The gas pressure in the bore forces the mushroom head of
the obturator spindle hard against the gas check pad causing the
latter to expand and press against the walls of the chamber, forming
a gas-tight joint. After the explosion the elasticity of the pad causes it
to resume its former shape, allowing the obturator to be withdrawn
freely from its seat when the breech is unlocked.
To Open the Breech. After the piece has been fired, and before
unlocking the breech, press back the firing mechanism block safety
latch, screw out the firing mechanism block and remove the used
primer. The breech can not be unlocked with the firing mechanism
block in place. An attempt to do so will result in jamming of the firing
mechanism safety plunger. It is therefore important that the firing
mechanism block should be removed before attempting to unlock the
breech.
Press down on the handle of the operating lever in order to
disengage it from the block carrier lever catch. Move the lever
toward the rear and then to the right. In the first part of this
movement, the operating lever turns freely around the hinge pin and
its lug operates the rack which turns the breechblock. The threaded
parts of the breechblock are thus disengaged from the threads in the
breech recess. As the rack reaches the limit of its travel, the block
carrier is swung on its hinge drawing the breechblock out of the
breech recess. As the block carrier leaves the breech face of the
howitzer the rack lock is forced by its spring into the recess in the
rack preventing any further rotary motion of the breechblock in either
direction. As the breech reaches its full open position the right end of
the operating lever catch engages the operating lever catch, locking
the breech in open position.
In loading, care should be taken to ram the projectile home and to
enter the propelling charge in such a way that the igniter of the base
charge will be in contact with the mushroom head of the obturator
spindle when the breech is closed.
To Close the Breech. Press down on the operating lever handle
to disengage the operating lever latch from the operating lever catch
and move the operating lever to the left and forward. As the block
carrier comes in contact with the breech face of the howitzer, the
rack lock is pushed back into its seat, freeing the rack. Further
movement of the operating lever forces the rack to the left, rotating
the breechblock until its threaded portions mesh with the threads in
the breech recess. At the end of the movement of the operating
lever, the operating lever handle engages the block carrier lever
catch and fastens the breech in locked position.
Insert a new primer in the primer seat plug and replace the firing
mechanism block. The firing mechanism block can not be entered
until the breech is closed and locked. Any attempt to do so may
cause damage to the firing mechanism safety plunger or some part
of the firing mechanism.
THE CARRIAGE.
For the purpose of description, the carriage is considered as
composed of the following groups: Sleigh (including recoil
mechanism), cradle, trail, traveling lock, elevating mechanism,
traversing mechanism, wheels, road brake, and shield.
The sleigh contains the recoil and counter-recoil mechanism and
serves as a support for the howitzer, being secured to it by the
breech key and the holding-down band. The recoil counter-recoil
cylinders, and two air cylinders are bored in the sleigh and form the
recoil mechanism. The ends of the recoil and counter-recoil cylinders
are attached to the cradle and when the howitzer is fired the sleigh
and howitzer recoil, sliding on the cradle sides.
The holding down band is anchored on either side to the front
band clips, which are secured to the sleigh. Grooves are cut
underneath the two top edges of the sleigh, and are lined with
bronze liners, known as sleigh slides. These liners slide on the
cradle clips and guide the howitzer during recoil. Five longitudinal
cylinders are bored in the sleigh, the two upper cylinders running
about one-third the length of the sleigh, forming air tanks and are
closed at the front end by the air tank heads. The left air tank head is
provided with an opening in which the gage-cock body is assembled.
A pressure gage may be assembled through an adapter to this gage-
cock for ascertaining the pressure in the counter recoil system. The
gage-cock is also provided with a pointer which registers the quantity
of liquid in the system on a scale provided on the air tank head. The
two lower cylinders extending the full length of the sleigh, form
a housing for the recoil mechanism, the right cylinder being the
counter-recoil cylinder and the left the recoil cylinder. The small
equalizing cylinder in the center of the sleigh, extending only a short
distance, is closed at the front end with the filling valve, through
which air or liquid is introduced into the system.
155 MM HOWITZER, MODEL OF 1918 (SCHNEIDER)

SECTION, IN BATTERY
The counter recoil cylinder is connected by a passage to the
right air tank and also to the small equalizing cylinder, the latter
being connected to the left air cylinder, thus maintaining equal
pressure in both air cylinders and in the counter-recoil cylinder. The
counter-recoil cylinder is closed at the rear end with the counter-
recoil cylinder head and at the front end with the stuffing box,
through which the counter-recoil rod and its piston moves. The
recoil cylinder is closed at the rear end with the recoil cylinder head
and at the front end with the recoil cylinder stuffing box, through
which the recoil piston rod operates. This rod is hollow and serves as
a buffer chamber for the buffer rod, which is securely screwed to the
recoil cylinder head at one end, the other end carrying the counter-
recoil valve. The recoil and counter-recoil rods are fitted with the
piston rod nuts on the front end which engage the piston rod lock
plate.
The cradle is a steel U-shaped plate reinforced by several
transoms and supported by the trunnion bracket, elevating segment
brackets, and in traveling position by the cradle band which engages
the clips on which the howitzer recoils when in action. The sleigh
traveling locks are mounted at the extreme ends of the cradle and
used to lock the sleigh to cradle when the howitzer is in traveling
position.
The cradle is mounted on trunnions on the carriage, and by means
of elevating segments geared with the elevating mechanism may be
inclined at various firing angles. When carriage is traveling the rear
end of the cradle rests on the cradle traveling lock, thereby relieving
the elevating mechanism of the weight of the howitzer, sleigh and
cradle.
The left trunnion of the cradle is bored out to receive the sight and
bracket. The shoulder guard is located on left side of the cradle just
back of the trunnion bracket and protects the gunner from the
recoiling parts. The firing mechanism is located on the right side of
the cradle and provided with a safety device which prevents the
piece from being fired when the piston rod nuts are not engaged by
piston lock.
The recoil indicator is located just back of the trunnion bracket on
the right side of the cradle and consists of a steel spring which is
adjusted by means of a nut so that the pointer bears against a scale
engraved on the edge of the sleigh indicating the length of recoil.
The front end of the cradle is covered by the cradle head and
provided with an opening through which the pressure-gauge adapter
may be assembled to the gauge-cock body. The lower half of the
front end of the cradle is closed by the front transom, forming a guide
for the piston-rod lock which is operated by means of a lever. When
this lever is lowered the lock plate moves to the right, releasing the
piston-rod nuts. When the lever is raised the lock moves to the left,
locking the nuts in firing position. The locking device is protected by
the cradle front cover which holds the lever in firing position when
closed. The filling valve is accessible through the cradle bottom
cover located on the bottom of the cradle to the rear of the front
transom. The pump bracket is located on the left side of the cradle
near the front.

LEFT SIDE ELEVATION, IN BATTERY
ELEVATING MECHANISM
Recoil and Counter-Recoil Mechanisms. When the howitzer is

fired the recoil mechanism exercises its retarding influence by
means of a liquid which is obliged to pass through an orifice whose
size diminishes as the movement proceeds, thus checking the
recoiling mass. The recoiling movement of the gun actuates at the
same time the counter-recoil mechanism, which acts on the counter-
recoil liquid and forces it into two reservoirs, thus further
compressing a gas therein contained. When the recoil movement is
ended the expansion of gas forces the counter-recoil mechanism
back “into battery,” and the recoil cylinder again exercises its
retarding influence to prevent a too rapid return and shock. The
normal recoil is 51.375 inches (1.305 meters).
When the piece is fired the howitzer and sleigh move to the rear,
the recoil and counter-recoil rods, which are held by the piston-rod
lock remaining stationary. The liquid in the counter-recoil cylinder is
thus forced into the air cylinders, building up a pressure sufficient to
return the howitzer to battery. The liquid in the recoil cylinder is
forced through the orifices in the recoil piston rod and then through
the throttling ring. The tapered buffer rod, which is attached to the
recoil cylinder head, moves through the throttling ring, gradually
closing the orifice, thus keeping the pressure constant as the velocity
of recoil is reduced. As the buffer rod moves to the rear the counter-
recoil valve is opened, allowing the liquid to pass freely into the
buffer chamber. As the gun returns to battery the buffer valve closes,
forcing the liquid to pass through the small clearance around the
valve, thus absorbing the energy of counter recoil.
By means of the elevating mechanism the howitzer, sleigh and
cradle are inclined at the various firing angles, varying from zero to
42 degrees, by rotation in the trunnions of the cradle.
Two elevating segments attached to the cradle are actuated by the
elevating pinion shaft operating in bearings integral with the
elevating worm wheel case secured to trail. To lower end of worm
shaft is fitted a worm which engages a worm wheel and pinion shaft
in the gear case. On upper end of worm shaft is attached the
elevating hand wheel fitted with a handle and plunger enabling the
operator to lock the howitzer at any desired elevation. The motion of
the handwheel is transmitted through the worm gear to the pinion
shaft and thence to the elevating segments.
TRAVERSING ROLLERS
The handwheel is provided with a handle of a spring locking type,

downward pressure on which unlocks it from the handwheel latch
plate, permitting the mechanism to be operated.
Traversing Mechanism. The traverse of the carriage is obtained
by means of the traversing mechanism causing the carriage to slide
on the axle, the trail pivoting on the spade. The movement is 3
degrees each side of center or a total of 105 mils.
At the center of the axle is rigidly attached a bronze traversing nut
through which passes the traversing screw which may be operated
from either side of the carriage by means of handwheels connected
to the screw through bevel gears and shaft. The traversing screw
operates in the travelling housing longitudinally and held in position
by thrust bearings and thrust bearing adjusters at both ends of the
screw. When either of the handwheels is operated the traversing
screw is rotated and moves to the right or left as the case may be,
carrying the entire carriage which moves across the axle on
traversing rollers.
In order to reduce friction during the traversing operation the
carriage rests on the axle through Belleville springs and two concave
faced traversing rollers mounted on roller shafts in the axle housing.
When gun is fired the Belleville springs are compressed and the
carriage rests on the axle through the bronze traversing roller boxes.
On top of axle projecting to the left of carriage is riveted an
azimuth scale graduated in mils so that the position of the carriage
on the axle may easily be seen at any time. When in traveling
position the carriage should be locked to the axles by the axle
traveling lock, thus relieving the traversing mechanism from
unnecessary stress.

TRAVERSING MECHANISM
The axle traveling lock is a device employed to relieve the
traversing mechanism from unnecessary stress when the carriage is
in traveling position. When the carriage is prepared for traveling the
traveling lock engages a series of square grooves cut in the center of
the axle. The lock is operated by an eccentric on the end of the
traveling lock shaft which is controlled by the lock lever fixed on
outer end. The lock lever may be placed in two positions marked “to
travel” and “to fire,” by means of its handle which is provided with a
spring plunger engaging the traveling lock catch. In order to properly
lock the carriage in traveling position it is necessary to traverse the
carriage to the center position on the axle, thus permitting the locking
device to engage the grooves cut in the center of the axle.
The air pump is furnished for the purpose of charging and
maintaining the necessary pressure in the counter recoil reservoirs.
When in operation it is attached to a bracket on the carriage by
means of a screw clamp and connected to the reservoir by the filling
pipe. The pump will operate against a pressure of 400 to 600 pounds
per square inch.
The liquid pump is a single-acting-plunger used for charging the
counter-recoil system and for the purpose of replenishing losses of
liquid from the cylinders. Power is applied through a hand lever
connected by parallel links and a cross-beam at the lower end of the
piston. The hand lever is detachable and also used in connection
with the air pump. When in operation the pump is attached to a
bracket on the carriage by means of a screw clamp. The filling pipe
is employed to connect the liquid pump with the recuperator cylinder.
The reservoir for compressed gas is a commercial seamless
cylinder with a capacity of 2,842 cubic inches and is charged with
nitrogen gas at a working pressure of 2,000 pounds per square inch
(140 kilograms per square centimeter). The reservoir is provided with
a needle valve and a connection for the pressure gage or filling pipe.
This cylinder is used for charging the counter-recoil system and may
be carried on the artillery supply truck furnished with 155-mm
organizations.
AIR AND LIQUID PUMPS
TRAVELING POSITION
The filling pipe is used to connect the counter-recoil reservoirs

with the air or liquid pump or with the compressed gas reservoir.
Pressure Gage. The gage for the compressed gas reservoir is
calibrated from 0 to 150 kilograms per square centimeter. It is used
to ascertain the pressure of gas in the reservoir and must be
attached before screwing on the filling pipe. The gage for the
pressure-gage adapter is calibrated from 0 to 60 kilograms per
square centimeter, is screwed into the side of the adapter and used
to test the pressure in the counter-recoil system.
The quadrant sight, model of 1918 (Schneider), is mounted on
the left trunnion of the carriage, both in traveling and in action, and
should not be removed by the battery mechanics. The principal
features of the quadrant sight are: The cross-leveling mechanism,
the elevating mechanism, and the angle of site mechanism.
The cross-leveling mechanism principally consists of the leveling
worm, leveling stop, antibacklash spring, leveling clamp, and cross
levels. By means of the cross-leveling mechanism the quadrant sight
is adjusted to proper alignment with the bore of the howitzer.
The bracket fits into the trunnion on the left side of the carriage
and is provided with four tennons which engage slots in the face of
the trunnions keeping the sight in proper alignment with the bore of
the howitzer. The bracket is screwed in place by the bracket bolt; the
front end of the body of the quadrant sight fits into the cylindrical part
of the bracket and is held in place longitudinally by four lugs.
QUADRANT SIGHT, MODEL OF 1918.

(SCHNEIDER)
The body of the sight is rotated by the leveling worm engaging the
worm segment cut on the under side of the body. The outer end of
the worm is provided with a knurled hand wheel by means of which
the leveling mechanism is operated. The leveling stop, secured to
bracket, engages slot in the body, thus limiting the angular motion of
the body in either direction. The rear end of the cylindrical part of the
bracket is split and provided with a leveling clamp by means of which
the body may be locked in position after it has been leveled.
The cross level is located on the rear edge of the sight shank and
serves the gunner in determining the level position of the instrument.
The level vial is a glass tube, closed at both ends, and partially filled
with a liquid consisting of 4 per cent alcohol and 60 per cent ether, a
small bubble remaining in the tube. Graduations are etched on the
circumference of the tube to indicate the central position of the
bubble. The vial is held in a level-vial tube, the ends being wrapped
in paper and set in plaster of paris. The knurled cross-level cover fits
over the holder and, together with the level-vial tube, are held in
place by the cross-level caps, which close the ends of the holder.
When closed, the cover serves as a protection for the vial.
The elevating mechanism consists principally of a sight shank,
elevating worm wheel, antibacklash pinion, elevating worm, elevating
worm eccentric, elevating scale drum, and scale drum housing.
NOTES ON CARE OF THE 155 HOWITZER.

The executive should be perfectly familiar with the working of the
recoil and know when to put a gun out of action due to faulty recoil.
The length of the recoil should be such that the end of the gun slides
do not recoil over the end of the cradle rails. In counter-recoil, the
sleigh should be perceptibly slowed down at a point about 10
centimeters from the front of the cradle, and from there on should
ease gently into battery without a sound or shock. Strict watch
should be kept to see that no excessive leakage takes place through
the stuffing boxes, the valve in the gauge adapter, or the oil hole in
the cylinder end nut. Slight leakage can hardly be helped, as one of
the stuffing boxes is under more than four hundred pounds of
pressure per square inch when the gun is at rest, and three or four
times that amount when the gun is in full recoil. However, if a pool of
liquid is found after the gun has been standing all night, it is time to
report the matter and have the packings replaced. The gun must be
dismounted, the stuffing-box repacked, and the dermatine inspected.
The dermatine packing is a compound resembling rubber, but it has
the quality of resisting any chemical action that the liquid may set up
in the recuperator. A worn dermatine packing may be replaced by
the simple expedient of turning it wrong side out and then using it
again as before. This has actually been tried and found to give good
results. Another temporary repair was effected by cutting a ring from
a solid truck tire and using it in the place of the dermatine, until a
packing of the latter could be obtained.
The French obtain a very tight fit in their stuffing boxes by the
peculiar design that allows the liquid pressure to actuate a strong
spring which in turn expands the packing against the rod or cylinder
wall. Leakage through the recuperator stuffing box will be noticed by
the liquid coming out of the oil hole in the right-hand cylinder end nut.
In dismounting French materiel, care must be used to replace the
same nuts on the bolts from which they were taken. Threads are not
standardized as to diameter; hence, trouble is likely to occur when
remounting.
To dismount the tube from the recoil mechanism, or sleigh as
it is denoted, a suitably strong overhead beam is selected and the
carriage run beneath it. Mount two one-ton duplex blocks on the
beam over either end of the tube and thread the bore with a half-inch
wire cable sling, in such a manner as to leave a bight at both muzzle
and breech ends. Into these loops the hooks of the block catch.
Gunny sacks form a suitable packing at the muzzle and breech to
prevent the cable damaging these parts of the tube. Provide several
blocks of two by four or four by four stuff, to block up the sleigh as it
is moved to the rear—as we shall soon see that it does. Remove the
locking hoop by knocking out the retaining bolts, and also remove
the cradle bolts from their housing on the cradle. This will allow the
sleigh to move to the rear of the cradle. Take a strain on the blocks
and carefully move the sleigh back over the trail until the recoil-lug
key (locking the recoil lug to the sleigh) clears the end of the cradle.
Remove the set screw from the bottom of the sleigh which locks the
tapered key in place, and proceed to drive the key out with a sledge
hammer and a block of wood. During this operation the rear of the
sleigh must be blocked up on the trail in order to take the strain off
the cradle rails. After the key is cleared, the tube may be raised by
means of the two blocks, care being taken to make the lift vertical,
otherwise the slots and grooves just in front of the breech will jam
and be damaged. Remove the carriage and lower the tube onto
blocks. The process of mounting is just the reverse of the above.
The elevating and traversing mechanisms give little trouble, if all
gear cases are kept packed in grease. It is extremely important that,
in laying for elevation with this piece, the final turns of the handwheel
should bring the gun into correct position by raising the breech and
not by lowering it. In this way all backlash is taken out of the gearing
and the howitzer rests solidly for firing. The gunner may easily be
taught to remember this by always having him bring the range
bubble to the front of the glass and then slowly elevate the breech,
bringing the bubble to him.
The traversing mechanism moves the whole carriage, including
gun, along the axle, about the spade as the center of rotation. The
traversing screw moves the carriage by being rotated through nut set
solidly in the axle. The axle and nut are stationary and the screw
moves laterally by means of the traversing handwheel. Hence, the
carriage being attached to the screw, must move when the screw
moves. Inasmuch as the axle is straight, it must accommodate itself
to the arc of the circle described about the spade as the center. It
does so by moving tangent to the arc, and consequently one end
moves to the front and the other end moves to the rear, carrying the
wheels with them. From this it will be seen that before attempting to
traverse the piece, the brake must be “off.” The movement of the
wheels may be easily seen, if a pencil line be drawn across the tire
just above the brake shoe and then the piece traversed. The line will
be seen either to raise or lower according to whether the piece be
traversed to the right or left.
In filling the “brake” or recoil cylinder, good results have been
obtained by merely leveling the gun and filling the brake cylinder until
full. Trying to pour out one hundred cubic centimeters of the liquid
after the brake is full, as the French drill regulations lay down, is
almost impossible; and no bad effects will be noticed provided the
gun does not become excessively warm during the firing. If it should
become warmed up sufficiently to affect the recoil, level the gun,
unscrew filling plug to release the pressure, rescrew, and continue
the fire. In using the manometer gauge, to measure the pressure and
the height of the liquid in the recuperator, it will be found that the
valve in gauge adapter will sometimes stick open to the extent of
letting out all the air in the recuperator tanks. The only sure remedy
for this is entirely to dismount the gun, remove the adapter, and
replace its valve packing, which no doubt will be found to be worn
and frayed, or else some foreign substance will be found to be lying
between it and its seat. The gauges should be tested about once in
three months by means of a standard steam gauge testing
apparatus, making the appropriate transformations if the tester be
graduated to pounds per square inch as most steam testers are. It
will be found that the maximum steam pressures used are rather
lower than these gauges read, hence only the lower readings may
ordinarily be tested.
To set the pointer to the correct pressure reading, pull the pointer
loose and apply a known pressure to the gauge. Set the pointer at
the corresponding reading on the manometer and press it on tightly.
In general, this is sufficient for practical work.
After each firing the breechblock should be entirely dismounted
and each part washed in caustic soda solution and then stippled with
oil before reassembling.
The wheels are made of smaller members than those that we are
accustomed to see in our own materiel. It must be remembered,
however, that the French designed their wheels for much better
roads than ours; and, in comparison with our materiel throughout,
this fact must be borne in mind. The wheels must be carefully
watched, especially through the dry weather, for they tend to check
and crack. Remedies are tire shrinking and soaking in water over
night, followed by a thorough and careful application of linseed oil.
Fast travel, as when the piece is coupled to a truck, must be avoided
if the life of the carriage is to be assured.
According to the French drill of the gun squads, in going into
action, the piece is first unlimbered and the trail is then laid on the
ground, and the cannoneers change posts to the extent of the
gunner going to his position by his sight; while the remaining
cannoneers lift the trail again and set the spade. This is slow and
cumbersome work. Much better results may be obtained by setting
the spade at the time that the piece is unlimbered, without moving
the cannoneers from their posts.
CHAPTER XII
EXPLOSIVES, AMMUNITION AND FUSES.
EXPLOSIVES.
As a matter of practical interest, explosives may be divided into
three classes, namely:
(1) Progressive or propelling explosives called low explosives.
(2) Detonating or disruptive explosives, termed high
explosives.
(3) Detonators or exploders, known as fulminates.
The first includes all classes of gun powders used in firearms of all
kinds; the second, explosives used in shell, torpedoes, and for
demolitions; the third, those explosives used to originate explosive
reactions in the two first classes. Corresponding names are given to
the phenomena characteristic of each class of explosives, (1)
explosions proper, of low order, progressive, or combustions, (2)
detonations, of high order, (3) fulminations, this last possessing
exceptional brusqueness.
The explosion of low order is marked by more or less progression;
the time element is involved as a controlling factor, the time required
to complete the explosive reaction being large compared with that of
the other forms of explosion.
The second class of explosion is of a different nature. The
explosive reaction is not limited or confined to the surfaces exposed
but appears to progress in all directions throughout the mass radially
from the point of initial explosion. It has been determined
experimentally that the velocity of propagation of the explosive wave
throughout a mass of guncotton is from 17,000 to 21,000 feet per
second.
Fulmination is a class of explosion still more brusque than the last.
The abruptness of their explosion and the consequent sharpness of
the blow and the concentration of heat on the point of ignition
constituting their efficiency as originators of explosions of the first
two classes.
Methods of Exploding. Explosives may be exploded by three
methods; in reality but two, by heat and by application of energy as
by a blow. The heat may be applied directly by friction, by electricity
and detonating cap, these two methods of applying the heat giving
rise to the three practical methods above mentioned. As it is not
practical to apply heat directly to the charge, small charges of special
explosives are made up into primers and these are exploded in one
of the ways above mentioned and so communicate the explosion to
the main charge. Fulminate of mercury is one of the high explosives
fulfilling the requirements and it is readily exploded by any one of the
methods mentioned. It is used in all detonating caps. Primers for
cannon also contain an additional charge of black powder to
increase the flame. For this purpose also igniting charges of black
powder are attached to the smokeless powder charges for the larger
calibers.
Uses. The chief use of low or progressive explosives is as a
propelling charge in guns and for blasting where it is desired to exert
a pushing effect rather than a blow. High explosives are used when it
is desired to exert a high pressure and shatter the container, as in a
shell, mine, etc. This class is not satisfactory as a propelling charge
for the reason that its rapidity of action is so great that the pressure
exerted would burst the gun before the projectile could start. Low
explosives are not satisfactory shell fillers for the reason that their
action is so low that the shell would break at its weakest point before
all the explosives had exploded and what remained would be
wasted. With a high explosive, all or most of the charge explodes
before the shell can break up. The greater the rapidity of action of an
explosive the finer the fragmentation of the projectile. With too rapid
action the pieces are too small; with too slow action they are too
large. Experience teaches the proper rapidity of action to attain the
fragmentation most efficient against animate and material targets.

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155 MM HOWITZER, MODEL OF 1918 (SCHNEIDER)

155 MM HOWITZER, MODEL OF 1918 (SCHNEIDER)

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155 MM HOWITZER, MODEL OF 1918 (SCHNEIDER)

The filling pipe is used to connect the counter-recoil reservoirs

QUADRANT SIGHT, MODEL OF 1918.

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