| Shardik | 27 Sep 2007 2:55 p.m. PST |
Mainly black and dark brown, with a few lighter individuals? Bryan |
| Lowtardog | 27 Sep 2007 2:57 p.m. PST |
Thats how I paint them, Thracians however (you might use these in your army) were red heads!! |
| nycjadie | 27 Sep 2007 3:14 p.m. PST |
I would imagine mediterranean in appearance. link picture |
| Carlos Marighela 2 | 27 Sep 2007 3:33 p.m. PST |
Very little grey, due to the prevalance of Grecian 2000. |
| Pictors Studio | 27 Sep 2007 3:38 p.m. PST |
There would be a large number of different colours. Don't forget that the greeks, at least the dorians, came from the north. There are accounts of Greeks with red hair as well. |
| Russell120120 | 27 Sep 2007 7:35 p.m. PST |
The Spartans were frequently (commonly?) blond-hair blue eyed (as were the Macedonians). All of this is presumably due to the above noted Dorian influence. |
| Hrothgar Returns | 27 Sep 2007 8:11 p.m. PST |
I would think mostly brown shades with an occasional blonde/red head/or black. complexions would range from olive to fair. The northern most groups would tend to have the lightest hair, with the Macedonians/Thracians/Illyrians being fair/red haired Maybe I'm wrong, but I recall that the earliest Greek speakers were Indo-European Hellenes that imposed themselves on a local neolithic populace that spoke non-European languages. Maybe a language akin to the Minoans? And on a similar note, the Persian/Mede troops are unlikely to be dark-skinned like the Persi-orcs in '300'. Many of the levies would be Babylonians/Assyrians, etc. so can be painted with 'Middle-Eastern" skin tones, but the Persians proper were another group of outsiders that imposed themselves. It is even thought that they practised a 'caste system'. |
| Shardik | 28 Sep 2007 4:15 a.m. PST |
Thanks guys, that helps Bryan |
| Carlos Marighela 2 | 28 Sep 2007 4:23 a.m. PST |
Would the Doric influence meant many were Dorian Grey? |
| Pictors Studio | 28 Sep 2007 2:35 p.m. PST |
Not only should the persians not be dark skinned but if we are to believe the sources they should be fairly light skinned. Agesilaus paraded a naked or nearly naked persian in front of his men to show them how pale he was and ergo what a pussy he was to encourage his men that it would be easy to fight them. |
| TERMINATOR | 28 Sep 2007 3:15 p.m. PST |
Cyrus the Great was a redhead wasn't he? |
| Crow Bait | 28 Sep 2007 8:21 p.m. PST |
The dark skin and hair came from the Turkish occupation period. Originally the Greeks were light skinned and fair headed. Or, at least that is what I was lead to believe from the Greek Head Start program while I was stationed there. |
| Pictors Studio | 28 Sep 2007 11:31 p.m. PST |
Cyrus was indeed a red head. |
| Wizard Whateley | 29 Sep 2007 3:53 p.m. PST |
I had always thought that today's dark hair came from the Turkish/Ottoman occupation as well. |
| cingetorix17 | 02 Oct 2007 10:38 a.m. PST |
today people view anceint Persians as a dark semitic looking people.
the ironic thing is that the persians were much paler then the greeks in genral.the majority of the Greeks would of been of olive skin and dark hair. of course there were blonds and red head present, but in the minority. |
| Altius | 04 Oct 2007 8:13 a.m. PST |
The Spartans were NOT blonde. Their IDEAL of beauty was light-colored hair and skin, but it was as unattainable to them as the modern ideal of size 2 supermodels with D-cup bras. Most of them had to resort to bleaching to achieve it. The Macedonians had some blond hair in their population, but by no means all or even most of them. Certainly it was more common among them than among the Greeks, though. You had it right the first time: Black, Brown, and a few lighter colors. Make about half of the lighter-colored ones redheads and you'll be all set. If doing Macedonians, boost the number of blonds/dirty blondes to up to maybe half. |
paints a legend from the Trojan Wars.