A modern critic, who thinks this possible, is bringing the practice of archaising poets of the late nineteenth century into the minds of rhapsodists of the eighth century before Christ. Artists of the middle of the sixteenth century always depict Jeanne d'Arc in the armour and costume of their own time, wholly unlike those of 1430. This is the regular rule. Late rhapsodists would not delve in the archaeology of the Mycenaean prime. Indeed, one does not see how they could discover, in Asia, that corslets were not worn, five centuries earlier, on the other side of the sea. We are told that Aias and some other heroes are never spoken of as wearing corslets. But Aias certainly did put on a set of pieces of armour, and did not trust to his shield alone, tower-like as it was. The description runs thus: The Achaeans have disarmed, before the duel of Aias and Hector. Aias draws the lucky lot; he is to 'meet Hector, and bids the others pray to Zeus "while I clothe me in my armour of battle." While they prayed, Aias "arrayed himself in flashing bronze. And when he had now clothed upon his flesh _all_ his pieces of armour" ([Greek: panta teuchae]) "he went forth to fight." If Aias wore only a shield, as on Mr. Leaf's hypothesis, he could sling it on before the Achaeans could breathe a _pater noster_. His sword he would not have taken off; swords were always worn. What, then, are "all his pieces of armour"? (VII. 193, 206). Carl Robert cites passages in which the [Greek: teuchea], taken from the shoulders, include corslets, and are late and Ionian, with other passages which are Mycenaean, with no corslet involved. He adds about twenty more passages in which [Greek: teuchea] include corslets. Among these references two are from the _Doloneia_ (X. 254, 272), where Reichel finds no mention of corslets. How Robert can tell [Greek: teuchea], which mean corslets, from [Greek: teuchea], which exclude corslets, is not obvious. But, at all events, he does see corslets, as in VII. 122, where Reichel sees none, [Footnote: Robert, _Studien zur Ilias_, pp. 20-21.] and he is obviously right. It is a strong point with Mr. Leaf that "we never hear of the corslet in the case of Aias...." [Footnote: Leaf, _Iliad_, vol. i. p. 576.] Robert, however, like ourselves, detects the corslet among "_al_ the [Greek: teuchea]" which Aias puts on for his duel with Hector (Iliad, VII. 193, 206-207). In the same Book (VII. 101-103, 122) the same difficulty occurs. Menelaus offers to fight Hector, and says, "I will put on my harness" [Greek: thooraxomai], and does "put on his fair pieces of armour" [Greek: teuchea kala], Agamemnon forbids him to fight, and his friends "joyfully take his pieces of armour" [Greek: teuchea] "from his shoulders" (_Iliad_, VII. 206-207). They take off pieces of armour, in the plural, and a shield cannot be spoken of in the plural; while the sword would not be taken off--it was worn even in peaceful costume.