The Feel of the Past

The Feel of the Past in Star Wars

• Military Costumes, Weapons and Aviation

• Touches of Art Deco

• Hitler’s Germany

• Far Eastern Influences

• Luke’s Transformations

• Mythic Settings

Trench Warfare

Rebels on HothWorld War I

Military Costumes

Wild Bill Hopson Luke Skywalker

Weapons

Mauser "Broomhandle" C96

Blaster Pistol

Aviation

B-29 Superfortress

Inside the Millennium Falcon

Art Deco 1930’s

Female robot from Fritz Lang’s film “Metropolis” (1927)Restoration Trailer

3CPO

Hitler’s Germany

Baron Manfred von Richthofen

Far Eastern Influences

Portrait of an Old Man by Kuniyosi, c.1850

Japenese Kabuto Helmet

Eastern Weapons

Tusken Raider with gaderffii

Totokia, a Fijan War Club

Luke’s Transformations

Mythic Settings

Coruscant

Mayan Pyramid

Pantheon in Rome

Coruscant

Feel of the Past in Homer

• Boar Tooth Helmet

• Homeric Shields

• Nestor’s Cup

Boar Head Helmet

...while on his head He put a helmet made of hide, stiffened With numerous taut leather thongs inside And faced outside with gleaming white teeth Of a tusker boar set thick in alternate rows Cunningly and well. It was lined with felt. (Iliad 10.261-65, Stanly Lombardo trans.)

The Feel of the Past in Greek Mythology

2400-1100 B.C. the Greek Bronze AgeMinoan CivilizationMycenaean CivilizationThe Age of Heroes

1183 B.C. Fall of Troy1100-800 B.C. the Greek Iron Age

Dark Age of Greecec.750 B.C. Homer

HOMER could never have seen a helmet like the one he described in the Iliad.

Homer is describing the Bronze Age to people who lived hundreds of years later!

Ajax’ Full Body Shield

So Aias drew near, bearing his shield that was like a city wall, a shield of bronze with sevenfold bull's-hide, the which Tychius had wrought with toil, he that was far best of workers in hide, having his home in Hyle, who had made him his flashing shield of seven hides of sturdy bulls, and thereover had wrought an eighth layer of bronze. This Telamonian Aias bare before his breast, and he came and stood close by Hector, and spake threatening: "Hector, now verily shalt thou know of a surety, man to man, what manner of chieftains there be likewise among the Danaans, even after Achilles, breaker of the ranks of men, the lion-hearted. Howbeit he abideth amid his beaked seafaring ships in utter wrath against Agamemnon, Atreus' son, shepherd of the host; yet are we such as to face thee, yea, full many of us. But begin thou war and battle."

GreekShields

Mycenaean Warriors

Making Achilles’ Shield

Achilles Shield

Iliad 18.369ff

Achilles’ Shield

Achilles’ Shield

• a shield made of Mycenaean metals (bronze, not iron))

• assembled using Mycenaean techniques (metal inlay

• but with scenes laid out according to a Dark Age design

• showing a panorama of Dark Age lifeIt is the world of the Dark Ages in Bronze

Age trappings, much like the Iliad itself.

Greek Armor

MyceneanClassical

Nestor’s Cup

The Iliad of Homer (11.632-637) describes a magnificent golden cup (depas) that belongs to Nestor, the king of Pylos:

Beside these she set a cup, a magnificent work Nestor had brought from home, studded with gold. There were four handles on it, around each one a pair of golden doves was feeding. Below were two supports. When that cup was full, another man could hardly lift it from the table, but, old as he was, Nestor picked it up with ease.

(translation by Ian Johnston)

Found by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 in Grave Circle A at MycenaeNow in National Museum in Athens

Date of Cup: c. 1600Date of Trojan War: 1183Date of Homer: c.750

The Feel of the Past