Theseus

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. I. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1914.

  1. Not many bows indeed will be stretched tight, nor frequent slings
  2. Be whirled, when Ares joins men in the moil of war
  3. Upon the plain, but swords will do their mournful work;
  4. For this is the warfare wherein those men are expert
  5. Who lord it over Euboea and are famous with the spear.
[*](Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr.4, ii. p. 383.)

Therefore, in order that they might not give their enemies a hold by their hair, they cut it off. And Alexander of Macedon doubtless understood this when, as they say, he ordered his generals to have the beards of their Macedonians shaved, since these afforded the readiest hold in battle.