Quote:
Originally Posted by Erhjegel
I'm more curious as to how bows fell from grace, considering their sheer prominence in various mythologies.
|
It takes a lifetime to master the bow. In contrast, any footsoldier can very quickly learn how to use a crossbow — he needs only to aim and squeeze the trigger. Once firearms became reliable, bows were rendered even more obsolete. In other words, it was simply a lot cheaper and more efficient to build a corps of crossbowmen than an army of archers.
In any case, the bow never quite "fell from grace". Depending on the culture, you can find any number of heroic archers. The Britons have Robin Hood. The Austrians have William Tell (granted, he was a crossbowman, but you get what I mean). Chinese hero
Huo Yi shot down multiple suns from the sky to save the world from drought. Meanwhile, in Japan, the bow continues to be associated with purification rituals, and Shinto priests symbolically pluck bowstrings to chase away evil spirits.
However, the bow was never considered as heroic as a sword, simply because many martial traditions, particularly those in Europe, considered it a "cowardly" weapon used by those who refused to fight face to face. The Huns and the Mongols would demonstrate how stupid that point of view was, but traditions, once established, are hard to kill.