114 - Sickle

SICKLES were farming tools used in harvest. It con- sists of a semicircular cutting blade mounted on a wooden handle. Harvest, like most manual work, was a female activity. As characteristically mentioned in a poem by Nifakos, a poet from Mani:

“Women sow these, women reap Women thresh them with bare fΕΕΤ Women winnow them alone, handcrafted.”

After they mowed down the ears, they gathered them in small bundles, so that men could transport them to the threshing floor. In some regions of Greece, women used to wear a kind of wooden protective shield on their hands, which fitted on their palms (“palamaria”) and protected them from injuries.

It is a symbol of the heroines of Mani that fought in the Battle of Diros.

Donor: Panagiota Poulikakou