The biggest issue in reconciling the connectionketerkaitan betweenpertempuran thedi epic fighting of thedalam ''Ilias'' dandengan tata cara berperang bangsa Yunani kemudian hari adalah the phalanxfalangs, oratau hoplitehoplites, warfare seen in Greek history well after Homer's ''Iliad''. While there are discussions of soldiers arrayed in semblances of the phalanx throughout the ''Iliad'', the focus of the poem on the heroic fighting, as mentioned above, wouldtampaknya seemberkontradiksi todengan contradictkiat-kiat thetempur tacticsfalangs. ofMeskipun thedemikian, phalanx.falangs memang However,memiliki thesegi-segi phalanxkepahlawanan. didPertarungan havesecara itsjantan heroicsatu aspects.lawan Thesatu masculinedi one-on-onedalam fightingwiracarita ofini epicdiwujudnyatakan isdi manifesteddalam inpertempuran phalanxfalangs fightingdengan onmenitikberatkan theusaha emphasisuntuk ofteguh holdingbertahan one'sdi positiondalam in formationbyuha. This replaces the singular heroic competition foundyang indikisahkan thedi dalam ''IliadIlias''.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|51}}
One example of this is the [[Sparta]]n tale of 300 picked men fighting against 300 picked [[Argives]]. In this battle of champions, only two men are left standing for the Argives and one for the Spartans. Othryades, the remaining Spartan, goes back to stand in his formation with mortal wounds while the remaining two Argives go back to Argos to report their victory. Thus, the Spartans claimed this as a victory, as their last man displayed the ultimate feat of bravery by maintaining his position in the phalanx.<ref>{{Anabasis|6|5|17}}</ref>
