The
Shield of Achilles is the
shieldA shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or by glancing a blow to the side of the shield-user. Shields vary greatly in size, ranging from large shilds that protect the user's entire body to small shields that are mostly for use in...
that
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
uses to fight
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the son of Priam and Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he is a prince of the royal house. He acts as leader of the Trojans...
, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478-608 of
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
's
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
.
In the poem, Achilles has lost his armour after lending it to his companion
PatroclusIn Greek mythology, as recorded in the Iliad by Homer, Patroclus, or Patroklos , was the son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, King of Opus, and was Achilles’ beloved comrade.- Patroclus’ genealogy :...
. Patroclus has been killed in battle by Hector and his weapons taken as spoils. Achilles' mother
ThetisSilver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus Silver-footed Thetis...
asks the god
HephaestusHephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek...
to provide replacement armor for her son.
The passage describing the shield is an early example of
ecphrasisEkphrasis or ecphrasis is the graphic, often dramatic description of a visual work of art. In ancient times it referred to a description of any thing, person, or experience...
(a literary description of a work of visual art) and influenced many later poems, including
The Shield of HeraclesThe Shield of Heracles is a fragment of Greek epic, of 481 lines of hexameters. The theme of the episode is the expedition of Heracles and Iolaus against Cycnus, the son of Ares, who challenged Heracles to combat as Heracles was passing near Itonus, told in a turgid and laboured diction; the...
once attributed to
HesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least Herodotus's time , Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often...
..
The
Shield of Achilles is the
shieldA shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or by glancing a blow to the side of the shield-user. Shields vary greatly in size, ranging from large shilds that protect the user's entire body to small shields that are mostly for use in...
that
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
uses to fight
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the son of Priam and Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he is a prince of the royal house. He acts as leader of the Trojans...
, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478-608 of
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
's
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
.
In the poem, Achilles has lost his armour after lending it to his companion
PatroclusIn Greek mythology, as recorded in the Iliad by Homer, Patroclus, or Patroklos , was the son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, King of Opus, and was Achilles’ beloved comrade.- Patroclus’ genealogy :...
. Patroclus has been killed in battle by Hector and his weapons taken as spoils. Achilles' mother
ThetisSilver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus Silver-footed Thetis...
asks the god
HephaestusHephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek...
to provide replacement armor for her son.
The passage describing the shield is an early example of
ecphrasisEkphrasis or ecphrasis is the graphic, often dramatic description of a visual work of art. In ancient times it referred to a description of any thing, person, or experience...
(a literary description of a work of visual art) and influenced many later poems, including
The Shield of HeraclesThe Shield of Heracles is a fragment of Greek epic, of 481 lines of hexameters. The theme of the episode is the expedition of Heracles and Iolaus against Cycnus, the son of Ares, who challenged Heracles to combat as Heracles was passing near Itonus, told in a turgid and laboured diction; the...
once attributed to
HesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least Herodotus's time , Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often...
..
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
's description of the shield of
AeneasIn Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was also the second cousin of King Priam of Troy. The journey of Aeneas from Troy, which led to the founding of the city Rome, is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid...
in Book Eight of the
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
is clearly modelled on Homer.
http://www.leithart.com/archives/001659.php The poem
The Shield of Achilles"The Shield of Achilles" is a poem by W. H. Auden first published in 1953. The Shield of Achilles is also the title poem of a collection of poems by Auden, published in 1955.-----Description:...
(1952) by
W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or...
reimagines Homer's description in 20th century terms.
Description
Homer gives a detailed description of the imagery which decorates the new shield. Starting from the shield's center and moving outward, circle layer by circle layer, the shield is laid out as follows:
- The Earth, sky and sea, the sun, the moon and the constellations (484-89)
- "Two beautiful cities full of people": in one a wedding and a law case are taking place (490-508); the other city is besieged by one feuding army and the shield shows an ambush and a battle (509-540).
- A field being ploughed for the third time (541-549).
- A king's estate where the harvest is being reaped (550-560).
- A vineyard with grape pickers (561-572).
- A "herd of straight-horned cattle"; the lead bull has been attacked by a pair of savage lions which the herdsmen and their dogs are trying to beat off (573-586).
- A picture of a sheep farm (587-589).
- A dancing-floor where young men and women are dancing (590-606).
- The great stream of Ocean
Oceanus was believed to be the world-ocean in classical antiquity, which the ancient Romans and Greeks considered to be an enormous river encircling the world. Strictly speaking, Okeanos was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere...
(607-609).
Interpretation
The Shield of Achilles can be read in a variety of different ways. One interpretation is that the shield is simply a physical encapsulation of the entire world. The shield’s layers are a series of contrasts – i.e. war and peace, work and festival, although the presence of a murder in the city at peace suggests that man is never fully free of conflict. Wolfgang Schadewaldt, a German writer, argues that these intersecting antitheses show the basic forms of a civilized, essentially orderly life. This contrast is also seen as a way of making “us…see [war] in relation to peace." The shield’s description falls between the fight over Patroclus’ body and Achilles’ reentry into battle, the later being the impetus to one of the poem’s bloodiest parts. Consequently, the shield could be read as a “calm before an impending doom,” used to emphasize the brutality of violence during the Trojan War. It could also be read as a reminder to the reader of what will be lost once Troy ultimately falls.
External links
Iliad 18.490-508
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.18.xviii.html