West European Studies

In the history of the Achaeans, the Shield of Achilles played an important role in the Iliad. The Shield of Achilles tells about a story of the Achaeans who fought against the Trojans. However, the fight against the Trojans is a microcosm of the whole story of the Achaeans. The story, as forged by Hephaestus, the crippled smith god, depicts the happenings within the two cities and also the kingly estate of Agamemnon. In order to understand what the Shield of Achilles depicts, it is important to look at the shield, the cities that are depicted within the shield and the Estate of the King (Wilson, 2002). In addition, other scenes that are depicted need to be examined in order to gain insight into the finer details and the intricacies of the Shield of Achilles. The examination of these elements will open an understanding into the significance of Shield of Achilles and also the Iliad.

Achilles shield was forged by Hephaestus, the smith god of fire. The god commences with twenty hot bellows to fire tin, gold, silver and bronze in his kiln. This procedure is followed by hammering the metals upon the anvil in order to create a colossal shield for the Achilles to brandish. The god of fire makes the shield to comprise of five layers of metal with shield strap made of a triple ply edging on the rim. He depicts on the shield the scenes of the heavens, sea and earth, two noble cities, fallow fields, a kings estate, a thriving vineyard, a dancing circle and a longhorn herd of cattle (Muellner, 1996). Upon completion of the shield, Hephaestus makes a breastplate and a strong helmet for Achilles. This armor which he makes becomes extremely hard to be destroyed and is considered to have the values of a god. The process of making the shield and the attributes of the shield depict the importance of the Shield of Achilles.

The two cities on the shield represent the city of Troy and that of Greece. On the shield, one of the cities is full of men singing and dancing as the brides march through the streets while the other city is dominantly surrounded by an army with divided plans which finally split their ranks. They are split between sharing the riches that they have captured and plundering the city to capture even more riches. In each city, there is turmoil predominant and in one city there is an outbreak of a quarrel which is brought to judgment. The other city is surrounded by armies who fight and kill men along the river banks, dragging them off dead. The two cities are heavily stained with death and also both house love (Atchity, 1978). In the first city, there are two men who quarrel over a murdered kinsman blood price with consequent taking of the case to a judge who will eventually decide the conclusion.

The scenes on the Shield of Achilles depict the Trojans who are leaving to fight with the Achaeans between the shores and their city. In the Achaeans and the Trojans, a dead man is hauled through the slaughter by his heels, which shows how Homer tries to foreshadow the kind of victory by the Achilles over Hector.  The scenes also try to draw a picture of how Achilles humiliates Hector. The shield of Achilles also depicts the kings estate. There are bountiful harvests of ripe grain which are reaped and bound as the king stands in calmness elating among the never-ending barley bundles. At the kings estate, an ox is being prepared for the feast of the harvests as the women try to fix the middle of the day meal.

The Shield of Achilles also depicts happiness and the kings prosperity. The king represented in the shield is Agamemnon, the Achaeans king. The shield foreshadows the victory of the Achaeans in the battle with the Troy. Also, in the shield, it can be understood that the vineyard is a thriving one and has a winding footpath upon which the pickers run. The pickers of the vineyard comprise of a young boy, among others, busy singing a lovely dirge while playing his lyre. There is a scene of a herd of longhorn cattle in the shield. On the shield, the bulls are engraved in tin and gold along with the swaying reeds of the pasture and the rippling stream. From distance, a pair of lions can be seen seizing a bull from the front side, proceeding to devour it. A group of herdsmen and a pack of dogs run to help the seized bull but all turns in vain. There are also scenes when the smith god of fire tries to shoe on the shield. He forges a dancing circle for the young boys and girls to dance and court and a meadow for the flock to graze (Lombardo, 1997). The scenes also bring about the joyous and festive mood.

In a broader sense, the Shield of Achilles is a very detailed and intricate piece of craftsmanship which can only be suitable for a god. This can be seen from the details of the cities and the estate of the king as they are marvelously represented on the shield of Achilles. These details do not only hold the marvels of the beauty in the intricacies but also serve to represent the larger part of the story of the Iliad and the war involving the Trojans and the Achaeans. The Shield of Achaeans serves to dedicatedly remind readers of the past events in the battle scenes and also sets the scene for the coming events. The Shield of Achaeans serves as a pause which the reader gets a chance to reflect back and get the full meaning of the events which occurred before (Cairns, 2001). After the reader reflects back on the past events, the Shield of Achaeans grants the reader with another opportunity to foreshadow on the fall of Troy.

A description of the construction of the Shield of Achaeans is provided in details by Homer in Book XVIII of the Iliad. The shield is creatively constructed by the god of technology, Hephaestus and the shield serves as a symbol of Achilles. Achilles is the central hero during the times of Homer and this is the reason why he creatively brings out a picture of the creative technology of the smith god, Hephaestus in the making of the shield of Achilles. The shield comprises of a totality which is broader than the Homeric epic can illustrate. This weaponry, in a poetic way, describes and sums up the human knowledge in the era of Homer. In addition, the shield serves as a universal model of the world in both human and natural sense.

The shield of Achilles serves as a model of the exact structure of the physical world. In this model, in the pre-Socratic times, the perception of nature was deeply affected. Examples of the philosophers who followed this school of thought included Anaximander, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and later, Plato and Aristotle. The shield serves as a model of the structure of a society of the cities in Greece which deeply influenced the earlier philosophers. In addition, the shield comprises of an introduction to the philosophical methods of dichotomy as coined by Plato, including the Aristotelian digital analysis of the world into groups (Muellner, 1996). In this manner, Homer opens the way to enabling developments in the area of science and technology.

The Shield of Achilles can therefore be considered as an important craft made in history and its significance is fully recognized in the Greek Roman Mythology. A lot of details and explanations have been sought regarding the Shield of Achilles. Historians and great thinkers have come to unearth the facts behind the shield. These struggles to understand the Shield of Achilles illuminate finer details on the life during the Homer period, the social, cultural and the technological development. It does not leave the reader of the story of the Shield of Achilles without a lesson all the details on the shield have great significance when interpreted by a keen reader. Philosophers in the pre-Socratic times got immensely attracted to the logic represented on the shield (Wilson, 2002). Moreover, an increasing attention has been gained by modern philosophers to shed more light on the issues represented on the Shield of Achilles.