Shield In The Iliad

The Shield of Achilles Homer’s The Iliad is focused on inflated Greek heroes and the martial society in which they live. There is very little attention paid to the common people who do not possess incredible strength or have divine heritage. These mundane people and their society are mentioned only in epic similes, but images of what the reader can interpret as everyday Homeric life are depicted on the massive shield that Hephaestus crafts for Achilles. These images at first glance seem radically different from the martial world that the reader has experienced so far, but when studied closer, the shield also mirrors the central plot of The Iliad and demonstrates the differences between the two societies. The shield is not only an extremely

The men disagreeing over a blood price do not resort to violence; instead, they seek the help of a judge. A civil society is founded on order, and all citizen are expected to follow a set of rules. When those laws are breached, it is the job of a judge and a court to right the wrongs done by the criminal by enacting justice. This system is radically different from a martial society. In Homer’s martial society, each man is governed by his own beliefs, and reacts to wrongs committed however he sees fit. In this system, revenge takes the place of justice. The Trojan War, the central conflict in The Iliad, began as an act of vengence. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus was abducted by Paris, the Achaeans retaliated, beginning a ten year struggle. If there had been some sort of court system in place, this horrendous battle might have been avoided, but in the Greeks’ martial society, revenge was the only option. When Achilles discovers that Hector has killed Patroclus in battle, revenge is the only thing on his mind. While mourning his friend’s death, Achilles expresses that he does not want to live unless “Hector’s battered down by [his] spear and gasps away at his life, the blood price for Patroclus” (18.106-8). One of the men on the shield offers “payment in full” (18.583),

(18.621-6)

This passage fits into The Iliad much more easily than the scenes of merriment and civil justice and a reader could interpret that it is even meant to foreshadow the Achaeans’ upcoming battle against the Trojans. Preceding this passage, there is a scene centered around a group of warriors, herdsman and oxen. In many of The Iliad’s epic similes the Trojans are compared to oxen (11.64-7) and cattle (11.200-6). The warriors kill the herdsman and destroy the oxen just as the Achaeans will evntually vanquish the Trojans and win back their honor . The shield’s warriors battle their foes “along the river bank”(18.621) just as Achilles fights the Trojans by the waterside (21.9-11). The warriors pull a corpse by it’s heels, the same way Achilles drags Hectors body by the heels behind his chariot (22.467-74). Finally, the warriors and their opponents “[grapple with] each other’s corpses” (18.628), disrespecting the dead in the same way that both armies do continually in The Iliad. Along with these similarities there is a large difference between the portrayal of the conflict described on the shield and the battles fought in The Iliad. The soldiers on the shied are a mob, not a group of individuals. Homeric heroes are unique and interesting, each with their own strengths. They are all given powerful epithets like Achilles, “the swift runner”(1.254), “stallion breaking”(5.981)