Shield of Achilles

The Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer's Iliad.

In the poem, Achilles has lost his armour after lending it to his companion Patroclus. Patroclus has been killed in battle by Hector and his weapons taken as spoils. Achilles' mother Thetis asks the god Hephaestus to provide replacement armor for her son.

The passage describing the shield is an early example of ecphrasis (a literary description of a work of visual art) and influenced many later poems, including the Shield of Heracles once attributed to Hesiod. Virgil's description of the shield of Aeneas in Book Eight of the Aeneid is clearly modelled on Homer. The poem The Shield of Achilles (1952) by W. H. Auden reimagines Homer's description in 20th century terms.

Read more about Shield Of Achilles:  Description, Interpretation

Famous quotes containing the word shield:

    The lichen on the rocks is a rude and simple shield which beginning and imperfect Nature suspended there. Still hangs her wrinkled trophy.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)