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Achilles’ shield is a symbol of honor , stunning everlasting masterpiece.

It emphasizes the notion that storytelling, especially through poetry, is essential in preserving and immortalizing the heroic deeds recounted in the epic.

I imagine Achilles’ shield as the picture I shared . Golden round and ornamented with stallions .

The new shield reminds him of his power in the past , the reason he came back to fight . After the death of his close friend Patroclus and

in his quest for revenge , Achilles seeks to kill Hector in battle as a way of satisfying his own desire for justice and retribution. So the shield has a mix of joy and sorrowful image .

(Angela Kassis)

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I think the digression into the detail of Achilles’ shield serves as to say much about Homer’s view (or a view, at least) of the entirety of Greek society and the dichotomies present at various levels of the society. It’s made apparent with how Homer begins the long speech; there are two cities. He describes a city that celebrates life and love, that settles their legal issues in a civilized manner. The citizens are even entertained by watching such legal proceedings. He describes Troy as a city of truly lived life and activity. And outside of that, ready to pounce, are the Achaens, who he immediately describes as fractured. There’s no unity present among them the way there is among the Trojans, just a quest for wealth and glory. And on and on, layer by layer, he calls attention to more elements of these societies, as well as the fates they’ll suffer, using layered vivid imagery to describe them. I can’t claim to understand every detail, but there’s a lot of depth there, and I’m sure there are ideas lost to me through time and my lack of understanding of the intricacies of agricultural systems, animal behavior, etc. But I think the piece comes to tell us the fundamental ways these cities were, and what they have to come.

I think it’s an important piece if it reflects a more bird’s eye view of the conflict. There’s certainly a reason that Homer has a divine smith, someone outside of the conflict, create the piece within the story. Toward the end he stops saying “he” and calls Hephaestus the “famous crippled smith,” and then the “crippled smith.” I think Homer sees himself in Hephaestus and is using him as a stand-in for himself, someone fashioning this story and his own depiction of the sides in the conflict. He’s a skilled craftsman, forging something beautiful. But even in his creation, he is hindered (crippled, but I’m using another term). Homer is not a god, he is merely a man with a vision. He can assemble a beautiful construction, but it can never be as truly whole and beautiful as the reality, even describing its motion, it’s static and incomplete.

And there’s also something to say about what that work of art will be used to do. A shield’s purpose is to be destroyed. Cut at. Bent and eventually broken, tossed aside as stray metal. Achilles wields himself with Hephaestus’ work and inevitably he will have to destroy it, if it’s to serve its purpose. It is designed by its creator for one purpose, and its user, in his use, will effectively abuse it. It is as inevitable as the will of Zeus, moving toward its end.

For these reasons above, I feel this piece is important to the Iliad and is far from an unnecessary digression. It forces us to pause what we read and truly consider how we’re connecting to the work as a whole, how Homer is connected to it, and how we’re connected to Homer.

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When looking at the part the shield plays in the epic, one first sees its actual appearance, particularly the dichotomy displayed between the various scenes that are represented on the shield- for example; "Two beautiful cities full of people": in one, a wedding and a law case are taking place which represent regular occurrences during peace time; the other city is being attacked by an army, which represents the opposite scene - life during war.

We then look deeper into the symbolism of the shield and see that the shield itself is an extraordinary one created by the gods for an extraordinary warrior. The shield was created specifically for Achilles who is a descendant of the gods and as such, it is impenetrable, just as Achilles is invincible.

This representation of war and peace is an ongoing theme throughout the whole story, which is set on the background of the Trojan war.

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Self-righteous, noble, 'gorgeous immortal work'

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I don’t think it’s plausible to critique Homer when it comes to his copious descriptions and prolonged scenes. We as modern readers should always be aware of the Iliad’s origins in oral tradition, which implies that its every passage was “filtered” through copious different reciters and thousands of variations; if a description as lengthy as this has persevered, it happened for a reason – it must’ve struck a chord with the audience. For the same reason of origin, there is a purely technical explanation of Homer’s verbosity, as well as his usage of various formulas, recitations, and reoccurring epithets. And, of course, it’s those exact traits, the vastness and excessiveness of it all, that partially define epic poetry as we understand it today.

As for the shield itself, it’s obviously an allusion to the balance of life (we see, in perfect harmony, a city at war, a city at peace; there’s no one without the other). There’s a tragic irony in it belonging to Achilles, a man who is seemingly devoid of duality after the untimely death of his dear friend. He is presented to us as a man possessed by his emotion. He is someone whose whole world is battle, and so he brings the whole world (on a shield), which was given to him by divine power (something like a (re)birth – from standstill to action), into battle.

However, we as the audience also know Achilles as godlike, which means he isn’t fully a god, which, in turn, reminds us that he cannot be defined by one notion or element (he’s no Eris, who is discord itself and who’ll never not act in accordance, which is something we realize in full later on when he finally lets go of his rage; note also Achilles singing and playing the lyre in the 9th book). There is a humanity in him, and humanity is characterized by Homer as being undeniably tied to the world in all its abundance. The shield is a constant reminder that there could be something other than rage, and, in a sense, it’s a test of Achilles’ determination, because right before his eyes is something he must sacrifice to achieve his ultimate goal, glory. And glory cannot be achieved without this sacrifice (take, for example, the scene in the 6th book, in which Hector is faced with his picture-perfect family – something he knows he will lose once he steps back on the battlefield).

It’s also worth mentioning that the purpose of a shield is to keep one safe, and Achilles’ shield is a direct metaphor of something like appreciation for life, keeping a warrior safe from the terrors of war - and death, especially since Homer makes a point of not glamorizing it: if you’re dead in the Iliad, that’s it (the absolute maximum of your capabilities is to appear in a dream and ask to be properly buried, please). Homer doesn’t sing praises to Elysium, and even in the Odyssey, when Odyssey speaks with the dead (Achilles in their midst), they don’t seem especially enthusiastic about their position.

Beyond that, there seems to be a statement of sorts: everything eventually passes, but the world stays the same; yes, there’s this terrible war going on, and you're mad with grief, but look at the stars! The stars will remain even after you and your beloved glory are long forgotten.

Finally, I’d argue that the shield’s ornament prompts a visual of a “matryoshka” of sorts (I realize this is terribly Russian of me): as I was reading the description, I came to realize that I, a girl in a world, am reading a text in which there is a depiction of a world, in which there is a shield, on which there is a depiction of world, etc. Isn't that something? It reinforces the feeling of the scale of this epic - it is boundless.

Fanya Krasilshchikova

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Achilles shield holds much significance and importance to Homers writing of this epic.

Taking the cultural context into mind, along with the general theme of this work, the shield is a part of the warriors armour arguably one of the most pivotal pieces. In Greek culture armour is a sign of honour and respect, thus being stripped of it translated to being stripped of your honour.

Delving into the details and specifics of the shields appearance serves a purpose as well. Each circle depicts a view on society and life, displaying the intersection of war and peace. There is a fantastic detail of beauty and craftsmanship on Achilles shield, which is ironic for its purpose in war. The new armour, is a representation of the past, present and future.

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Achilles’ decision to fight is a turning point in the story and worthy of the drama and art Homer puts in through the art of Hephaestus. I’d guess that Achilles’ shield is a moment in the story to represent all of life: nature, war, cultures, youthful joy, farming, and animals. Achilles has already abandoned his personal rage. Now it puts Achilles into a greater context. Not his own personal rage but the context of life that he now represents by abandoning his personal anger and fighting for friendship. Maybe because he knows he is going to die, he is not fighting for personal glory but for all of life and others. For his friend.

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Achilles’ shield is a symbol of interconnected nature of war and peace in the world of ancient Greece , I imagine Achilles’ shield as the picture above golden round and ornamented with warriors , stallions (basically war) ,the war that would end the suffering , I feel that Achilles' shield is a very important and a necessary event because Achilles' shield represent the people , the warriors that are lost in wars , and even a representative of humanity, at the same time Achilles' new armor reminds him of his past as a strong unbreakable warrior and his power that comes within , the uniqueness of his power , yet it reminds him why he’s back on track , why he’s a warrior again, his decision to keep Patroclus body unburied is his form of respect , and didn’t come out of the blue , Achilles aims to finish and slay hector and the trojans first so that Patroclus corpse can rest easily and for that to happen he needs to finish this ongoing ruthless war for once even if takes his own life  , so basically the shield has a bitter sweet image .

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Two messages- both about hope, but in relation to grief.

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Two messages- both about hope, but in relation to grief.

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The way I see it, the shield has two messages, according to the images painted on it:
The first message is represented by the constellations. It tells us that however big our problems may seem, even when our grief seems unbearable (like Achilles's grief over Patroclus), in the grand scheme of things we are nothing but small dust particles. We can grief freely without worrying about it affecting the universe, The earth goes around even in our darkest moments and the stars will always be there to greet us, to keep us company.
The second message is conveyed through the images of pastures, dancing children, and cities of men. This message is very similar to the first one, but different in its outlook- instead of zooming out entirely, in a somewhat existential approach, it tries (emphasis on the 'tries') to cheer Achilles up in a practical way, by saying "look around buddy! You may be sad, but nature is beautiful and your people are happy."
Dare I say that those two messages of hope convey Achilles's grief better than any melancholic imagery could, as it shows the disconnect he feels from the outside world in those tough moments- the earth goes round, nature goes about its usual cycle, children dance and cities stand tall, as his world is falling apart.

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I imagine Achilles’ shield as a multidimensional one, where the layers expose themselves one by one. The shield seems to be alive and have depth. In the drawing I layered it, so that we can see all of it. First come the sun and the heavens, then the moon and the constellations and the ocean around the brim. Then come the two cities, one where the metaphor for Achilles’ personal predicament is pictured, the other where the status quo of Troy is pictured. These two churn around like a whirlpool, getting ever closer to the centre where fate waits. Then they both crash into the next layer, which is a storm, where Achilles has two options according to his mother – one is, go home and live a life with no glory, and the other is, rejoin the battle and gain glory but lose life. Now, it is up to Achilles’ to choose.

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To show us that no place is safe, I think. Also that everything has two sides.