Analysis Of The Ekphrasis Of Achilles’ Shield In The Iliad Of Homer

In Lattimore’s translation of The Iliad of Homer, the elaborate ekphrasis of Achilles’ shield in Book 18 temporarily ceases the unrelenting narratives of brutality, gore, and destruction of the Trojan War. Homer weaves in a detailed description of Hephaestus' divine forgery of Achilles’ colossal shield, featuring vividly dynamic depictions of embossed images of the cosmos. By delving into cities of mortal men and pastoral life, he illustrates the beauty and civility of the every day. Through the insertion of the shield in this war text, the reader is exposed to a rare perspective of civilian life that transcends war, illuminating the innate beauty, peace, and joy that stems from living in a civilized society. Homer suggests that while war is normalized to feel like an ongoing phenomenon in The Iliad, there is actually much more to life. Ultimately by interposing this ekphrasis of Achilles’ shield, Homer contextualizes the role of chronic warfare amidst a larger microcosm of the cosmos, suggesting that war is not all that prevails in the larger scheme of the universe, and everyday civilian life is equally beautiful.

To begin, Homer delineates Hephaestus’ magnificent construction of the shield with compelling language, reinforcing its aesthetic principles of strength and divinity and the beauty and timelessness of the cosmos. The shield is casted on “weariless” fire bronze, with a medley of precious metals, gold and silver, which reiterates its elevated status. Homer regards the shield to “set forth upon its standard the great anvil,” which highlights how it is forged with resolute durability and godlike craftsmanship, rendering a sense of permanence. The shield is “huge and heavy,” which hails its size and weight to be exceptional. Homer explicates the shield is not only colossal and enduring for warfare, it also possesses accented artistic elements that reflect the specialized labor of craftsmanship, as it features a “shining triple rim that glittered” with “five folds composing the shield itself. ” Hephaestus then elicits the force of nature in its holistic forms onto the shield:

“He made the earth upon it, and the sky, and the sea’s water, and the tireless sun, and the moon waxing into her fullness, and on it all the constellations that festoon the heavens, the Pleiades and the Hyades and the strength of Orion and the Bear, whom men give also the name of the Wagon, who turns around in a fixed place and looks at Orion and she alone is never plunged in the wash of the Ocean. ”

With the litany of natural elements of “earth,” “sky,” and “sea’s water” depicted, Homer draws upon nature to create a comprehensive and balanced universe. By alluding to the timeless constellations: “Orion and the Bear,” signifiers of the passage of time, Homer instills an element of continuity and permanence, utilizing cosmic constants of the stars to fully encompass and reflect the cosmos in the visual artwork of Achilles’ shield. Lastly, Homer’s imagery of “plunged in the wash of the Ocean” signifies an escape from the chaos of war, rendering war in oblivion to focus on the larger microcosm of the cosmos. Evidently, gauging from the construction of Achilles’ shield, it is critical that Homer is carefully crafting the eternity and expansiveness of the cosmos to later contextualize the duality of warfare and civilian.

On the shield, Homer etched distinctly “two cities of mortal men,” juxtaposing one in peacetime and one under siege. The city at peace opens with a celebratory, optimistic tone, with “marriages in one, and festivals,” signifying harmony in newly forged unions. Brides are led “from their maiden chambers… and the loud bride song was arising. The young man followed the circles of the dance, and among them the flutes and lyres kept up their clamor. ” This joyous atmosphere evocates union and celebration, which are poignant pleasures of peacetime that the warriors in the Trojan War could have enjoyed had their lives not been disrupted by war. Hence, Homer sheds this rare insight of peacetime to indicate the fulfillment and bliss of civilian life. In the marketplace, Homer inscribed a dispute over the repurcussions for murder between two men, where one “promised full restitution in a public statement, but the others refused and would accept nothing,” which parallels Achilles’ godly wrath, metis, towards Hector’s aristeia of killing Patroklus. However, despite this heated debate, the city possesses an upright legal system for restorative justice, with a methodized legal framework, which comprises of arbitrators, speeches on both sides, and carefully evaluated judgments from the “judge who… spoke the straightest opinion. ” This highlights how although the city of peace is not idyllic, stained with crimes, the society is civilized enough to erect a stabilized justice system to effectively resolve disputes, which proves the beauty of civility in restoring balance to the cosmos.

On the opposite vein, Homer depicts an alternative city under siege, with warfare’s brutal destruction of the pastoral world. Under a threatened homeland, the audience glimpses vulnerable demographics “beloved wives and their little children. . and men with age upon them” watching from the rampart, which insinuates how war can sever familial ties. Outside the foray, the besieged conspired a ruthless ambush on two unsuspecting shepherds “playing happily on pipes,” tending to their flock of sheep. The perpetrators “cut off on both sides the herds of cattle and the beautiful flocks of shining sheep, and killed the shepherds upon them. ” The irony of the shepherds slaughtered like animals does not go amiss - by emphasizing the innocence of the pastoralists in the bucolic outskirts of the city, Homer elucidates how warfare is not glorious and inflict catastrophe and disrupt peace on the civilian life. The violence then escalates to a heightened massacre by the banks of the river, with infinite casualties that the line between the dead and dying are blurred:

“Hades was there with Confusion among them, and Death the destructive; she was holding a live man with a new wound, and another one was unhurt, and dragged a dead man by the feet through the carnage. The clothing upon her shoulders showed strong red with the men’s blood. All closed together like living men and fought with each other and dragged away from each other the corpses of those who had fallen. ”

This vivid battle imagery reinforces the disorientation, bloodshed, and terror of war. The personification of Hades as “Death the destructive” is extremely notable, as there is not a single shred of triumph or glory in this scene, only the pervasiveness of death swallowing all living men whole. Ultimately Homer conveys that warfare exists in its brutal capacity and wreaks havoc onto mankind, unraveling the civility present in humanity. It is important to note that while this type of dynamic action is more anticipated for a warfare instrument, it does not occupy the entirety of Achilles’ shield; in other words, while war is present within the cosmos, there is much more that transcends it.

The last portion of the shield zooms out of the two cities to focus on an agrarian society, and the beauty of harvest in tandem with the changing of the seasons. The first is emblematic of spring, with ploughmen diligently hasting to create a “soft field, the pride of the tilled land” for agriculture. The cultivation of the land requires grit and hard work, yet there is a sense of pleasure and pride tied to this labor, as the ploughmen would enjoy a “flagon of honey-sweet wine” as they complete each end strip of the field. Homer likewise utilizes a simile to highlight the fertility of the soil: “the earth darkened behind them and looked like earth that has been ploughed though it was gold,” which emphasizes the beauty of agriculture and labor. Next comes summer: a description of bountiful harvest, with everyone involved in the reaping of what was sowed, even children were “picking up the cut swathes. ” Even the king, denoted by his “staff,” an instrument that wields power and authority, is happy to receive abundant bounty, which implicates how good governance is symbiotic with productive harvests. A feast is set in motion to commend everyone’s efforts, and the tone of the atmosphere is celebratory and happy. In autumn, Homer depicts a “great vineyard heavy with clusters, lovely and in gold,” further perpetuating this image of abundance and fruitfulness. He elicits an image of innocence and youth: “young girls and young men… carried the kind, sweet fruit away … with singing and whistling and light dance-steps of their feet kept time to the music. ” This idyllic image evokes halcyon memories of the tranquility of pastoral life and the purity of youth. Likewise, the lighthearted music and dance are characterized with delight, meant to inspire harvests of the next season. Homer establishes a sense of cyclical nature through the evocation of the four seasons, casting the timelessness and the provincial life to be beautiful.

Ultimately through ekphrasis on Achilles’ shield, Homer evokes poetry to endow heightened dynamism to images etched on the shield, breathing life to the two-dimensional. The ekphrasis reflects the same fundamental aesthetic values present in The Iliad: the premise that big embodies beauty, and that the cosmos can be emulated in one epic work. In this sense, this ekphrasis stands alone as its own epic, and Hephaestus’ craftsmanship parallels Homer’s artistry in encapsulating the Trojan War through epic poetry. All in all, Homer elaborately crafts a shield of the cosmos to contextualize that though war may feel imminent and omnipresent, in the larger scheme of the cosmos, there is beauty and fulfillment in a flourishing civilian life as well.