Achilles’ shield isn’t just a shield made of bronze, it’s more than that. This shield is made up of many aspects of Homer’s Iliad such as the growing conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks, the values of the fictional homeric society and the actual archaic society, and the sacrifice that Achilles has to make. The scenes represented on Achilles’ shield reflect back on the central plot of The Iliad because the relationship between the images allow for both replication and opposition of Archaic and Homeric society. The shield is important because it introduces the reader to look into the lives of archaic and Homeric people and aids the reader in understanding the plot of the epic poem as well. Achilles shield, remarkable as it is, shows the
The Greek martial code is honored by all heroes in the Iliad, and this is reflected on both the shield which represents archaic life and the Homeric heroes. The shield has two cities that both closely represent the Troy and Achaean conflict,” but circling the other city camped a divided army/ but the people were not surrendering, not at all./ loving wives and innocent children standing guard/ both armies battled it out along the river banks” 18.593-620. This description supports the replication that is found on the shield as well as in the poem, showing the reader the war on the shield and in the plot. Another notable aspect on the shield of Achilles is the king’s estate on 18.639-653, “And he forged a king’s estate where harvesters labored/ scepter in hand at the head of the reaping-rows/ stood tall in silence, rejoicing in his heart”. This passage from the detailed description is yet another instance of the shield reverting back to the plot on the account of Agamemnon and all of his glory or
The anger is then pressed on Hector and the Trojans, “and now, bursting with rage against the men of Troy, / he donned Hephaestus’ gifts” 19.435-36. When Achilles and Hector finally meet, the revenge found in the Homeric society begins to manifest in Achilles’ exchange to Hector’s plea of pacts: “Hector, stop! / You unforgiveable, you . . . don’t talk to me of pacts. There are no binding oaths between men and lions--/ So with you and me. No love between us. No truce/ till one or the other falls and gluts with blood” 22.308-312. Another replication of the shield and the plot is of the death of Patroclus; the shield has an image of soldiers carrying off corpses in battle; 18.624-26 which closely resembles the passage in Book 18 where “the helmed Aeantes could no more frighten Hector, / and now Hector would have hauled the body away/ and won undying glory . . .’ 18.188-193. As much as the shield contains themes of the martial code, it contains themes of the civil code as
The opening of Vergil’s The Aeneid begin with the words “I sing of warfare and a man at war” (Vergil 1.1) which signal two important themes of the epic: warfare and the struggles of one man (Boyle). The epic revolves around a Trojan named Aeneas, who follows his destiny to found the city of Lavinium, a precedent to Rome, where his descendants continued to rule until the birth of Romulus. Vergil adapts the Homeric epic and structure to make social commentary on Roman life under Augustus. Like Homer, Vergil uses a shield as an ekphrasis to show a shift in primal to civilized state and the future history of Rome (Boyle). Vergil demonstrates how the Roman values of virtus, iustitita and pietas have prevailed over the barbaric and uncivilized enemies of Rome in the episodes on the shield (Boyle). While Rome became a great empire through warfare, Vergil seems to advocate peace rather than more bloodshed and warn that while peace may have been achieved, it is not a permanent state. Achilles’ shield has festivals and a wedding taking place, but a murder occurs during a seemingly peaceful time (Homer 18. 490-508) similar to the bloodshed and eventual peace on Aeneas’ shield (Vergil 7.746). Vergil uses Aeneas’ shield like Homer as an allegoric symbol to stress that even during peacetime there is violence, link history and myth together and ultimately reveal that no one person or city can escape that fate.
To Achilles this prize Brises represents something more than just a prize; she is a symbol of status, of acceptance. His way of obtaining honor which he (Achilles) has to figh...
Achilles’ true nature is that of a warrior. The son of Peleus must fight. When he denounces Agamemnon and the Achaeans, he does not go home. His ship is last in line, near Troy. Subconsciously, he has already made the choice of accepting a short life filled with glory. Subconsciously, he wants to go back to war. He needs to. However, he also needs to insure his possession of glory and honor. But what kind of glory, what kind of honor? He already possesses the honor of the gods. He says, “my honor lies in the great decree of Zeus…” (IX.741.p.272). By book IX, material wealth is no longer what Achilles wants. He spurns Agamemnon’s offers. The typical mortal concepts of heroism no longer concern him; his ideals differ from those of his peers. Phoenix’s Meleager is no example to him. However, at this point Achilles still does not know what he wants. Pride and stubbornness still supplement his rage, but now his anger appears to be a manifestation of his fear and confusion—“Stop confusing my fixed resolve with this…” (IX.745-746.p.272). Achilles knows that he wants honor and glory, but in what form?
Throughout the Iliad the warriors' dream of peace is projected over and over again in elaborate similes developed against a background of violence and death. Homer is able to balance the celebration of war's tragic, heroic values with scenes of battle and those creative values of civilized life that war destroys. The shield of Achilles symbolically represents the two poles of human condition, war and peace, with their corresponding aspects of human nature, the destructive and creative, which are implicit in every situation and statement of the poem and are put before us in something approaching abstract form; its emblem is an image of human life as a whole.
This epic poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer, recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek siege of the city of Troy. All of the places where Homer’s stories took place were in areas that had been significant in the Bronze Age of Ancient Greece. Excavations at Troy and Mycenae have revealed that affluent kingdoms did indeed exist there. The Iliad provides examples of the culture and traditions that took place in Ancient Greece. The warrior culture that is presented in The Iliad is based on honor and bravery, a good example of this is when Diomedes is trying to rally his fellow warriors in says, “I know only cowards depart from battle. A real warrior stands his ground. Whether he is hit or hits another.” This society was strongly against cowardice; bravery was the only option in these times. The Iliad preserves the Ancient Greek’s views on masculinity and what it meant to be a “real warrior” in their times. The evolution of what people consider honorable and brave is evident, for The Iliad has conserved past views that can be juxtaposed with more modern
...ictory. If Achilles had chosen to leave, not only would he have been a good son, but the Trojans might have won the war, meaning both he and Priam would have had something to which they could look forward, and three-fourths of the shield’s story would not have been left unfulfilled. In staying, he contributes not only to his own demise, but also to that of the Trojans. This knowledge causes "the anger to come harder upon him" (19.16), and yet "he was glad" (19.18). The great dilemma of Achilles is forever immortalized on his shield, so that some lesser man in the future would be able to read the narrative upon it and say: "This armor was Achilles’, a man who forfeited the rest of his life for grim combat. The gods do not force most men to choose like that."
That is the beauty of literature, there is no right or wrong answer. What the creator meant it to be is only a shadow of what it is, as a branch of a tree can become a home to chittering fowl. And so it is with the Shield of Achilles.
Throughout the Iliad, heroic characters make decisions based on a specific set of principles, which are referred to as the “code of honor.” The heroic code that Homer presents to readers is easy to recognize because the heroic code is the cause for many of the events that take place, but many of the characters have different perceptions of how highly the code should be regarded. Hector, the greatest of the Trojan warriors, begins the poem as a model for a hero. His dedication and firm belief in the code of honor is described many times throughout the course of the Iliad. As a reward for heroic traits in battle, prizes were sometimes awarded to victors of war. In Book 1 Achilles receives Chryseis as a prize and a symbol of honor. Heroism had its rewards and its setbacks which ultimately was the backbone of the Illiad in the case of Achilles prize. Hector, arguably the greatest Trojan warrior or even the bravest of the Homeric heroes is very fierce and fights for what he believes is his destiny. In book VI Hector expresses his bravery when Andromache pleads with Hector not to fight when Hector says, “But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy and the Trojan woman trailing their long robes if I would shrink from battle now, a coward. Nor does the sprit urge me on that way. I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely, always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers, winning my father great glory, glory for myself” (VI, 387).
...battle that Achilles’ ego needed. However, Hector tried to do the right thing by offering the deceased be returned to their respective camps after the battle was over. It is at this point that Achilles is beyond the common courtesies of war and flat out denied Hector’s request. This action by Achilles shows his arrogance and the bloodlust that was truly in his heart rather than the courage that so many people claim that he had.
Virgil’s prose was written between 29 and 19 BC, meanwhile Homer’s story was around 8th century BC. Therefore, having been written around 700 years later, The Aeneid’s description of Aeneas’s shield is almost too similar to Achilles’s shield in the Iliad. Therefore, Homer’s description of Achilles’s shield was a more effective symbol. Because it was the original symbol, Achilles’s shield obviously inspired Virgil in his story, The Aeneid. Furthermore, Homer’s shield description was foreshadowing what was to come to Troy and Achilles in the continuance of the Trojan War. While it was not stated in the Iliad, Achilles would be killed by Paris near the closing of the war. Therefore, the shield was foreshadowing the death and despair that would come to Achilles. Meanwhile, Aeneas’s shield simply told him of the great fortune ahead. The shield of Achilles was more effective because the reader did not know that shield was foretelling his fate. Therefore, it was more successful by its warning and
The first requirement of Aristotle's tragic hero is that they are more admirable than the average character. Achilles meets this requirement because of his ability on the battlefield. In The Iliad, the background to the story is the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. This background is not only the basis for the story overall, but is also the basis for Achilles' own story. This begins when Achilles refuses to join the battle because he is insulted by Agamemnon. This decision results in the action that drives the remainder of the story. Later in the story when Achilles becomes angered and goes to the other extreme, launching into battle and killing ferociously. The significance of this is that it places battle as central to both Achilles' story and to what is important in the setting of the story. Importantly, the aspect that makes Achilles greater than most is his ability o...
The Iliad may be seen as an account of the circumstances that irrevocably alter the life of one man: Achilles, one of the greatest warriors. Throughout the course of the poem Achilles goes through many ordeals that change his character immensely. Starting with his quarrel with Agamemnon and withdrawal from battle, to the death of Patroklos, and with the slaying of Hektor. Achilles emotions and actions decide the fate of many warriors on both sides. Achilles struggles with anger, honor, pride, loyalty and love make the poem more that just a gruesome war story.
...h Agamemnon and wishes that ‘strife could die from the lives of gods and men’… Not to avenge Patroclus by killing Hector would be a renunciation of all that he stands for and has lived by”. Even though “sorrow fell on Achilles like a cloud” (216), he went back out to the battlefield and killed Hector. It took a great deal of bravery for Achilles to face the man who killed his best friend but Achilles, being the hero that he was, got back into battle and killed him because he couldn’t let Patroclus’ death go unavenged.
In Homer’s The Iliad he tells of the battles and events during the time of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. This was just a small portion of the Trojan War that had lasted ten years. The Iliad shares the ideas of the glory of war, military values over family life, and the impermanence of human life and its creation. One thing that Homer does is characterize the two different warriors Achilles and Hector. These two great warriors both show different kinds of traits that shape the character they become throughout the The Iliad. Achilles is the main hero in The Iliad, but Homer subliminally tries to persuade the reader that Hector is the true hero in this story.
Hector and Achilles, two outstanding warriors on opposing sides in a conflict, show that there is more to people than what meets the eye. Although they are seen as ultimately heroic and powerful, their weaknesses and inner conflicts are unmistakable. Their differences are larger and more significant than their similarities, and to think of them as interchangeable warriors diminishes their significance. Achilles is portrayed as a fierce fighter who is harsh on the battlefield, but cares about the ones he loves very deeply, whereas Achilles is shown as a strong fighter with a more sensitive heart and compassion for all people.