Both Hephaestus and Homer used all their art to build the shield of Achilles. The Shield of Achilles is a hymn to technology, a poetic representation of the most famous work of art of the Homeric era.
An interpretation of the Shield of Achilles design described in Book 18 of the Iliad, by PHILIP RUNDELL (1746-1827)
A silver-gilt convex shield with a central medallion cast in high relief showing Apollo in a quadriga, surrounded by stars and female figures representing the constellations. The broad border is cast in low relief with scenes of human life (a wedding and banquet, siege, ambush and engagement, harvest, judicial appeal, vintage, oxherds defending their beasts and a Cretan dance), within an outer border of stylised waves and a broad reeded rim.
Homer dedicates at least 134 verses to the Shield of Achilles in the Iliad.
In the epic poem, Achilles lost his armor after lending it to his companion Patroclus. Patroclus was killed in the battle of Hector, who took his weapons as booty. Then Achilles' mother Thetis asks the god Hephaestus to forge new armor for her son.
The passage describing the shield is an early example of "expression" (a literary description of a work of visual art) and influenced many later poems, including the Shield of Hercules, which is attributed to Hesiod. Virgil's description of the shield of Aeneas is also inspired by Homer.
Watch the Shield of Achilles video below:
