shields in the world of the iliad

Shields In The World Of

The IliadHaileigh DeGrow

11124870CMRS 110Fall 2016

In his epic poem The Iliad, Homer creates a vivid image of what shields and armour used

by his characters would have looked like. However, these descriptions are not

historically accurate for the time period he is trying to bring to life.

Armour in Ancient Greece


• Homer’s descriptions of armour go into amazing detail, and passages containing these descriptions are fairly lengthy. Such passages include the arming of Paris in Book 3:

“…first he wrapped his legs in well-made greaves, fastened behind the heel with silver ankle-clasps, next he strapped a breast-plate round his chest, his

brother Lycaon’s that fitted him so well. Then over his shoulder Paris slung his sword, the fine bronze blade with its silver-studded hilt, and then the shield strap and his sturdy, massive shield and over his powerful head he set a well-forged helmet, the horsehair crest atop it tossing, bristling terror,

and last he grasped a spear that matched his grip”1


• As well as the arming of Agamemnon in Book 11:“First he wrapped his legs with well-made greaves, fastened behind the heels with silver ankle-clasps, and next he strapped the breast-plate round his chest that Cinyrus gave him once, a guest-gift long ago…Ten bands of blue enamel spanned it, spaced by twelve of gold and twenty of beaten tin and dark serpents writhed toward the throat, three each side, shimmering bright as rainbows arched on the clouds by Cronus’ son, a sign to mortal men. Then over his shoulder Agamemnon slung his sword, golden studs at the hilt, the blade burnishing bright and the scabbard sheathed in silver swung on golden straps, and he grasped a well-wrought shield to encase his body, forged for rushing forays – beautiful, blazoned work”2


• Based on these descriptions, it is safe to say Homer was using a special kind of soldier from his own time, the Hoplites, as inspiration for the armour and weaponry his Mycenaean/Trojan characters were wearing. These hoplites were named after their style of shield, the Hoplon3, and would have been introduced in the 9th century BCE at the earliest. For reference to what these soldiers would have looked like in their battle gear, one can think of the soldiers in the movie 300.

• However, Homer did maintain some consistency in these passages – everything was made with bronze as their primary medium, which fits the time period, but it seems it was only for heroic reconstruction and not based on any real knowledge of 12th century warfare4.

• Historically speaking, a soldier from the area of Mycenae would have worn Dendra armour5, consisting of plates of bronze covering the body from collarbone to about mid-thigh, with a helmet made of leather and boar’s tusks. Many of these helmets survive in museums today.


VS

Suit of Dendra-style armour. Housed in the Archaeological Museum of Nafplio in Greece.

Suit of Hoplite-style armour. Housed at the Corfu Museum in Greece

Make-up and Decoration of Shields


• Shields were important in The Iliad – so much so that Homer dedicated a lot of time to describing them throughout the story.

• Book 18 is almost entirely dedicated to describing Achilles’ new shield Thetis commissioned Hephaestus to make, going into what is was made from and how:

“And first Hephaestus makes a great and massive shield, blazoning well-wrought emblems all across it’s surface, raising a rim around it, glittering, triple-ply with a silver shield-strap run from edge-to-edge and five layers of metal to build the shield itself, and across its vast expanse with all his craft and cunning the god creates a world of gorgeous immortal work”6

Make-up and Decoration of Shields• During the arming of Agamemnon, we can also see description of

the decoration of the king’s shield: “…he grasped a well-wrought shield to encase his body, forged for rushing forays – beautiful, blazoned work. Circling the center, ten

strong rings of bronze with twenty disks of glittering tin set in, at the heart a boss of bulging blue steel and there like a crown the Gorgon’s

grim mask – the burning eyes, the stark, transfixing horror, and round her strode the shapes of Rout and Fear. The shield-belt glinted

silver and rippling on it ran a dark blue serpent, two heads coiling round a third, reared from a single neck and twisting left and right”7


• Historically speaking, the metal inlay on Agamemnon’s shield are representative of the Mycenaean period8, in which Agamemnon would have lived and ruled. His shield was elaborate and round in form, much like those carried around by several races of warriors and appears to have parallels with late Mycenaean types with handle and strap for suspension9.

• Hoplon shields – those used by the Hoplites – would have been very large (3-4 feet in diameter) and round. They would have had a wooden core faced in either leather or bronze with a bronze rim. They were extremely convex in shape and would have come with a detachable armband (called a porpax) through which a soldier’s left arm would have slid into.10,11 Then would have had a hand grip, called the antilabe, that would have spanned the circumference of the shield.12,13


Achilles’ shield as recreated by Angelo Monticelli(1820)


• My shield is a combination of both the descriptions Homer gave and that of historical reference. I was not able to make it out of traditional materials due to lack of material access and lack of funds, therefore I had to make due. Rather than a wooden core faced with bronze and lined with leather, my shield is made with a plastic core from a sled, fake leather on the inside and spray-painted to look like bronze. The handles on the inside are fairly similar though –leather straps for both the porpax and antilabe, much like the Mycenaean shields. However, the Mycenaeans would have likely riveted their handles on, whereas I used modern nuts, washers and bolts. My shield is also easily half the size of what soldiers would have actually used, again due to using what I had available.

Use and Mobility of Shields


• Understanding how shields were used is also crucial to understanding warfare in Ancient Greece.

• Homer alludes to the use of the phalanx throughout the poem, using such lines as “…a wall of them bulked together, spear-by-spear, shield-by-shield, the rims overlapping…the horsehair crests on glittering helmet horns brushed as they tossed their heads, the battalions bulked so dense…”

• However, Van Wees argues that even though this passage, along with many others, appears to describe the phalanx, the passages in question show that the ranks described are in fact neither tidy formations nor permanent features of the battlefield15. This seems true, as even though the real origin of the phalanx is disputed, most sources say the idea of the formation is no older than the 8th century BCE16, therefore the Argive soldiers in The Iliad could not possibly have utilized it in the Trojan War. These tactics would likely have been used during Homer’s lifetime however.


• Shields such as the Hoplon would have been heavy – easily around twenty pounds or heavier as an estimated guess. Therefore they would likely be easy enough to move around with, but would have been better suited to fighting in a phalanx together with other shields as opposed to man-to-man combat. One would have to be constantly moving it from side to side to protect both sides of the body in man-to-man combat, but in a phalanx, your left side is protected by the man next to you and therefore you don’t need to move your shield as much.

Use and Mobility with Shields

• My shield is easy to move with and lift up and down, but certainly does not compare with the types of shields the Ancient Greek militaries would have used. To begin with, my shield is less than half the size of an authentic shield, and about one-third the weight, if that. The hand- and arm-straps do make the shield easy to work with though, as it seems to become an extension of your arm and moves where you want it to go. It likely wouldn’t work well in a phalanx formation with how small it is, as my chest is barely protected by it, let alone my entire upper body.

Pictures of the Shield Reconstruction

Final Product!

Conclusion:

• Through looking at Iliad, various research materials and by making a replica of a Greek Hoplon shield, it can be safely said that Homer did indeed have a fairly extensive knowledge about warfare and the different kinds of equipment involved. However, when describing the Trojan War, he failed to recount an accurate understanding of armour and weapons from the 12th century, when the Trojan War would have taken place. Where there were gaps, he used references from his own surroundings in order to create the heroic tale known worldwide today. Indeed, Hanson stated that while the Iliad shows some traces of accurate Mycenaean culture, the poem is more like a rough portrait of Greece between 750-680 BCE17

References:• Hanson, Victor Davis. Wars of the Ancient Greeks. Washington: Smithsonian

Books, 2004.• Homer, Robert Fagles, and Bernard Knox. The Iliad. NY, NY: Penguin Books,

1998.• Sage, Michael M. Warfare in Ancient Greece a Sourcebook. London: Routledge,

1996.• Spence, I. G. Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Warfare. Lanham, MD:

Scarecrow Press, 2002.• Stevenson, John, Peter P. Liddel, Josephine Crawley. Quinn, and P. J. Heather.

The Rise and Fall of the Classical World: 2500 B.C. - 600 A.D. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2006.

• Wees, Hans Van. "The Homeric Way of War: The Iliad and the Hoplite Phalanx (I)." Greece and Rome 41, no. 01 (April 1994): 1-18. Accessed November 5, 2016. doi:10.1017/s0017383500023123.

shields in the world of the iliad

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