Shield of Achilles/Origin

The Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer's Iliad.

Homer gives a detailed description of the imagery which decorates the new shield. Starting from the shield's centre and moving outward, circle layer by circle layer, the shield is laid out as follows:   The Shield of Achilles can be read in a variety of different ways. One interpretation is that the shield is simply a physical encapsulation of the entire world. The shield’s layers are a series of contrasts – i.e. war and peace, work and festival, although the presence of a murder in the city at peace suggests that man is never fully free of conflict. Wolfgang Schadewaldt, a German writer, argues that these intersecting antitheses show the basic forms of a civilized, essentially orderly life.
 * 1) The Earth, sky and sea, the sun, the moon and the constellations (484–89)
 * 2) "Two beautiful cities full of people": in one a wedding and a law case are taking place (490–508); the other city is besieged by one feuding army and the shield shows an ambush and a battle (509–40).
 * 3) A field being ploughed for the third time (541–49).A king's estate where the harvest is being reaped (550–60).
 * 4) A vineyard with grape pickers (561–72).
 * 5) A "herd of straight-horned cattle"; the lead bull has been attacked by a pair of savage lions which the herdsmen and their dogs are trying to beat off (573–86).
 * 6) A picture of a sheep farm (587–89).
 * 7) A dancing-floor where young men and women are dancing (590–606).
 * 8) The great stream of Ocean (607–609).