A cool Achille’s Shield round

I came across this 2oz silver round last week and I think it’s pretty cool.

It’s supposed to be the shield made by the God Hesphestus for Achilles during the Trojan War according to Homer in the Iliad.




I love all things Ancient Greece/Rome and the Iliad had a HUGE impact in almost every major figure in Ancient Greece.

Alexander the Great was inspired by Achilles and even had a partner named Hephestion who was sort of like Patroclus was to Achilles.

 

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Oh yeah and 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:

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).
4. A king's estate where the harvest is being reaped (550–60).
5. A vineyard with grape pickers (561–72).
6. 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).
7. A picture of a sheep farm (587–89).
8. A dancing-floor where young men and women are dancing (590–606).
9. The great stream of Ocean (607–609).
10. 
    
11. In the poem, Achilles lends Patroclus his armor in order to lead the Achaean army into battle. Ultimately, Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, and Achilles' armor is stripped from his body and taken by Hector as spoils. The loss of his companion prompts Achilles to return to battle, so his mother Thetis, a nymph, asks the god Hephaestus to provide replacement armor for her son. He obliges, and forges a shield with spectacular decorative imagery.

 

Is it the same image on both sides?
Reversed?

 

Yup! It’s like one side the image is raised and the over side it’s recessed.

I just like it because I love the Iliad and Achilles was basically known by ALL Greeks from Alexander the Great to simple peasants.

The Iliad is the oldest Western work of literature.

Wish I could find an ancient coin with Achilles on it. :/