Thetis Bringing Armor to Achilles

Thetis Bringing Armor to Achilles.

Achilles needed new armour, and so his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, went to Hephaestus, and asked him to make Achilles a new suit of armour.

Homer tells us (Iliad 478–482)

“First of all he forged a shield that was huge and heavy,

elaborating it about, and threw around it a shining

triple rim that glittered, and the shield strap was cast of silver.

There were five folds composing the shield itself, and upon it,

he elaborated many things in his skill and craftsmanship.”

The description makes clear that the shield was round.

Hephaestus adds figurative decorations: he models the world, the sky, and the seas, the sun, the moon, and all the stars and constellations (ll. 483–489).

1804

Benjamin West

Anglo American

1738-1820