> I was confounding Ajax's seven-layer hide shield "like a wall"
Ah, yes. And seven hides would indeed be one very tough shield!
> with an eighth layer of bronze outside (Il. 7.215)
Pretty!
> with Achilles' shield,
> which has five metal layers and nothing else. (20.245)
??? Will have to look *that* one up!
>- and yes, it does stop a spear.
One assumes he knew what he was doing...
I wonder how shields were used in those days? I know metal armour seems to have been incredibly heavy and cumbersome. I wonder if the shield really was used as a mobile wall? Rest the base on the ground? The only description I remember of one in use was when Big Ajax and Little Ajax were using one to hide an archer (Little A) behind.
> Both these should be sturdier than the Battersea
> shield with its pretty Movement runes.
Always described as being for ceremonial purposes only :(
> Most shields seem to have had a shiny (?metal?) surface; 'phaeine
> aspis' is a fixed phrase.
Interesting. I suppose it could have been paint or something, but a thin metal cover could, as we can see from the Battersea, be *very* decorative. Easily damaged, though.
Found that Iliad quote, in on-line translation.
"As he spoke he drove his spear at the great and terrible shield of Achilles, which rang out as the point struck it. The son of Peleus held the shield before him with his strong hand, and he was afraid, for he deemed that Aeneas's spear would go through it quite easily, not reflecting that the god's glorious gifts were little likely to yield before the blows of mortal men; and indeed Aeneas's spear did not pierce the shield, for the layer of gold, gift of the god, stayed the point. It went through two layers, but the god had made the shield in five, two of bronze, the two innermost ones of tin, and one of gold; it was in this that the spear was stayed.
"Achilles in his turn threw, and struck the round shield of Aeneas at the very edge, where the bronze was thinnest; the spear of Pelian ash went clean through, and the shield rang under the blow; ...."
You know we were talking about Cool Stuff? How's that for a Cool Shield? Three different rune metals, and it sounds like some Divine Strength instead of the wood. Gold isn't the hardest metal in the world...
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.20.xx.html
should others want to read a great story.
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