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Imago mundi: cosmological and ideological aspects of the shield of Achilles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

P. R. Hardie
P. R. Hardie
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
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Extract

The Homeric description of the shield made for Achilles by Hephaestus (Il. xviii 478–608) is the type for all later ecphrases of works of art in ancient literature. It stands out as an extravagant example of the epic poet's powers of elaborate and vivid description, so extravagant that one notable ancient critic at least, Zenodotus, felt that it was more comfortable simply to athetize the greater bulk of the passage. More symphathetic commentators of modern times have sought ways of integrating the scenes displayed on the divine artefact with the primary subject-matter of the Iliad; the most common approach is to take the Shield as a summary of all human life, a mirror of society in all its aspects, against which to measure the significance of the narrow range of warfare and death that dominates the rest of the poem.

The requirements of internal coherence and external relevance also guided the interpretative strategy of ancient critics less austere than Zenodotus. This paper is an inquiry into the ways that antiquity perceived and exploited the Homeric Shield of Achilles. In the first section I examine early Greek responses to the question of the contextual function of a decorated shield such as that of Achilles.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 105 , November 1985 , pp. 11 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1985

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References

1 E.g. Schadewaldt, W., Von Homers Welt und Werk 3 (Stuttgart 1959) 352 ff.Google Scholar; recently in English Taplin, O.P., ‘The Shield of Achilles within the Iliad’, G & R xxvii (1980) 1–21Google Scholar.

2 The sequence of (i) scenes of the widest divisions of the universe, followed by (ii) more specific scenes, is a frequent and popular pattern of ecphrasis. See Kakridis, J. T., Homer revisited (Lund 1971Google Scholar) ch. 6.

3 Fränkel, H., Die homerischen Gleichnisse (Göttingen 1921) 47 ffGoogle Scholar. on similes of stars, lightning, fire. Note Il. v. 5 f. (flame from the helmet and shield of Diomedes like ἀστὴρ ὀπωρινός); vi 506 ff. (Paris like sun); xi 62 f. (Hector's shield reappears like οὔλιος ἀστήρ).

4 For a modern version see Austin, N., Archery at the dark of the moon: poetic problems in Homer's Odyssey (Berkeley etc. 1975) ch. 5Google Scholar; ibid. 284 n. 18 for earlier approaches.

5 Il. xi 62.

6 Stars on shields: Chase, G. H., ‘The shield devices of the Greeks’, HSCP xiii (1902) 122Google Scholar f.; Yalouris, N., AJA lxxxiv (1980) 315 fGoogle Scholar. Roman examples: Weinstock, S., Divus Julius (Oxford 1971) 377Google Scholar, with n. 5. Stars (and lightning) adorn the shields of two of the giants on the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamum: see Hansen, E. V., The Attalids of Pergamum 2 (Ithaca etc. 1971) 329Google Scholar n. 197; Simon, E., Pergamon und Hesiod (Mainz 1975) 13Google Scholar.

7 Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt (Munich 1910) 84Google Scholar; cf. also 309 ff.

8 Il. xix 14 f.

9 Thunderbolt: a later example is found in Val. Flacc., Arg. vi 53Google Scholar ff. (probably with a historical allusion to the Twelfth Legion, the Fulminata). In Virgil there is another association of shield and thunderbolt: the Cyclopes turn aside from the manufacture of Jupiter's fulmen to the making of the Shield of Aeneas, (Aen. viii 426 ff.Google Scholar).

10 The moon-simile was taken up by Milton in the description of the shield of Satan, , P.L. i 286 ff.Google Scholar; see also the shield of Radigund in the Faerie Queene v 5.3.

11 26 ff.; 135. The heavenly fires of the Shield of Achilles are imitated by Virgil at Aen. x 271 ff., but with the substitution of the less auspicious rays of comets and of Sirius for the moon (drawing on the Dog Star of Il. xxii 26 ff).

12 Dion. xxv 352.

13 Ibid. 338.

14 ἀστερόειϛ is used of οὐρανόϛ in the sense ‘starry’ eleven times in the Iliad and Odyssey; Leaf compares, for the formation, ἀνθεμόειϛ used of works of art in metal adorned with flowers. Schol. Tb on Il. xvi 134 refer ἀστερόεντα to a decoration of stars; contra Eust. 1050. 16, ὡς ἂστρῳ ἐοικώς. Cf. schol. D ad loc., ἤτοι ἀστέρας ἐμπεποικιλμένους ἔχοντα ἣ λαμπρόν. Further bibliography in H. Ebeling, Lexicon Homericum (1885) s.v. ἀστερόειϛ.

15 Cf. also Aen. iii 585 f., lucidus aethra / siderea polus.

16 Cf. Auct., Serv.ad Aen. viii 681Google Scholar, ‘ipse vero Augustus in honorem patris stellam in galea coepit habere depictam’.

17 For recent discussions see Vidal-Naquet, P., ‘The shields of the heroes’ in Vernant, J.-P. and Naquet, P. Vidal, Tragedy and myth in ancient Greece (Brighton 1981), = Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne (Paris 1972)Google Scholar, ch. 6; Zeitlin, F. I., Under the sign of the shield: semiotics and Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (Urbino 1982Google Scholar), which is in substantial agreement with a number of my points.

18 Fr. 34 LP ἄστερες μὲν ἀμϕὶ κάλαν σελάνναν/ἃψἀπυκρύπτοισι ϕάεννον εἶδος/ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ/γᾶν. Cf. also fr. 96. 8 f. On the encomiastic topos of the comparison of a person to a heavenly body see Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, M., A commentary on Horace Odes Book I (Oxford 1970) 162 ff.Google Scholar; Doblhofer, E., Die Augustuspanegyrik des Horaz in formalhistorischer Sicht (Heidelberg 1966) 17 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Hermocles 9 ff. (J. U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina [1925] 174). On Demetrius and the hymn see Cerfaux, L. and Tondriau, J., Le culte des souverains dans la civilisation greco-romaine (Tournai 1957) 173Google Scholar ff. (with bibliography). A clear comment on the ideological content of such a comparison is found in a much later work, Ps.-Callisthenes (recension C) 1.20 (hymn to Alexander), ἀνατείλας γὰρ κατεγλαίσεν ῾Pώμην . . . &#x0καὶ πάντας ἠμαύρωσε λοιποὺς ἁστέρας . . . Ἀλέξανδρος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ κοσμοκράτωρ.

20 D.L. viii 48 ( = 28 A 44 DK). On the history of the word κόσμοϛ: Kranz, W., ‘Kosmos als philosophischer Begriff frühgriechischer Zeit’, Philol. xciii (1938) 430–48Google Scholar; Diller, H., ‘Der vorphilosophische Gebrauch von κόσμοϛ und κοσμεîν’, in Festschr. B. Snell (Munich 1956) 47–60Google Scholar; Kerschensteiner, J., Kosmos, Zetemata xxx (Munich 1962)Google Scholar. It is unlikely that κόσμων at Aesch. Ag. 356 refers to stars (see Fraenkel ad loc.).

21 Hampe, R. and Simon, E., Griechische Sagen in der frühen etruskischen Kunst (Mainz 1964) pl. 9Google Scholar.

22 See J. D. Denniston on Eur. El. 442–51.

23 The Gorgon's head (Gorgoneion) is one of the commonest of shield devices, with an obvious apotropaic function. See Chase (n. 6) 106 ff. Perseus and the Gorgon also appear on the pseudo-Hesiodic Scutum 216 ff.

24 Note ἐν μέσῳ σάκει, 464, and Aesch. Sept. 389.

25 1461b1. Buffière, F., Les mythes d'Homère et la pensée grecque (Paris 1956) 133Google Scholar, suggests that Glaucon may have put forward an allegorical account of the Shield, but for this there is no evidence: see Richardson, N. J., ‘Homeric professors in the age of the Sophists’, PCPS xxi (1975) 76Google Scholar. The same problem is referred to by Gellius, AulusNoct. Att. xiv 6.4Google Scholar (a section on useless scholarly questions), and is probably also the problem referred to by Quintilian, Inst. vii 2.7Google Scholar (‘qualis clipeus Achillis’ cited as an example of a ‘conjectural question’).

26 Chs 43 ff.

27 Eust. 1154.23 ff., where the immediate authority is given as Demo. The standard discussions of the allegory are: Reinhardt, K., De Graecorum theologia capita duo (diss. Berlin 1910) 61Google Scholar ff; Mette, H. J., Sphairopoiia; Untersuchungen zur Kosmologie des Krates von Pergamon (Munich 1936) 36Google Scholar ff. (the testimonia for the allegorization are collected under fr. 23).

28 Mette (n. 27) 40 excludes the cosmogonic aspect from the original allegorization on no good grounds.

29 In Demo's version the three world-divisions represent three of the elements, with the craftsman Hephaestus as the fourth, fire. This looks like a later variant, since it duplicates the four-element allegory of the four metals.

30 Again Demo reports a variant, that the five layers stand for the five circles of heaven. This is probably the result of contamination from the allegorization of the Shield of Agamemnon (see below).

31 Eust. 1154.36 ff. (on Il. xviii 479 f.). Note the astonomical senses of ἄντυξ;, LSJ s.v. II.3.

32 Eust. 1154.39 ff.; also 829.12.

33 Eust. 1155.2 uses another formulation to mark the universality of the Shield; it is a διάλεξις περὶ θείων καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων. ‘Divine and human’ is one of a series of pairs of ‘polar opposites’ used to denote ‘the sum of things’ in Greek.

34 Schol. ad Arat., Phaen. 26 (Maass343.17Google Scholar).

35 Eust. 828.39 ff. (οἱ περὶ τὸν Κράτητα). Schol., T ad Il. xi 406Google Scholar attributes it to Crates himself. Cf. Buffière (n. 25) 163 ff. What is the source of Philargyrius' comment on Verg. Ec. 3.105, ‘alii dicunt clypeum Ajacis trium ulnarum, in quo expressa caeli forma fuit’ (G. Thilo and Hagen, H., Servii grammatici … commentarii iii.269Google Scholar)? Is Ajacis an error for, or corruption of, Achillis or Agamemnonis?

36 Mette (n. 27) 34.

37 The ancient etymology of imago stresses its mimetic aspect: Paul. Fest. p. 112 M, imago ab imitatione dicta. Cf. Heraclit., All. 43.1Google Scholar, the Shield of Achilles described as τη̑ς κοσμικη̑ς περιόδου . . . εἰκόνα.

38 Ap. H. Magnus, P. Ovidi…Met. (1914) 485.

39 So Bömer ad loc. The notion of solidification often present in concrescere might be referred to the hardening of the Shield from its molten state; cf. Eust. 1154.30, τὰ…τηκόμενα of the four constituent metals.

40 The charge that Ajax cannot understand the significance of the scenes alludes cheekily to the reaction of Virgil's Aeneas to the scenes on his shield (Aen. viii 730), rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet.

41 TLL iii 78.80 ff. Varro, LL v 18Google Scholar (reporting Aelius), [caelum] ‘quod est caelatum aut contrario celatum, quod apertum est’. Serv, . ad Aen. i 640Google Scholar derives caelare from caelum, the reverse of Varro's etymology. Caelamen seems to be a coinage of Ovid's.

42 Men. 420, ‘appellatur a caelatura caelum, graece ab ornatu κόσμοϛ, latine a puritia mundus’.

43 TLL iii 78.10, de caelo vel stellis. E.g. Ovid, Fast. ii 79Google Scholar, ‘quem modo caelatum stellis Delphina videbas’; Manil. i 679 f., [of the zodiac] ‘sed nitet ingenti stellatus balteus orbe / insignemque facit lato caelamine mundum’, v 235; Germ. Ar. 602; Val. Flacc. vi 53 f.; Claud. 6 cos. Hon. 167 f. (the last two examples not noted in TLL). Cicero uses the pun to rhetorical effect, Verr. iii 129, ‘Verres novus astrologus, qui non tam caeli rationem quam caelati argenti duceret’. This use of caelare and cognates is related to the application to the heavens of other words describing decorative artefacts: cf. balteus used of the zodiac, Manil. i 679, iii 334; limbus of the zodiac, Varro Men. 92; compare the use of ζώνη, zona. The assimilation of the heavens to a human artefact is very common in pre-scientific (and indeed scientific) thought; the allegorization of the Shield, manufactured by the demiurge Hephaestus, as an imago mundi can be understood as an inversion of this way of thinking.

44 Homer, says simply ἐν δὲ δύω ποίησε πόλεις (Il. xviii 490Google Scholar).

45 Instructive is the difficulty in which Philostratus Iunior finds himself in his description of a painting of the Shield of Achilles, which aims to reproduce the literary original in a detailed, non-schematic, form, while at the same time attempting to incorporate the war/peace dichotomy in a characterization of the two cities. In his description of the legal quarrel in the ‘city at peace’ he has to resort to the uneasy formulation μέοη τις πολέμου καὶ εἰρήνης ἐν οὐ πολεμουμέν̢η πόλει κατάστασις (Imag. 10.8).

46 War and peace explicitly signposted at V 43 f., καὶ τὰ μὲν ἂρ πολέμοιο τεράατα πάντα τέτυκτο˙/ εἰρήνης δ᾿ ἀπάνευθεν ἔσαν περικαλλέα ἔργα.

47 This representation of the major divisions of the universe through the medium of objects or activities located in each is also made explicit by Philostr. Iun. Imag. 10.5; cf. also the ecphrasis of the universe on the doors of the Palace of the Sun, Ov.Met. ii 5 ff.Google Scholar, closely modelled on the Shield of Achilles (see n. 56).

48 Cf. Vian, F., Quintus de Smyrne ii (Paris 1966) 7Google Scholar. The universal Shield of Achilles is also found in genres other than epic, (i) Lucian Icar. 16, scenes on earth seen from space-flight like those on the Shield, with stress on the variety (κυκεών) of activities (in opposition to the simplifying synthesis of the philosophical allegorizations; but note Eustathius' comments, 828.43 f., on πολυδαίδαλον applied to the Shield of Agamemnon, Il. xi 32) (ii) In the long recension of the Egyptian (?) Jewish Testament of Abraham (prob. 2nd cent, AD) (M. Delcor, Le Testament d'Abraham [Leiden 1973] 127) the activities on earth viewed by Abraham from the archangel Michael's chariot are based on those on the Shield of Achilles: see Schmidt, F., RHR clxxxv (1974) 122Google Scholar ff. Schmidt suggests Lucian Icar. as the immediate source, but the presence of some Homeric activities in the Testament not in Lucian points to a common source, possibly Menippus: see Helm, R., Lucian und Menipp (Leipzig etc. 1906) 109Google Scholar. (iii) The author of the Cohortatio ad gentiles (Migne, PG vi 294Google Scholar) uses the parallelism between Il. xviii 483 and the first sentence of Genesis to argue that Homer plagiarized the teachings of Moses during a stay in Egypt: see Buffière (n. 25) 165. (iv) Max. Tyr. 9.6 Hobein takes the two cities on the Shield as the two Platonic residences of the soul, earth (the city at war) and heaven (the city at peace) (I owe this reference to M. J. Trapp).

49 In general on artistic representations of the Shield see Fittschen, K., Der Schild des Achilleus, Archaeologia Homerica N, Bildkunst, Teil 1 (Göttingen 1973)Google Scholar; Johansen, K. F., The Iliad in early Greek art (Copenhagen 1967) 92 ff.Google Scholar, 178 ff. Vase-painting: Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage 3 (Marburg 1973) esp. 366Google Scholar ff., 416 ff. In a few examples on vases stars adorn the Shield: these may allude to the presence of stars in the Homeric ecphrasis (Il. xviii 485 ff.), but stars are in any case a frequent shield device in early Greek art (see n. 6). Over thirty separate devices are found on representations of the shield of Achilles (see the selection in Chase [n. 6] 83 n. 1).

50 Schefold, K., Die Wände Pompejis (Berlin 1957)Google Scholar index s.vv. Thetis bei Hephaistos. In June 1983 I personally examined all the examples that survive, and am grateful for their help to the Direzione del Museo Archeologico Nazionale at Naples and to the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei.

51 A recent discussion of the problems in Scherf, V., Flügelwesen in römisch-kampanischen Wandbildern (diss. Hamburg 1967) 166 ffGoogle Scholar; 166 n. 290 for references to earlier discussions.

52 P. Herrmann–F. Bruckmann, Denkmäler der Malerei des Altertums pl. 139; Reinach, S., Répertoire de peintures grecques et romaines (Paris 1922) 19.2Google Scholar. The painting has now deteriorated to the point where nothing can be made out on the surface of the shield.

53 Scherf (n. 51) 45 claims to make out wings on the heads of two of the busts, thus identifying them as winds.

54 Cf. the Tabula Bianchini (illustrated in Boll, F.–Bezold, C.–Gundel, W.Sternglaube und Sterndeutung 4 [Leipzig-Berlin 1931] pl. 35Google Scholar).

55 See n. 119.

56 The signs of the zodiac are included in the image of the heavens on the doors of the palace of the Sun at Ov. Met. ii 17 f, an ecphrasis closely modelled on the Shield of Achilles, and in turn drawn on by the author of the Ilias Latina for his description of the Shield (cf. esp. Met. ii 8 ff. with Il. Lat. 871 ff.). The zodiac-ring is also found on a painting of the making of the Shield of Achilles to a design by Giulio Romano (F. Hartt, Giulio Romano [New Haven 1958] pl. 395)—coincidentally (the zodiac-ring appears on a wide range of ancient monuments)?

57 Helbig 1316; Curtius, L., Die Wandmalerei Pompejis (Leipzig 1929) pl. 131Google Scholar.

58 Jahn, O. and Michaelis, A., Griechische Bilderchroniken (Bonn 1873) 20 n. 137Google Scholar.

59 Cf. the central circle of the Tabula Bianchini which represents the constellation of Draco winding between the two bears; also Verg., G. i 244Google Scholar f., ‘maximus hie flexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis / circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos’ (modelled on Arat. Phaen. 45 ff.); Nonnus, Dion. xxv 402Google Scholar ff. (sec n. 119).

60 (i) Casa degli Amorini Dorati (Schefold [n. 50] 154): one snake is clearly visible on the upper left of the shield; remains of figures, indistinguishable in detail, survive round the edge of the central field, (ii) Casa di Meleagro (Helbig 1317): one snake is visible on the lower half, with what are possibly the remains of another above. There are also possible traces of figures round the edge of the central field. Two further examples of the composition (Helbig 1318, 1318b) are almost totally destroyed.

61 Illustrated in Spinazzola, V., Pompei alla luce degli scavi nuovi di Via dell' Abbondanza (1910–1923) ii (Rome 1953) 923Google Scholar (Εὐάνθη) admires her reflection in the shield, which she has just taken from the seated Hephaestus; Thetis sits to the right).

62 Helbig 1318c; Curtius (n. 57) pl. 134.

63 Cf. Rhod., Ap.Arg. i 742Google Scholar ff. for this motif in an ecphrasis of a work of art. For the reflecting shield compare the fallen Persian looking at his reflection in a shield on the Alexander mosaic from the House of the Faun at Pompeii. On the motif of the reflecting shield: Schauenburg, K., Perseus in der Kunst des Altertums (Bonn 1960) 24Google Scholar f. Robertson, M., A history of Greek art i (Cambridge 1975) 585Google Scholar suggests implausibly that Thetis is engaged in catoptromancy.

64 Identification is not helped by the impressionistic manner in which the figures are painted. I make out the following: at 7 o'clock a man on a rearing horse; at 9 o'clock a helmeted figure with right arm outstretched; at 11 o'clock two figures; at 12 o'clock a series of squiggles which might be interpreted as a winged figure. Scenes of battle suggest themselves.

65 In the Casa di Meleagro example, however, Thetis is seated calmly as in the version with the reflecting mirror.

66 In the House of the Vettii: Herrmann–Bruckmann (n. 52) pl. 141.

67 Scherf (n. 51) passim.

68 See Brendel, O. J., Symbolism of the sphere (Leiden 1977) 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff. (Eng. tr. of ‘Die Symbolik der Kugel’, Röm Mitt li [1936] 1–95) on radius, with examples from the visual arts.

69 Brendel, O. J., ‘Der Schild des Achilles’, Die Antike xii (1936) 285Google Scholar (Eng. tr. in id., The visible idea [Washington 1980] 67–82); L'Orange, H. P., Studies on the iconography of cosmic kingship in the ancient world (Oslo etc. 1953) 90Google Scholar. Scherf (n. 51) 47 ff. takes the winged figure as a Nike, who announces the future victory of Achilles, and who is not to be closely associated with the devices of the Shield, which Scherf takes simply as an image of the heavens, without further significance. The motif of the rod is then hard to explain, as Scherf admits, and it is surely frigid to explain Thetis' shocked reaction as the product of her foreknowledge of what will be the price of her son's victory.

70 Ennius scen. 242–4 V. Epic or tragic astrologers are more Roman than Greek: Jocelyn, H. D., The tragedies of Ennius (Cambridge 1967) 326 ffGoogle Scholar. It may be noted that at Prop, iv 1.109 ff. Horos takes Calchas as an example of a seer who notoriously was not privy to the truths contained in the stars. On the later antique tendency to convert epic seers into astronomers see Bouché-Leclerq, A., Astrologie grecque (Paris 1899) 550Google Scholar; Buffière (n. 25) 593 f. Note e.g. Virg., Aen. iii 359 f.Google Scholar, ‘[Helenus] interpres divum, qui numina Phoebi, / qui tripodas Clarii et laurus, qui sidera sentit’.

71 Tabulae Iliacae: Jahn–Michaelis (n. 58) is still a valuable monograph on the subject, not entirely replaced by Sadurska, A., Les Tables Iliaques (Warsaw 1964)Google Scholar. See also Horsfall, N. M., ‘Stesichorus at Bovillae?’, JHS xcix (1979) 26–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I adopt Sadurska's system of enumeration.

72 See Bienkowski, P., ‘Lo scudo di Achille’, Röm Mitt vi (1891) 183–207Google Scholar; Sadurska (n. 71) 43 ff.

73 I am grateful to the Direzione of the Musei Capitolini for the opportunity of examining this object personally.

74 This interpretation is made less certain by the problematic nature of the scenes which survive only fragmentarily. (i) The upper half: to the right of the city is a variety of figures. Reading from the bottom: a man wearing what looks to me like a helmet (although the surface is here damaged), with his right arm raised over a shape which is scarcely distinguishable, but could be a falling figure. Above this four animals facing to the right and immediately adjacent to the wall of the city. Above these the figure of a man running to the right, with what appears to be his cloak billowing behind him. Above him the figures of one, and possibly two, animals running to the right, possibly a dog or dogs. And finally, at the top, the figures of two warriors: the one to the left, who faces to the right, holds a spear in his right arm, raised and bent; to the right, and partly overlapping the first figure, is a (possibly helmeted) figure with shield and spear, who moves to the right. Immediately under these two are vague shapes which have been interpreted as rocks, but might equally be the backs of more animals. These groups most probably represent the scene of the ambush of flocks and herds outside the besieged city, followed in the Homeric text by general battle between besiegers and besieged (520 ff.). There are no dogs in the Homeric description, but, assuming that they are correctly identified on the relief, they are an easy addition to a scene involving herdsmen, just as the wagons are an easy addition to the Homeric scenes of harvesting. Dogs are present in another of the Homeric scenes, that in which four herdsmen unsuccessfully set their dogs to fend off the attack of two lions on their cattle (577 ff.), but in other respects there is little correspondence with the groups I have described, (ii) The bottom half: to the right of the ἀλωή is a figure facing to the right, apparently wearing a crested helmet, and holding a lance. He faces a shape which could be the front half of an animal; below the human figure is a shape which might also be an animal. This scene, like the fragmentary groups in the top half, has also been interpreted as either the scene of battle outside the besieged city (the presence of the helmet, if this is correctly interpreted, would point to this), or as the counter-attack by the cowherds against the lions (in which case the helmet is surprising). But if we accept that the ambush and battle are most plausibly represented in the upper half of the shield, we are left only with the second of these alternatives. It may be that the artist has again elaborated on the Homeric text, possibly introducing the more interesting pictorial type of a fight between an armed figure (gladiator?) and beast where the text does not strictly warrant it. The second fragment, Sadurska 50, shows parts of the city at peace and the harvesting scenes, but does not survive for the areas of the composition in dispute.

75 Balancing shield supporters: Sadurska (n. 71) 76; Furtwängler, A., Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium (Berlin 1896Google Scholar) nos 3827 f.; Hölscher, T., Victoria Romana (Mainz 1967) 130 fGoogle Scholar.

76 All. 48.3, μυθικω̑ς μὲν οὖν ἀσπίδα χαλκευομένην ὑποστησάμενος ἁρμόζουσαν Ἀχιλλει̑ τὴν διὰ πάντων ἐνεχάραξε πορείαν.

77 Schol., Tad Il. xi 36Google Scholar.

78 Il. xi 36 f. (Shield of Agamemnon); v 741 f. (aegis).

79 A recent evaluation of the pottery evidence suggests a terminus post quem of about 165 BC for the start of work on the foundations of the Great Altar: Callaghan, P. J., ‘On the date of the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamon’, BICS xxviii (1981) 115–21Google Scholar. If this late date is correct, chronology would certainly allow the participation of Crates in the drawing-up of the programme.

80 Silius echoes Ovid's description of the cosmic Achilles, Shield of: cf. Met. xiii 110Google Scholar, imagine mundi, with Pun. vii 122, totumque in imagine mundum.

81 On this image see Skutsch, O., Studia Enniana (London 1968) 145–50Google Scholar.

82 The historiographical tradition also saw the Second Punic War as a contest in which the mastery of the whole world was at stake, e.g. Livy xxix 17.6; cf. Lucr. iii 830 ff.

83 The major publication of the Abukir medallions is by H. Dressel, Fünf Goldmedaillons aus dem Funde von Abukir, Abh. Berl. Akad. (1906); cf. id., Zeits. f. Numismatik 1908, 137 ff. Their authenticity was disputed by Dattari, G., I venti medaglioni d'Abukir (Milan 1908)Google Scholar. Later discussions: Brendel (n. 69); Bieber, M., Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman art (Chicago 1964) 79Google Scholar ff. (with further bibliography); Yalouris, N.et al., The search for Alexander (Boston 1980)Google Scholar catal. nos 10, 11, 33.

84 R. Mowat, Bull. Soc. Nat. Antiquaires de France 1902, 311 ff.

85 Yalouris (n. 83) 103.

86 The figured breastplate stands in the long tradition of statues with ornamental cuirasses, of which the Primaporta Augustus is the most famous example. The old view that these ornamented ‘Panzerstatuen’ are a Roman invention must now be abandoned; see Stemmer, K., Untersuchungen zur Typologie, Chronologie und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen (Berlin 1978) 149Google Scholar ff.

87 Compare also the type of the Shield of Achilles on some late fourth-century contorniates (in a scene of Vulcan seated before his handiwork), with a zodiac ring around confronting busts of Sol and Luna: Alföldi, A. and Alföldi, E., Die Kontorniat-Medaillons (Berlin 1976) no. 391Google Scholar; pls 163. 2–10; 164.1–6.

88 The figure is most probably a female bust, with long hair and bare breasts: see Dressel 1906 (n. 83) 9 n. 1.

89 Nox figures on Trajan's column: Hartleben, K. Lehmann, Der Trajanssäule (Berlin 1926CrossRefGoogle Scholar) nos 38, 150. On the motif of velificatio see Matz, F., AAWMainz x (1952) 725 ff.Google Scholar; Galinsky, K., Aeneas, Sicily and Rome (Princeton 1969) 204 ffGoogle Scholar.

90 See F. Cumont, ‘Mithra ou Sarapis ΚΟΣΜΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ’, CRAI 1919,3 14–28, esp. 318 ff.

91 Bieber (n. 83) 80.

92 See Vermeule, C., ‘The imperial shield as a mirror of Roman art on medallions and coins’, in Carson, R. A. G. and Kraay, C. M., Scripta Nummaria Romana: essays presented to H. Sutherland (London 1978) 177–85Google Scholar.

93 See n. 69.

94 Arr., An. vi 9 ffGoogle Scholar.

95 J. G. Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen 6 (1925) 124.

96 Paus. ii 17.3; for a location at Branchidac, D.L. viii 4. See Nisbet–Hubbard (n. 18) 328. Ampelius lib. mem. 8 reports the shield of Agamemnon at Sicyon.

97 i 42. 11.

98 For other instances of attributes, either actually worn by Alexander or shown in representations of him, which assimilate him to specific heroes and gods, see Fox, R. Lane, Alexander the Great (London 1973) 443Google Scholar (Hercules and Dionysus).

99 The best general treatment is the article of F. Cumont s.v. ‘zodiacus’ in Daremberg, C. and Saglio, E., Dictionnaire des antiquités v (1912) 1046–62Google Scholar; cf. also Frazcr, A., in Essays in memory of K. Lehmann (New York 1964) 112 n. 21Google Scholar.

100 See Boyancé, P., ‘Le disque de Brindisi et l'apothéose de Sémélé’, REA xliv (1942) 191–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vermaseren, M.J., Liber in deum: l'apoteosi di un iniziato dionisiaco (Leiden 1976) 48 ffGoogle Scholar.

101 Cumont, F., ‘Trajan “Kosmokrator”?’, Mél. G. Radet ( = REA xlii [1940]) 408–11Google Scholar. Compare a medallion of Hadrian depicting on the reverse a figure (the deified Trajan?) seated within a zodiac ring: Gnecchi, F., I medaglioni Romani (Milan 1912)Google Scholar Hadrian (bronze) no. 105.

102 Cook, A. B., Zeus i (1914) 752Google Scholar ff. The zodiac is a constant feature on Mithraic monuments.

103 Ap. Athen. 535c ff. ( = FGrH 76 F 14). Cf. Cerfaux–Tondriau (n. 19) 184.

104 Plut., Demetr. 41.4Google Scholar.

105 MacCormack, S., Art and ceremony in late antiquity (Berkeley etc. 1981) 281Google Scholar n. 14.

106 On the Lysippan portraits of Alexander: Bieber, M., The sculpture of the Hellenistic age 2 (New York 1961) 47Google Scholar ff. The argument for Achillean allusion is that the Lysippan statue was modelled on Polycleitus' Doryphorus, which in turn is said to have been an image of Achilles, but this last statement is based on no more decisive argument than the fact that Pliny, (NH xxxiv 18Google Scholar) said that nude statues holding spears in gymnasia were called Achilleae (see G. Rodenwaldt, A A 1931, 334). For further speculation with regard to the image of Augustus see Kähler, H., Die Augustusstatue von Primaporta, Monumenta Artis Romanae i (Cologne 1959) 13Google Scholar. It is at least worth noting that the breastplate of the Primaporta statue of Augustus presents symbols of a universal empire, though the iconography is quite different from that of the Abukir shield of Alexander.

107 Thiersch, H., ‘Lysipps Alexander mit der Lanze’, JdI xxiii (1908) 162–9Google Scholar. For the evidence for cuirassed statues of Alexander see Stemmer (n. 86) 133 ff.

108 Anth. Plan. 120 ( = Asclep. 43 GP), 121. Note esp. 120. 3 f., αὐδασου̑ντι δ᾿ ἔοικεν ὁ χάλκεος ἐς ⊿ία λεύσσων. / ̒Γα̑ν ὑπ᾿ ἐμοὶ τίθεμαι̇ Ζευ̑, σὺ δ᾿ Ὄλυμπον ἐχε.̓

109 De Alex. fort. 335b.

110 Tarn, W. W., Alexander the Great ii (1948) 55 ffGoogle Scholar.

111 Discussed by Dressel 1906 (n. 83) 51 ff. The pose is perhaps suggestive of the typical Lysippan ‘restlessness’; cf. Bieber (n. 106) 41 f. on the seated figure of Hermes ready to rise.

112 Nike and shield: Dressel 1906 (n. 83) 44 ff.; Hölscher (n. 75) 98 ff.

113 Compare also 394 f. with Il. xviii 485.

114 For another example of a historical allegory of the cities on the Homeric Shield see schol. D ad Il. xviii 491 (citing Agallis of Cercyra, a contemporary of Aristophanes of Byzantium), τάς δύο πόλεις εἶναι Ἀθη̑νας καὶ Ἐλευσι̑να. The allegory is developed from an Athenian nationalist point of view; see Erbse, H., Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem iv (Berlin 1975) 528CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff. Note also Aclius Aristides' image of a shield with five concentric rings (based on the five-layered Shield of Achilles?) to describe the place of Athens at the centre of the world (Panath. 15): the five rings correspond to Acropolis, polis, Attica, Hellas, the Earth; see Oliver, J. H., The civilizing power: a study of the Panathenaic discourse of Aelius Aristides, Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. lviii (1968) 95 ffGoogle Scholar.

115 Stegemann, V., Astrologie und Universalgeschichte: Studien und Interpretationen zu den Dionysiaca des Nonnos von Panopolis (Leipzig etc. 1930) 85 ffGoogle Scholar.

116 Nock, A. D., ‘Notes on ruler-cult, I–IV’, JHS xlviii (1928) 21–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar = Essays on religion and the ancient world i (Oxford 1972) 134–59Google Scholar.

117 Vian, F., Nonnos: Dionysiaques i (Paris 1970) xliGoogle Scholar ff. (with bibliography). It has been argued that the increase in the popularity of Dionysiac subjects in the later Roman empire on sarcophagi, etc., is connected with the revival of a Dionysiac imperialist ideology: Turcan, R., Sarcophages romaines à représentations dionysiaques (Paris 1966) 374 fGoogle Scholar.

118 Koepp, F., De gigantomachiae in poeseos artisque monumentis usu (Bonn 1883)Google Scholar ch. 3.

119 Note also that Nonnus devotes nearly half of the astronomical section of his shield to the constellation Draco (402–12), which is not mentioned in Homer, but which is a prominent feature on the Pompeian paintings of the Shield of Achilles.

120 Norden, E., RhM liv (1899) 467 ff.Google Scholar, =Kl. Schr. 422 ff.

121 Pliny, NH xxxiv 150Google Scholar; Dio xl 17.3; Steph. Byz. s.v. Ζεûγμα. According to Pausanias, x 29.4, it was Dionysus who first bridged the Euphrates, another example of the interaction of the Dionysus and Alexander legends. On the influence of motifs from Alexander's Indian triumph on the staging of Roman triumphs: DuQucsnay, I. M., ‘Virgil's fifth Eclogue’, PVS xvi (1976–1977) 33Google Scholar. Worthington, I., LCM ix (1984) 48Google Scholar also sees an allusion to Alexander in the mention of Araxes, at Aen. viii 728Google Scholar, but does not consider the possibility of a model in Alexander epic.

122 In a forthcoming book Virgil's Aeneid: cosmos and imperium.

123 Sadurska 17M; the inscriptions at IG xiv 1296. Sadurska dates the piece to the time of Augustus, but this is partly dependent on her speculative interpretation of its significance (see below).

124 Compare the figure of Thetis supporting the shield on the Sarti fragment, and see n. 75.

125 Jahn–Michaelis (n. 58) 56. On the clipeus virtutis: Weinstock (n. 6) 229, 233 n. 5. On honorary shields: Hölscher (n. 75) 98 f.

126 Jahn–Michaelis (n. 58) 55 n. 361.

127 The shield of the Pheidian Athena Promachos bore reliefs of the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs according to Pausanias i 28.2, another myth which could be used to symbolize victory over barbarians.

128 These lines are related to Catalepton 3 (Jahn-Michaelis [n. 58] 86 n. 443).

129 Compare the appeal to Heraclid descent by Demetrius Poliorcetes and others in support of a claim to world-wide domination. See Walbank, F. W., ‘Alcaeus of Messene, Philip V, and Rome’, CQ xxxvi (1942) 134–45Google Scholar.

130 Jahn-Michaelis (n. 58) 86.

131 For the two-continents motif in an epigram on Alexander's tomb see Anth. Pal. vii 240 (Adaeus).

132 Harrison, E. B., ‘Motifs of the city-siege on the shield of Athena Parthenos’, AJA lxxxv (1981) 281–317CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 304 ff. It has been suggested that the Parthenos shield itself alludes to the Homeric Shield of Achilles: see Fittschen (n. 49) 1 n. 1.

133 Sadurska (n. 71) 77.