The Shield of Achilles
Thetis looks over the armourer's shoulder expecting vines and olive trees, marble well-governed cities and ships on untamed seas, and finds an artificial wilderness under a leaden sky, a plain without a feature, a crowd penned at barbed wire while bored officials do their work. Alternating stanza forms set what she hoped for against what Hephaestos is putting on the metal. The ekphrasis of Iliad Book 18 rebuilt as a mid-century report.
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Lineage
- reworks ↑ The Iliad
Attributes
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Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 52% · 10 shared
- 49% · 8 shared
- 49% · 8 shared
- 48% · 10 shared
- 48% · 8 shared
- 46% · 7 shared