In Search of Achilles' Shield - Death and Disappearance

Filled with righteous, passionate anger, Achilles buckles on the armor and picks up the shield, but is intent only upon killing Hektor.¹ With a warriors' instinct he shrugs and flexes, jumping and dodging, pivoting and testing both fit and balance, finding it all light as wings. Swearing he will not halt this day until he has made all the Trojans sick of war, Achilles races onto the field of battle. He shouts and drives his team of well-bred war horses straight into the front line, in search of Hektor's end. But Aineas, who will one day be famous for founding the city of Rome, steps up to face Achilles.² Behind him every Trojan's knees are trembling at the sight of Achilles flashing like the fearsome wargod, Ares.

Achilles and Aineas exchange proud words of warning, each determined to gain honor at the expense of the other. Aineas drives his spear into Achilles' shield and a loud clanging noise resounds upon the impact. Achilles grips his shield strongly, holding it out from his body in case the spear might drive through it, but it is unnecessary. Constructed of five layers, the spear pierces the two outer layers of bronze. The middle layer of thick gold deflects the ashwood spear of Aineas and it bounces off the shield. Then hurling his spear, Achilles hits Aineas' shield where it is thinnest, sending up a sound of screeching as the spearhead pierces the plate. Horrified, Aineas leaps back, squatting low and holding the shield high, as the spear speeds over his back and buries itself in the battlefield. Close to the dirt, Aineas carries up with him a huge boulder for crushing his enemy, and Achilles closes in on him with his sword thirsty for blood.

Sometimes miracles are more timely than others, and this is a perfect moment. Ensuring Aineas will live for a greater fate, Poseidon blows a battle-haze of confusion into Achilles' eyes and helps Aineas escape. When Aineas is safe, he blows the haze away from Achilles, who stands staring and searching, swearing in resentment at the lost opportunity. Understanding that Aineas has been helped by the gods, he swears Aineas to hell, and turns his attention once again to the front line. Goading his men to make them fight well, he swears he will fight the whole war by himself.³ Roaring, they break through the line of Trojans at the moment Hektor is entering the fray.

With a heartstopping shout, Achilles rushes into the midst of flashing bronze, flying hooves and pivoting warcarts. Swords and spears are thrusting in every direction, spraying blood from beasts and men. The first one to reach him receives his head split in two, and Achilles cries out happily, as though singing.⁴ The second man gets his brains pierced by Achilles' spear, brains and blood exploding into his helmet. The third man runs to be away from Achilles, who, pulling his spear out of the last one, immediately drives his spear into him. Then the young son of Priam speeds past, Polydoros, the fastest runner. But not faster than Achilles, who casts his spear and hits the young prince in the back. The hungry spear buries itself in his belly, piercing through and poking out of his navel.

Amid the horrific cries of the dying, Hektor spies his brother. Raising his sword, screaming, and running, he flies out of control like a fire. Startled, Achilles sees him and prays, knowing it is his moment for revenge.⁵ Yelling at Hektor, he urges him to run more straight, in order to meet his fate sooner. Hektor is unafraid and replies maybe he will kill Achilles, because fate is decided by the gods. Just so, Hektor throws his spear at Achilles and he finds it returned, landing back at his feet. And, three times, Achilles lunges at Hektor with his spear, but on the fourth lunge he finds that Hektor is no longer there. More enraged than ever, Achilles kills every Trojan in his path, trampling them under his horses' hooves as he rides, flashing and slashing right and left, making bloody slaughter.

Flushing the enemy down the bank of a river, Achilles leaves his spear by a tree and wades into the fray, butchering them all by his sword till he tires.⁶ He takes a break from killing, capturing twelve petrified Trojans alive. He uses their own belts to tie their wrists behind their backs, and intending them to burn on the funeral pyre of Patroklos, he sends them back to his camp by one of his captains. Then reclaiming his spear from beside the tree, he throws himself back into battle. Unarmed and practically naked, the brother of Polydoros has unloaded himself of hot and sweaty battle gear. With a gasp, he finds Achilles before him, raising his spear to run him through.⁷ He begs Achilles to spare him, but the best friend of Patroklos swears he will kill every man that heaven puts in front of him. Encouraging him not to be such a coward, Achilles tells the Trojan prince to look at him - born of a king and a goddess, but death is awaiting him, too, such is fate. The time will come and death will come by a spear throw, or maybe an arrow. Slumping to the ground, fainting, another son of Priam eats the spearhead of angry Achilles.

Achilles' next enemy throws two spears at once,⁸ the first one hitting the glorious shield, deflecting off the gold. The other spear nicks Achilles' right arm, delivering his first wound and causing his own throw to miss. Drawing his sword without hesitation, lunging and slashing, Achilles opens the man's belly and then strips the armor off his body. There might have been no end to this carnage, except the floodwaters now come pouring down the river, flooding the plains and floating the corpses. Running like the wind, Achilles prays for help to stay ahead of the waves, jumping over bodies and armor.⁹

The water's strong currents flow under his feet, surging and pushing Achilles off balance, but he finds the strength to keep going. Then with a huge wind blasting from the sea, fire breaks out all around them in gales. Every green thing not yet flooded now flames, and the water steams and boils, rebuffed by the battling fire, sent in answer to Achilles' prayer. The gatekeepers of the city open the gates of Troy, and as Trojans pour in, Achilles is still hot behind them. Hoping to help the others escape, one more Trojan faces Achilles.¹⁰ Throwing his spear, he hits Achilles' shin, but his leg greave deflects the danger. Racing away, the Trojan turns into Apollo, though this fact is hidden from Achilles. He in turn takes up the flight, pursuing his enemy into the dusk, while the Trojans flee the battleground to safety.

Finally revealing himself to Achilles, the Greek angrily turns back from Apollo and speeds back to the city gate. The hand of fate holds Hektor outside the walls, unwilling to run, unwilling to face his own soldiers if he runs away from Achilles.¹¹ Preferring glory, even at the price of death, he ignores the pleas of his mother and father shouting down to him from the towers above the wall. Achilles closes in on him, and at the last moment Hektor sprints away, running like a deer in fear for his life, alongside the walls, away from the city gates. Achilles runs light-footed, never tiring, like a chariot horse trained for the races. Three times around the town they race along the walls, Achilles never gaining on Hektor, and he never gaining greater speed. Finally on the fourth round, Hektor faces Achilles, hoping to end this nightmare of running and running and going nowhere fast.

Hektor promises Achilles he will not dishonor Achilles' body if he kills him, and hopes for Achilles to promise the same. But Achilles swears there are no promises between man and beast, none between wolves and sheep. He swears he will kill Hektor for all the men Hektor killed, and he hurls his spear at Hektor. But ducking exactly at the moment of the cast, Hektor escapes the danger. Hektor plants his feet and throws his spear, watching in horror as it bounces off Achilles' shield, far beyond his reach. Knowing his end is now very near, Hektor pulls out his sword, swinging with all his strength and Achilles draws close his shield. His own spear retrieved, Achilles raises it, poised with perfect aim at Hektor's throat, the only place not covered by Achilles' old armor, stripped from the slain Patroklos.¹²

Straight through the neck, Achilles drives his spear, and Hektor drops to the dirt. Still able to speak, Hektor begs Achilles to have mercy on his dead body. He prophetically warns Achilles to take care, in case he angers the gods, allowing Paris to bring him down by an arrow from Apollo. But Achilles tells him to shut up and die, yanking the spear from his throat. He swears he wants to butcher Hektor and eat his body raw, for all the pain Hektor has caused him. Then Achilles strips the armor off of Hektor, reclaiming it back to himself, and every Greek soldier, stepping near, stabs the body of the fallen hero.

Patroklos' death avenged, now Achilles wishes to attend to his burial. Uncannily piercing Hektor's tendons between heel and ankle,¹³ Achilles runs a leather strap through both, tying it to his chariot, shaking the reins and shouting his team into a run. Screams rise like flames of fire from the walls of Troy as all see the Prince's body dragged with dishonor and defilement in the dirt. Upon returning to the ships, Achilles does not dismiss his men.¹⁴ Driving their warcarts past Patroklos, they mourn him in line, one by one, paying last respects to his body. Three times they drive their teams round the body, with cries of grief as though from one voice.

Slaughtering beasts for the funeral feast, now the Greeks disarm and eat. But not Achilles, who gives orders for the following morning, for the funeral pyre of Patroklos, then drops in the sand near the water's edge and weeps until he sleeps. Patroklos visits him all night in his dream, making requests of Achilles and begging him to bury him quickly.¹⁵ He wakens, still weeping, and turns to the task of building the huge pile of wood, that, once burned, will be the site of the burial mound he knows he will share with Patroklos. By nightfall all is ready, and the pyre keeps burning all night, with Achilles groaning and crying, and tending the fire with care.

At dawn the embers stop glowing, and Achilles, exhausted, sleeps. But voices and trampling footsteps of soldiers wake him while it is still morning. They mound up stone upon stone to bury the ashes after retrieving Patroklos' bones. Storing the bones in a golden urn, they carefully set it inside, awaiting the death of Achilles. When fate comes to take Achilles, he orders, his bones must share this urn.¹⁶ Holding funeral games next, the greatest of the Greeks excepting Achilles compete and he awards the winners prizes for chariot racing, boxing, wrestling, running, sword fighting, throwing a boulder of iron, and archery marksmanship. For the next twelve days Achilles sleeps fitfully down by the shore, rising at dawn to drive his chariot three times around the burial mound of Patroklos, still dragging the body of Hektor. The gods protect the body from damage, but Achilles' brutal treatment begins to offend them.

Finding that the balance of favor is beginning to slip from Achilles, his mother brings him warning.¹⁷ He is obedient to her advice and agrees to give back the body of Hektor to King Priam in return for gifts as ransom. Treating Priam as his own father, he pities him and goes to free the body of the prince. Calling for servants to bathe the body, he orders it anointed, dressed and wrapped in beautiful shrouding. Then with his own two hands, Achilles lifts the body of Hektor, placing it on a couch, and with help from his men they place the couch on Priam's wagon.¹⁸ He cries in the dark to Patroklos, fearing the anger of his best friend, praying for his understanding. Returning inside, he orders food for the King, and together they share the first meal either has eaten since the death of Hektor. Taking his hand, Achilles promises Priam that he shall suspend the war for eleven days, as the King requires, for the burial of his son.

The last mournful voice of the epic is Helen's, the beautiful Greek wife of Paris, who brought all this trouble to Troy. She weeps for herself and her brother-in-law, Hektor, who in all of Troy was her only friend. Twenty years have passed since she last saw Greece, where no eyes could restrain themselves from staring at her beauty. With the arrival of the war, and even more since the death of Hektor, no eye can look upon her without repulsion.¹⁹ And now no eye will dry without blaming their fate on Helen. The story ends with the funeral of Hektor, but we are warned by Priam, along with all of his Trojans, that the war is not yet over. At dawn of the twelfth day, Achilles will come again, delivering fresh fire with his soldiers.

The story is over, but blood still beats in Achilles' veins. His armor is still on his body, flashing in the sun and striking terror in the hearts of the Trojans. What is the end of the story, the end of Achilles? Where will we search for his armor? Fortunately for us, Homer records some more of the story in the Odyssey, the ten long years it takes Odysseus to return home. In fact, the details of his own death is learned by Achilles at exactly the same moment as the reader first learns it.²⁰

Homer relates how the High King Agamemnon returns home from the war only to be murdered by his wife and his adoptive brother, who has seduced Agamemnon's wife in order to steal the throne. Agamemnon's soul is delivered to Hades, where he meets his greatest captain, Achilles, together with Patroklos and others. Achilles greets Agamemnon, offering compassionate words regarding the King's ill-fated death, so shortly following the time of his greatest victory at Troy. He wishes Agamemnon would have died at Troy, so that all the soldiers, and even those back home, could have mounded up his burial grave so high, preserving high honor for his son. Agamemnon, High King of Mycenae, Commanding Officer of the Trojan War, returns his greeting to Achilles:

Odysseus stands fighting over the slain body of Achilles when the hero goes down, providing cover and protection against dishonor.²² Carrying his body back down to the ships, the Greeks give him a funeral of the highest honor. His mother and all her sister sea nymphs join them and all nine muses also attend. For seventeen days and nights they mourn Achilles, paying him respect with funeral parades, after burning his body on the pyre. They place his bones gently in the golden urn Thetis had given her son for the bones of Patroklos, and as Achilles had ordered, they are now buried together and placed in the mound.²³

Thetis announces great funeral games in honor of Achilles, offering prizes of eye-popping value. The highest prize is Achilles' armor, created by Hephaistos. This prize is offered to the winner of the title, Bravest of the Greeks , and the competition narrows down to Telemonian Aias and Odysseus. The Greek captains award the title to Odysseus, and Aias can not swallow his anguish. The event is recorded by Homer, and also by Sophocles in his tragedy, Ajax.

Aias is so certain of victory, that when it goes to Odysseus his sanity escapes him completely. Sophocles tells us that in the night he sneaks out to the captain's tents, determining to kill them all. Diverting him, Athena sends confusion to his senses and he kills the army's herds of livestock, slaughtering the animals in his wild rage. Awakening the next day, his senses returning, Aias understands his gross mistake and knows his ludicrous action will make himself a laughingstock for many generations. Losing the award of Achilles' armor was bad enough to bring him temporary insanity, but following up with ridiculous behavior on his part was the final atrocity for Aias. With no possible way to recover his honor, he tries to decide what to do. Finding he can not go home and face his father, Telamon, with this shameful tale of his deeds, he prefers instead to die. Burying the handle of his sword in the dirt, then swearing he will speak no longer to the living, he falls upon his sword, promising he will from here on out speak only to the shades in Hades.

But even in Hades, Aias has little to say. His anguish accompanies him to the grave, though he thought to relieve himself of it by ending his life. Homer tells us of Odysseus' visit to Hades, where he attempts to talk with Aias, but Aias refuses to speak.²⁴ Calling softly to Aias, he asks him if he has not yet gotten over his anger at Odysseus over the ill-fated armor of Achilles. He speaks gently, telling Aias all the Greeks mourn his loss as deeply as they mourn Achilles. But Aias gives no reply, turning slowing and walking away.

Odysseus does not die in order to visit Hades, it is one of the many fantastic places he comes to on his journey. But does he still possess the shield of Achilles at this point? Now that we know he wins the armor in the funeral games for Achilles, can we find what happens next? Perhaps we can. Prior to addressing Aias in Hades, Odysseus and Achilles exchange greetings. Achilles asks Odysseus for news of his son, Neoptolemos. He tells Achilles that he himself brought Neoptolemos from the Island of Skyros to the battle at Troy, and that in battle Achilles' son excelled. Joining Odysseus and the other captains in the belly of the horse wheeled up into the city, it was only Neoptolemos who held his nerve until the perfect moment to attack. At the victorious end of the Trojan war, Neoptolemos loads a ship with all of his valuable plunder, embarking without having received a single wound from the enemy.²⁵

We know as well that he leaves without his father's weapons.

Odysseus' son also comes to age in his father's absence. His mother is running out of patience and time, waiting for her husband's return, and suitors are eating her out of house and home, pressing her to choose a new husband. When word comes that some soldiers have returned home, Penelope sends Telemakos in a ship to find out the fate of his father. Coming in time to the kingdom of Pylos, the wise old King Nestor receives him, recognizing Odysseus in his son. Telling him of arguments which blew up between Menelaus and Agamemnon after the victory, he explains that half the ships left the next morning and half stayed behind with Agamemnon. Nestor's ship was with the first half, Odysseus' ship also among them. But turning back after another argument split this group, Odysseus prefers sailing back to Agamemnon. In four days, the first group arrived back home in safety, and since then many others had returned. Neoptolemos is back home, leading Achilles' soldiers, the Myrmidons, and Agamemnon has returned home to ill fate. But Nestor reminds Telemakos what a good thing it is for a man to leave a son behind him, relating how Orestes revenged the death of Agamemnon, killing his mother and his vile uncle Aegisthos, her lover.²⁶

Telemakos travels next to the kingdom of Sparta, received by Menelaus and Helen. Sharing all the stories he has with the boy, he then tells him all he knows of his father. Marooned at sea, Odysseus sits crying on the island of the nymph Kalypso. With no ship and no soldiers, and not even an oar, he has nowhere else to go. Menelaus' news is only second hand, not having any witness. But his source is Proteus, the Ancient of the Sea, trapped by Menelaus into giving him information. After receiving the information he needs, next day Menelaus sails for home with Helen.²⁷

If Odysseus now has no ship, perhaps he has no shield, marooned on Kalypso's Isle. We must follow him there, and see if it is still with him, or if something happened to it along the way. Turning back toward Troy, to Agamemnon, Odysseus's twelve ships were blown off by a west wind to the far coast of Ismaros. Landing and killing all the natives who come out to fight them, he and his soldiers disagree on the next plan of action. Ordering them all back out to sea, and quickly, the soldiers instead slaughter cattle and sheep, drinking wine and arguing with Odysseus. Meanwhile some few men of Ismaros survive and sneak home, alerting their army. Next morning the Greeks fight a terrible battle, taking casualties until the tide turns and they can escape to their ships, grieving over this new loss of men.²⁸

Running low on water, Odysseus picks a landing party, sending them ashore on the coast of the Lotus eaters. When the three men fail to report back to the ships, Odysseus finds them already addicted to the lotus flower, uninterested in family, friends or home. They scream at him as he kicks them all the way back to the ships, where he ties each one to his oar bench.²⁹ Odysseus' crew row strongly and they put back out to sea, this time sailing to the land of the one-eyed Cyclops, going ashore on a deserted island across from the Cyclops' mainland. Here they find good water, hunt wild goats and enjoy a day long feast.

The next day Odysseus and twelve of his men go ashore on the Cyclops' land, entering the unattended cave of a giant Cyclops. Soon trapped inside by the brutal, cannibal Cyclops when he returns home with his sheep, by next evening Odysseus and only four men are left alive. They offer brandy to the Cyclops and when he passes out, they poke his eye out with a burning, pointed tree trunk. He opens the cave in blind rage and pain, hoping to catch the men escaping. But they tie three sheep together for each man, and fashion a sling under the belly of each middle ram, hiding themselves until they are free in the open land. Quickly they load the sheep on their ship, and return to the island where the rest of his fleet is waiting.³⁰

Out of the frying pan, into the fire, Odysseus and his men sail their twelve ships from trouble to terrible trouble. From Aiolia island they sail away next, after King Aiolos gives Odysseus a bull's hide bag full of wind for their sails. It is here we are reminded of our search for Achilles' shield: Jealous of all the treasure their captain is carrying home from Troy, Odysseus' crew want to open this new bag, sure it is filled with gold and silver from Aiolos. Almost home when the bag is opened, the sky becomes a hurricane and the galewinds blow them all the way back to Aiolia. Disgusted with them, Aiolos kicks the Greeks off his island. They sail next to a land where the day is so long it becomes morning soon after dusk. This land is filled with a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals who slingshot their ships with huge boulders, sinking every ship except Odysseus'.³¹

Now only one ship is left, and Odysseus' crew puts in next at Aiaia, the island where Circe lives. Dividing themselves into two parties, Eurylokos takes twenty two men, and Odysseus takes the remaining. Eurylokos barely escapes the fate of his men, racing back to choke out a report that his men are all turned into pigs by Circe's magic. Hermes teaches Odysseus how to foil Circe's magic, and Odysseus does not fail. Beaching his ship after seeing his men regain their human shape, he promises to stay with Circe for as long as he can do so willingly, and she swears to use no more magic on him or his men. After one year he begs to leave, and Circe informs him the way home leads next through Hades, instructing him what to do, and how to survive in the land of the dead. Circe had recommended to Odysseus that he unload his ship before beaching it, hiding his possessions in hidden holes in the rocks. It is not recorded that he obeys, and neither does he retrieve any hidden goods now, as Odysseus and his men set sail for Hades. So we have no reason to think the shield is anywhere else but among his treasure, still safely stowed away in his ship until now.³²

Following Odysseus' footsteps into Hades, we recall again his visits with Agamemnon, Achilles and Aias. He learns here, as well, from the seer Tiresias, how to continue his journey home. Tiresias warns him, also, not to touch the herds of Helios' cattle or sheep, or else he will find himself the lone survivor of a shipwreck at sea. Odysseus visits with his mother, and he sees the shades of so many others. But fearing the hand of death may catch him, Odysseus turns back and runs for his ship, embarking, and quickly the crew rows away.³³ Returning to Circe, she explains to Odysseus all the strange things Tiresias has told him, clarifying his instructions. Soon he and his crew return to the sea, successfully navigating past the Sirens, Skylla and Charybdis, a nightmare of wailing voices, bellowing waves against life-threatening rocks, sucking whirlpools, sky-high spouting, gushing water and finally, a flying man-eating monster with the face of a woman and six blood-thirsty dog's heads frothing from beneath her breasts.³⁴

Despite the wise advice of Tiresias, and the sworn oaths of all the crew, the cattle and sheep do not survive the knives of hungry men. Odysseus' hardheaded crewmen make their last mistake, feasting six days and one final morning. Sailing out into open sea, with no land to be seen in any direction, Zeus blasts them with a thunderstorm and follows up with a direct hit of lightning. Skies darken, the mast breaks under hurricane winds, sails and rigging and mast hit the deck, and the ocean bucks beneath them as the thunder roars above. When the signature bolt of lightning strikes, the ship explodes and everyone is blasted into the sea. Alone in the dark, Odysseus clings to a raft he fashions from the mast and keelboard, lashing them together with a rope once used for the sail.³⁵

In the middle of this ocean is the island Ogygia, home of Kalypso, daughter of Atlas. It is to this island, and to her care that Odysseus drifts on his keelboard. With no ship, no crew, and not even an oar, we finally catch up with Telemakos' father. Marooned on her island, as Menelaus was told, Odysseus lives seven years with Kalypso, sitting on the shore, crying. Finally she gives him tools and allows him to build a raft from trees he cuts down, and in the eighth year he sails away. If we, in our wildest dreams, imagine Odysseus saves something from the sea and carries it with him on his keelboard to Kalypso, we have no record to prove it. And if we chase this dream and ask Odysseus to carry it on this new raft, we will still arrive at the same sad end. Poseidon transforms smooth sailing and blue skies into mountainous waves and a hurricane. Odysseus clings to his raft until it disintegrates, and then swims nearly drowning until he lands literally naked, exhausted on the shore of Skheria.³⁶

Finally from Skheria, Odysseus makes it home, but we will not follow him there. Our search for the shield of Achilles is exhausted, submerged by a shipwreck at sea. To search any further we much search the sea, but who imagines we will succeed? Logic insists that a sea nymph long ago found the shield and returned it at once to Thetis. Perhaps she returned it back to Olympos, from where it was first created. Just as I am certain that one day I will meet my Maker, the shield of Achilles has surely done the same.