If this woman is not an archeologist whose forte is Greek artwork reconstruction
Her dedication to this object alone should make her go into or be admired by those in the field & she missed her true calling. The Iliad translations I never could get through. I don't have the patience with that type of detail but this woman swims in them like in a warm ocean reveling with every nuance. She reconstructs the shield of Achilles entirely minutely from the poems & works of the Mediterranean ancients in a manner to show how it very easily could have looked. Filled with lyrical thought, ideas & beliefs she sallies forth. She weaves
a story of the story of the Trojan war & Gods & men. Myself never cared overmuch for the Greek histories of the men in the area because folly, warfare & spite replaced good ethics. I like the older female Titans better Gaia, Hecate and such & naturally of the newer Dieties Artemis as she is the hunter & the moon of the newer Deities as they too were capricious. The sagas of men only showed their callousness & pettiness with the added brutality of why they deserved their downfalls in the battles they raged in many cases or just not heeding what told. [Not the more modern peoples but the ones from their "golden age"]They were best & most important in their roles at creating written words as traders & bringing back knowledge from the Assyrians that included much older grains from the Mesopotamians . In turn, Romans took their Gods & ideas with surface changes from them. This woman has created meticulously the shield from stories in a manner that looks artistically different but by ideal viable & legitimate, telling the story how & why long the way. He tale of Achilles demise & the where about theories of the shield continue into the Odyssey that iis narrated in short part form as the original Iliad. He sees a more shining picture than I of the times then & their structure & teachings: "These scenes clearly depict a society willing to respect what is right and wrong, willing to abide by social and self-control. If I am not accountable for my behavior, nothing will stop me from robbing my neighbor if he has something I want. However, if I will be thrown in jail for robbery, I may be more willing to be a peaceful neighbor, instead of a thief. The seed of government grows or dies according to the communal support for peace ." while that might have been an ideal I feel that history proves it was neither cemented or brought over solidly enough to even modern times. have to say, this woman has made me have a kinder outlook towards ancient Greek thought & mythos than I ever thought possible by the time I finished it. Some beautiful artwork.is peppered throughout including her representation of the shield above & beyond in time & detail

What a fascinating and intricate read this was about a character so famous throughout history. As an archaeologist I loved it, as a fan of Greek mythology I loved it even more. I'm quite well versed in the archaeology of the site of Troy in Turkey, having studied there and taken people on tours. I really enjoyed this read, all the more so because I recently attended a travelling exhibit that had a section with the mythology of the Shield of Achilles quite prominently featured.

I'll have to buy this as a physical book because the ebook didn't do it justice and I want to be able to see everything in print. Thanks for giving me the chance to read this!

If you love the story of the Illiad, then you are going to enjoy this book! What a great story, and pieces together quiet nicely!