Three times relaxed his grasp; a fourth attempt
He made to bend and break the sturdy shaft."

Il., xxi. 192.

The strength of the ashen shaft is indicated in a striking manner in this passage; and it also shows, in a manner equally characteristic how the use of the sword was reserved until after the effect of the lance had been determined.

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66

To the sword Homer applies the epithets "large," "long," and "sharp," or trenchant;" and he also tells us that it was two-edged," and consequently we may assume that it was straight in the blade. It is evident from various passages that this formidable weapon served equally well to deliver blows struck with the edge, and to thrust with the point.

Let fall his trenchant sword; the two-edged blade
Was buried deep."

Il., xxi. 133

The sword of Agamemnon is thus described :—

"Then o'er his shoulder threw his sword; bright flashed
The golden studs; the silver scabbard shone,
With golden baldrick fitted."

Il., xi. 29.

And again, in the 2nd Book of the "Iliad," it is said of Agamemnon that he—

'O'er his shoulders flung his sword, adorned

With silver studs."

And, in like manner, of Menelaus also

"Around his shoulders slung, his sword he borc,
Brass-bladed, silver-studded; then his shield
Weighty and strong

Il., ii. 51.

his hand

Il., iii. 390.

Grasped the firm spear, familiar to his hold."

Again

"Then Peneleus and Lycon, hand to hand,

Engaged in combat: both had missed their aim,
And bootless hurled their weapons: then with swords
They met. First Lycon on the crested helm

Dealt a fierce blow; but in his hand the blade

Up to the hilt was shivered; then the sword

Of Peneleus

Was plunged."

And again, when the heralds of the two armies had interposed and broken off the combat between Hector and Ajax, the Trojan prince thus addressed the sturdy Greek :

"But make we now an interchange of gifts
This said, a silver-studded sword he gave,
With scabbard and with well-cut belt complete."

Il., vii. 335.

The sword, then, had its hilt enriched with studs; and when in its scabbard, it hung from a belt that passed over the shoulder-over the right shoulder, we may assume, since there is no statement whether the weapon was suspended on the left side or the right; but the length of the sword must be considered to imply that it hung on the left side. Only very short weapons, such as daggers, can be adjusted to the right side of the wearer.16

Homer, it will be observed, assigns the same weapons and armour to both the Trojans and the Greeks.

We pass on now to consider, under the guidance of Homer, the most ancient defensive armour of the Greeks.

In the celebrated passage from the 18th Book of the "Iliad," which will form the basis of our own remarks, the shield is specified by name, and it is very clearly and fully described; but a very few words are bestowed upon the other pieces of the armour, the helm, the cuirass, and the greaves."

In compliance with the prayer of Thetis, Vulcan forges for

the renowned son of the sea-goddess of the silvery feet, a mighty shield, a marvel of art :—

"And first a shield he fashioned, vast and strong,

With rich adornment; circled with a rim,
Three-fold, bright-gleaming, whence a silver belt
Depended."

Il., xviii. 539.

This "shield-belt" is identical with the "guige" of the middle ages, by which the shield was secured to the person of the wearer, and also carried by him without inconvenience, suspended about his neck. The medieval guige crossed over the right shoulder; but whether Homer would desire us to assign the same adjustment of their shieldbelts to his warriors, we know not. The sword-belt, as we have seen, was adjusted (sometimes, certainly, if not as an invariable rule) by the Homeric warriors over the right shoulder. A belt also appears to have been worn, at any rate by some of the Greek heroes, fastened below the cuirass, and encircling the waist; such a belt as this apparently is intended to be described in the passage from the 4th Book of the "Iliad" (presently to be quoted), in which the poet tells how the arrow of Pandarus took effect upon Menelaus.

To return now to the shield of Achilles. With lavish hand Vulcan scatters over the entire surface the wonders of his admirable art. He represents the earth, the sky, the sea, the never-weary sun, the moon at her full; the constellations also, which crown the heavens, the Pleiades, the Hyades, the bold Orion, and the Bear, too, by men called the Wain, which revolves ever in the same regions of space, looking towards Orion, and at no time has any share in the baths of the Ocean.

"Of five folds the shield was formed;

And on its surface many a rare design
Of curious art his practised hand had wrought.
Thereon were figured earth, and sky, and sea,
The ever-circling sun, and full-orbed moon,

And all the signs that crown the vault of heaven;
Pleiads and Hyads and Orion's might,

And Arctos, called the Wain, who wheels on high
His circling course, and on Orion waits;

Sole star that never bathes in the ocean wave.

And two fair populous towns were sculptured there: In one were marriage, pomp, and revelry,

And brides, in gay procession, through the streets
With blazing torches from their chambers borne.
While frequent rose the hymeneal song

Youths whirled around in joyous dance, with sound
Of flute and harp; and, standing at their doors,
Admiring women on the pageant gazed.

Meanwhile a busy throng the forum filled :
There between two a fierce contention rose,
About a death-fine; to the public one
Appealed, asserting to have paid the whole;
While one denied that he had aught received.
Both were desirous that before the judge
The issue should be tried; with noisy shouts
Their several partisans encouraged each.
The heralds stilled the tumult of the crowd:
On polished chairs, in solemn circle, sat
The reverend elders; in their hands they held
The loud-voiced heralds' sceptres; waving these,
They heard the alternate pleadings; in the midst
Two talents lay of gold, which he should take
Who should before them prove his righteous cause.
Before the second town two armies lay,

In arms refulgent; to destroy the town

The assailants threatened, or among themselvcs
Of all the wealth within the city stored
An equal half, as ransom, to divide.
The terms rejecting, the defenders manned
A secret ambush ; on the walls they placed
Women and children mustered for defence,
And men by age enfeebled; forth they went,
By Mars and Pallas led; these, wrought in gold,
In golden arms arrayed, above the crowd
For beauty and stature, as befitting gods,
Conspicuous shone; of lesser height the rest.
But when the destined ambuscade was reached,

Beside the river, where the shepherds drove
Their flocks and herds to water, down they lay,
In glittering arms accoutred; and apart
They placed two spies, to notify betimes

The approach of flocks of sheep and lowing herds.
These, in two shepherds' charge, ere long appeared,
Who, unsuspecting as they moved along,
Enjoyed the music of their pastoral pipes.
They on the booty, from afar discerned,

Sprang from their ambuscade; and cutting off
The herds and fleecy flocks, their guardians slew.
Their comrades heard the tumult, where they sat
Before their sacred altars, and forthwith
Sprang on their cars, and with fast-stepping steeds
Pursued the plunderers, and o'ertook them soon.
There on the river's bank they met in arms,
And each at other hurled their brazen spears.
And there were figured Strife and Tumult wild,
And deadly Fate, who in her iron grasp
One newly-wounded, one unwounded bore,
While by the feet from out the press she dragged
Another slain about her shoulders hung
A garment crimsoned with the blood of men.

And there was graven a wide-extended plain

Of fallow land, rich, fertile, mellow soil,

Thrice ploughed; where many ploughmen up and down Their teams were driving; and as each attained

The limit of the field, would one advance

And tender him a cup of generous wine:
Then would he turn, and to the end again
Along the furrow cheerly drive his plough.
And still behind them darker showed the soil,
The true presentment of a new-ploughed field,
Though wrought in gold; a miracle of art.

There, too, was graven a corn-field, rich in grain,
Where with sharp sickles reapers plied their task,
And thick, in even swathe, the trusses fell;
The binders, following close, the bundles tied.
Three were the binders; and behind them boys
In close attendance waiting, in their arms
Gathered the bundles, and in order piled.
Amid them, staff in hand, in silence stood