Achilles' Shield: Some Observations on Pope's "Iliad" Author(s): Fern Farnham Source: PMLA, Vol. 84, No. 6 (Oct.

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ACHILLES' SHIELD: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON POPE'S ILIAD

BY FERNFARNHAM LTHOUGH Pope's Iliad has been the subject of a number of studies, none has concentrated on the passage in Iliad xvIII known as the Shield of Achilles (11.551-704 in Pope's Iliad).' The passage had been a battleground in the quarrel between Ancients and Moderns, a quarrel which had been waged with singular acrimony in seventeenth-century France. In Pope's time the controversy was being kept alive by the dispute between Madame Dacier and Houdar de la Motte, and the Shield passage continued to be a crucial one in any critical discussion of Homer.2 My study will examine not only Pope's published translation of the passage, but also his manuscript revisions of it, his notes, his own sketch of the Shield, and the use he made of Vleughels' Shield of Achilles, which he borrowed from Jean Boivin to adorn the first edition of his Iliad.3 I shall also look at the essay, "Observations on the Shield of Achilles," which Pope appended to his translation.4 Taken together, these form a unit which can help us to see more clearly Pope's position in the quarrel between Ancients and Moderns, his own predilections, and finally some of the limitations in knowledge and taste within which he worked. A consideration of some modern ways of interpreting the Shield passage, based on insights of which Pope was necessarily ignorant, will help in evaluating further Pope's view of the passage and its place in the Iliad. In the first edition Pope places his essay on the Shield after his translation of Book xvIII; but his discussion contains so many clues to a full appreciation of his handling of the translation that it should be examined first. The essay falls into three parts, preceded by a short introduction in which Pope describes the Shield in general terms and deprecates the arrogance of modern critics who "chuse the noblest part of the noblest poet for the object of their blind censures."5 Part I consists of a detailed refutation of those French critics who had dared to condemn the Shield passage. Part II answers the argument that the Shield was too crowded with scenes to be realistically possible by giving a brief description of Vleughels' Shield. Pope borrows not only the plate from Boivin, but the Frenchman's account of the precise dimensions which could be allotted to each scene. Part iii discusses a subject dear to Pope's heart, the art of painting, of which the Shield as "an universal picture" is a splendid example. Here Pope's style takes on a warmth and ease of manner entirely lacking in the other two parts of the essay. Part I, especially, is pedantic in tone and cluttered with learned references. It has been recognized that Pope is deeply indebted to the French admirers of Homer for his own defense of the poet, both in his notes and in this essay, but the extent of his dependence on Andre Dacier has not, I think, been noticed.6 Part I of Pope's essay is, in fact, simply lifted from note forty-seven to Chapter xxvi of Dacier's Aristotle.7 Occasionally a short passage is omitted, but the translation is taken up again with the most implacable literalness. Pope marches along, reproducing all of Dacier's learning with complete nonchalance. Scaliger's remarks, quotations from Eustathius, Pliny on Nichomachus, Apelles, Aristides, Ctesilochus, with Latin quotations included, are all paraded before us. The only quotation which Pope adds is the obvious one from Aeneid vmii to which Dacier has pointed the way. For the detailed description of Aeneas' shield-a passage surely known to every schoolboy of the time-Pope is
1 The most recent account of the composition and publication of Pope's translations of Homer is to be found in the Twickenham Edition of the translations, which appeared too late for me to make use of it. See The Poems of AlexanderPope, Vol. vII, ed. Maynard Mack et al. (New Haven, Conn. 1967), pp. xxxv-xlii. To the list of earlier authorities which is given on p. xxxv, n. 1, I would add Austin Warren, Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist (Gloucester, Mass., 1963), Ch. iii. See pp. 79-82 for a discussion of Pope's notes to the Iliad and an account of his five projected essays, three of which, including the "Shield of Achilles," were completed. 2 A. Tilley, The Decline of the Age of Louis XIV (Cambridge, Eng., 1929), pp. 344-348. For La Motte's tasteless reconstruction of the Shield see his L'Iliade Poene avec un discours sur Homere (Paris, 1714), p. clxv (erroneously paged as cxlv). 3 Boivin, Apologie d'Homere et Bouclier d'Achille (Paris, 1715). 4 The Iliad of Homer, tr. Alexander Pope, Esq., 6 vols. (London, 1750), v, 104-125, hereafter cited as Iliad. As this edition does not follow the first edition in giving the notes by Roman numerals, I shall cite all notes, as well as the essay, by volume and page and all quotations from the text by book and line numbers. 5Iliad, v, 105. 6 E. Audra, L'Influence franpaise dans l'acuvrede Pope (Paris, 1931), has carefully studied Pope's debts to the French critics, and especially to Madame Dacier. He seems not to have noticed that Part I of Pope's essay is from Andrd Dacier. He attributes it instead to Boivin. See Audra, p. 297. Pope does in fact translate Boivin in Part ii of his essay and draws on him for the last two paragraphs of Part I. 7Aristotle, La Poetique, traduite en Frangois avec des Remarques Critiques par M. Dacier (Paris, 1692).

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Achilles' Shield: Some Observations on Pope's "Iliad" Did Pope consider his theft justified? It seems that he did, since he names Dacier. But his use of "M. Dacier" is mystifying inasmuch as he sometimes applies it to Madame Dacier as well.9 Moreover, the faithfulness of the translation, innocent of quotation marks, is beyond all that one expects after reading Pope's account of the excellent principles which are to govern his own practice.10These he contrasts with the plagiarism into which Madame Dacier has fallen in her use of Eustathius: "she is... more beholden to him than she has confessed."" Although Andre Dacier's pedantic essay answers all the standard complaints against the Shield passage, one may well wonder at Pope's slavish reliance on a work of criticism which had appeared nearly thirty years earlier. Dacier was a critic well-known in England to the previous generation, who ranked him with Rapin and Le Bossu.12His Essai sur la satire was translated by Gildon as early as 1692 and reprinted along with a translation of Le Bossu's Traite du pomme epique in 1695. It had appealed at once to Dryden, for in 1693 he made it the foundation of his own lively essay, "The Original and Progress of Satire." With Dryden's example before him, Pope might well have adopted Dacier's arguments, interspersing them with comments of his own. No one who has read Pope's Preface to the Iliad could doubt his enthusiasm for Homer or question his ability to defend the genius of the Greek poet. It is true that he glances at the charges which had been brought against Homer by the French critics.l3But it is Homer's fire and invention which captivate him. As he lays down the principles which should guide any translator of Homer, he stresses the need for a careful study of the author himself. Concentration on the poetry of the primary text will be more valuable
8 Desmarests'attacks on Homerare discussedby Tilley, pp. 324-325. 9 E.g., Iliad, v, 94; cf. L'Iliade d'Homlretraduite en Francoisavec des Remarques par MadameDacier, 3 vols. III, 480-481, to whichPope clearlyrefers. (Paris,j1711), 10See Iliad, I, 4, wherePope claimsthat whateverin his notes "is extracted fromothersis constantlyown'd." 1 Ibid., p. 3. 12 J. G. Robertson,Studies in the Genesisof Romantic in theEighteenth Theory (New York, 1962),pp. 207Century 208.SeealsoCongreve, TheDouble Dealer, ii, ii. 13 Douglas Knight, "The Development of Pope's Iliad Preface:A Study of the Manuscript," EssentialArticles for theStudyof Alexander Pope, ed. MaynardMack (Hamden, Conn., 1964), pp. 611-625, shows the way in which Pope eliminated from the published Preface many details of traditionaland contemporary scholarship.

content to follow Dacier word for word as though he had never looked at the original. Dacier's French appears to have had a noticeable effect on Pope's diction. But a careful comparison of Pope's essay with an anonymous English translation of Dacier's notes (attached to a translation of the Poetics based on Goulston's edition and published in London in 1705) shows that Pope was often content to make use of the hack writer's unidiomatic and literal phrasing. The following examples illustrate Pope's adoptions. "Homer would have fallen into an extravagant admirable" (Pope, Iliad, v, 106) has been inspired by the words "Homere seroit tombe par-la dans un merveilleux outre" (Dacier, p. 491). "Au pied de la lettre" (Dacier, p. 491) suggests "to the strickness [sic] of the letter" (p. 105). "Eschyle a feint quelque chose de semblable dans les sept Chefs contre Thebes" (Dacier, p. 491) becomes "Aeschylus has feigned something like it, in his sevencaptains against Thebes" (p. 106). Longer quotations will demonstrate more fully Pope's dependence and incidentally show us Pope-or Dacier in 1692-answering Desmarests de Saint Sorlin, one of the most literal-minded of the cavillers against Homer. Not content with summarizing the chief charges which had been advanced against Homer by the Moderns, Desmarests was capable of descending to such absurdities as are referred to in the following passages.8 Let us examinethe particulars for whichthey blame Homer. They say he describestwo towns on his shield whichspeakdifferent 'Tis the Latin translalanguages. tion, and not Homerthat says so; the word,ep6irwv, is a commonepithet of men, and which signifiesonly, that they have an articulate voice.These towns could not speak differentlanguages,since, as the ancients have remarked,they were Athensand Eleusina,both whichspakethe samelanguage... If a paintershould put into a pictureone town of Franceand anotherof Flanders,might not one say they were two towns which spake differentlanguages?(Iliad, v, 106-107) Examinonsde plus pres ce qu'on a bilme, Homere a mis, dit-on, deux Villesqui parlentdiverses Langues. C'est la traduction Latine qui le dit, & non pas est une Epitheteordinaire des Homere;le mot utp6wrcov hommes; & qui signifie seulement, qui ont la voix ces Villes ne pouvoient pas parler diverses articulge; Langues,puisque,commeles Anciensl'ont remarque, c'etoit Athenes, & Eleusine qui parloient le meme langage. ..Si un Peintre mettoit dans un Tableau une Ville de France& une Ville de Flandres,ne pourroit-onpas dire qu'il y auroit mis deux Villes dont le langageest different? (Dacier,p. 492)

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Fern Farnham than interpretations furnished from "any commentaries, how learned soever."'4 The emphasis on Homer's beauties dominates all of Pope's Iliad. It underlies the pictorialism which has been so often commented on as an outstanding characteristic of his translation.'6 It also helps to explain his indifference to the minutiae of Homeric criticism and, on the whole, his indifference to the quarrels of the Ancients and Moderns, which he cannot ignore, but which he is glad to leave to the capable Andre Dacier. Pope's final word on the quarrel is found in his Postscript to the Odyssey, where he is trying to make amends to Madame Dacier, who had taken offense at his description of Homer's work as a wild paradise. Pope insists that he has "fought under Madame Dacier's banner and... waged war in defense of the divine Homer against all the heretics of the age."'1 The words have been used to place Pope on the side of the Ancients,l7 but the last part of the Postscript shows that he could bow out of the fray with wit and even with patriotism worthy of Perrault:18 our nation has one happinessfor which she [Madame Dacier] might have preferredit to her own; that as much as we abound in other miserablemis-guided of sects, we have, at least, none of the blasphemers Homer.We stedfastly and unanimouslybelieve both his Poemand our Constitution to be the best that ever humanwit invented:that the one is not moreincapable of amendmentthan the other; and (old as they both are) we despiseany Frenchor Englishman whatever, who shall presumeto retrench,to innovate, or to make the least alterationin either.
(Works, iv, 450-451)

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Content though Pope is to let the learned of France, Dacier and Boivin, speak for him in the first two parts of his essay on the Shield, he shows, nevertheless, an acute interest in the passage, which he recognizes as our earliest example of iconic poetry. In Part in of his essay Pope extends the praise of Homer to the area of graphic presentation and in doing so exhibits his own interest in the Sister Arts.'9 For Pope, Homer "whether by learning or by strength of genius" possessed "a full and exact idea of painting in all its parts" (Iliad, v, 114). So convinced is Pope of the rightness of graphic presentation as a means of stimulating the poetic imagination that he cannot think that Homer could have been ignorant of such a basic principle as that of "invention" or the finding of suitable objects which will portray the subject in "the liveliest and most agreeable light." Other principles, obviously understood by so great a genius as

Homer, according to Pope, are appropriate characterization, contrast, adherence to the three unities, and finally the observance of what Pope calls aerial perspective, although he appears to mean linear perspective.20 These principles govern Pope's translation of the scenes on the Shield and help us to understand the manner in which he visualized it. Pope concludes his essay with a description of the twelve compartments of the Shield, scene by scene, and as he does so, he introduces his favorite painters. Compartment two, which represents an assembly of people and therefore demands great variety of facial expression, could be painted by Raphael. Compartment six (The Battel) contains an allegorical figure, Destiny, which could best be portrayed by Rubens. Compartment ten, which Pope labels simply "Animals," shows herds, herdsmen, dogs, lions, and a bull seized by two lions. This, says Pope, would have exercised "the warmth and spirit of Rubens or the great taste of Julio Romano." The scene, which in Homer is one of the most complicated and difficult to visualize, is clearly arranged by Pope, whose use of perspective gives order to the picture. Finally, compartment twelve, captioned by Pope merely as "The Dance," could best be executed, he thinks, by Guido Reni. The four painters selected as best able to record the scenes on the Shield show that Pope shared the taste of his age.21He visualizes, for the most part, according to the styles of painting that were then in vogue: historical scenes or mythological personifications, with landscape serving principally as background.
TheWorks of Alexander Pope, Esq., 9 vols. (London,1797), hereafter cited as Works.See iv, 416. For emphasis on
4 For the Iliad Preface and Odyssey Postscript I have used

Homer the poet, see Poetical Index, Iliad, vi. 1 See Jean H. Hagstrum, The Sister Arts (Chicago, 1958), pp. 229-233; D. R. Clark, "Landscape Painting Effects in Pope's Homer," JAA C, xxII (1963), 25-28. 16Works, iv, 376, 442. 17Warren, p. 85. 18 Perrault's denunciation of the Shield as wanting in such elegance as the French were cultivating under Louis XIV is to be found inhis poem, "Le Siecle de Louis le Grand," published in Paralelle des Anciens et des Modernes (Paris, 1692). See I, 7. For an account of the effect of the poem on the French Academy, see Hippolyte Rigault, Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes (Paris, 1856), pp. 141-152. 19See Hagstrum, pp. 210-242; on pp. 19-22 Hagstrum discusses the Shield as our earliest example of iconic poetry. 20 Pope's blunder called forth the scorn of Lessing, who also ridiculed Pope for assuming that Homer knew the rules of modern painting. See Laocoon, tr. R. Phillimore (London, 1874), pp. 186-192. '2 On the neoclassical pantheon see Hagstrum, pp. 162-170.

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Achilles' Shield: Some Observations on Pope's "Iliad" ron from the city (11. 599 ff. in Pope). Homer uses "gold" twice as he presents his gods who are taller than the men who follow them. Pope not only produces a more glittering scene, but makes his gods impressive by seeming to hold them for an instant in a majestic pose. Gold werethe Gods,their radiantgarmentsgold, And gold their armour:These the squadron led, August,divine, superior by the head! For the twentieth-century reader, the most thrilling scene on the Shield is doubtless the last, which represents the dancing floor at Cnossus, cunningly wrought by Daedalus, where youths and maidens, beautifully dressed, dance "holding their hands upon the wrists one of the other" (Murray, II, 333). We see them circling as lightly as a wheel spins under the potter's hand, or running forward in rows toward one another. Here Homer is at his best in catching the many levels of meaning in the dance. It is placed far back in antiquity, faintly suggesting ritual; yet it is pervaded by a spirit of youth, freshness, gaiety, and the renewing of life that is hinted in the slight pressure on the wrist. Pope grasps its formal beauty, and he understands something of the antiquity of the story, as his note tells us. But here the neoclassical manner with its generalized pictures is singularly inadequate. The many revisions in the manuscript suggest that Pope had trouble visualizing the scene. Homer's "The youths wore well-woven tunics faintly glistening with oil" (Murray, II, 333) is, in Pope's first attempt, "The youths shed odours from the silken vest." Obviously this will not do, but the final version is colorless: "The youths all graceful in the glossy vest." Pope's notes are very full on the whole passage, which, as crucial to the dispute between Ancients and Moderns, had been much commented upon. The note to 1. 566 (Iliad, v, 91-92) draws on both the Daciers for a discussion of Homer's knowledge of astronomy. Once again Pope dismisses the learning of the critics in order to favor the poet: "whether Homer knew that the Bear's not setting was occasioned by the latitude, and that in a smaller latitude it would set, is of no consequence; for if he had known it, it was still more poetical not to take notice of it." The note to 1. 590 (Iliad, v, 94) gives us a glimpse of Pope at Stanton Harcourt where
22BritishMuseum,Add.MSS. 4807-4808. Callan,"Pope'sIliad: A New Document,"Essential Articles, pp. 593-610. 24Homer,The Iliad, tr. A. T. Murray, Loeb Classical Library(NewYork,1924), I, 325.
23Norman

Turning to Pope's text and notes, let us see how the interests which we have observed in his essay affect his translation. An examination of the manuscript suggests that the passage offered In the margin the translator unusual difficulties.22 opposite the first lines Pope has written, "Leave 4 lines blank here," and it is evident that he experimented a good deal before he was satisfied. As Callan has noted, Pope's revisions have little to do with an accurate rendering of the Greek.23 Adjectives, and sometimes phrases, are moved about in order to vary the pauses, to satisfy the rhymes, to help sound echo sense, and, especially, to emphasize the visual image, for Pope, we see at once, is creating a picture gallery. One example must suffice. Here is a modern prose translation by Murray of 11.490-496: Thereinfashionedhe also two cities of mortalmen exceedingfair. In the one there were marriagesand feastings,and by the light of the blazingtorchesthey wereleadingthe bridesfromtheir bowersthroughthe city, and loud rose the bridal song. And young men were whirlingin the dance, and in their midst flutes and lyres soundedcontinually;and there the women stood each beforeher door and marvelled.24 And here is Pope's translation with some of his revisions (omitting those which do not show clearly deviations from the Greek), as it runs in the manuscript: Two cities radianton the shieldappear, The image one of peace and one of war, selemft saefed Here sacredpomp, and genialfeast delight genial feast And solemndance, and Hymencalrite; Along the street the new-madebridesare led,
ffro

With torchesflamingto the nuptialbed: The youthfuldancersin a circlebound To the soft flute, and cittern'ssilver sound: Thro' the fair streets, the matronsin a row, ftdmire Stand in theirporches,and enjoy the show. 567-576) (Iliad, Bk. xvIII, 11. Pope has expanded Homer's single words "marto riages" (ya'uo) and "feastings" (edXairLvat) two lines where the abstract adjectives "solemn," "sacred," and "genial" are moved about like counters. In line 496 (1. 576 in Pope) "marvelled" has become first "admire" and finally, (Oa&gvuaov) perhaps with the idea of adding vivid emotional content, "enjoy." The tense has changed from past to present as Pope sets the scene directly before us. Pope's interest in the pictorial is seen again in his portrayal of Pallas and Mars leading a squad-

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Fern Farnham Book xvIII was translated.25 It also shows us Pope, who is often accused of relying too heavily on Madame Dacier's notes, differing from her and developing an interpretation now commonly accepted by modern authorities.26Pope has the honor to be confirmed in his opinion, he tells us, "by the ablest judge, as well as the best practiser, of equity, my Lord Harcourt, at whose seat I translated this book." In the note to 1. 662 (Iliad, v, 100) we find a marked departure from Madame Dacier. Although she is familiar with the poet Linus, she offers the interpretation of the Linus Song as one sung to an instrument strung with flax (Xlvov). Pope will not have the ancient poet disposed of thus. He expands the meager information about the poet which Madame Dacier gives by consulting Pausanias and by reinforcing his remarks with quotations from Virgil's Eclogues six and four. Pope's own design for the Shield is to be found in a rough sketch in the Iliad MS. It is obviously incomplete, but it is worth examining, for it shows how distinctly Pope saw the Shield as a series of balanced scenes. "Nothing is more wonderful than his [Homer's] exact observation of the contrast,not only between figure and figure, but between subject and subject," Pope writes in Part inI of his Shield essay (Iliad, v, 115). Instead of Boivin's twelve scenes, Pope has only eight. The city at peace balances the city at war. The Festival Dance balances what Pope calls the Tillage (country plowing has been crossed out). Pasturage (sheep) balances Reaping, and Pasturage (oxen) is set against culture of the vineyard. In the center are the sun, moon, and stars, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, much as in Vleughels' design, and on the outer edge flows the ocean. Although Pope, in his essay, accepts Vleughels' twelve divisions of scene, it is evident that he was not fully satisfied with the design.27In fact the scenes are overcrowded and sometimes fail to provide a central focus for the viewer. Some of them even appear to be cut down from a larger canvas. Legs, arms, and sections of animals protrude into the pictures, and at least one figure, in scene six, is practically headless. The plate, as Pope finally used it, was executed by Samuel Gribelin, Junior, and appears as the obverse of that done by Cochin for Boivin's Apologie d'Homtre. Pope has adopted Boivin's captions except for scenes eleven and twelve, which Boivin labels respectively, "Brebis et cabanes" and "Danse ronde." These titles Pope shortens to "Sheep" and "The Dance," titles which are less accurate either for Pope's transla-

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tion or for Vleughels' design. Vleughels, by adding two human figures to scene eleven (Pope's "Sheep"), as well as huts, has gone beyond Homer's description in one direction, just as Pope, by eliminating all but the sheep, has moved away from Homer in another. Pope's intention is made emphatic by his description of the scene. "This is an intire landscape without human figures, an Image of nature solitary and undisturbed: The deepest repose and tranquility is that which distinguishes it from the others" (Iliad, v, 124). This attempt to exclude all trace of humble shepherds seems motivated by more than a desire for contrast. Epic decorum might preclude shepherds, but Pope is willing to admit them elsewhere, as well as plowmen and reapers (compartments six, seven, and eight). Whatever the explanation, Pope has unmistakably visualized a landscape without a single human figure, such a landscape, moreover, as was hardly painted before the nineteenth century. Here is a further illustration of Norman Ault's statement that "Pope was the first of the great English landscapists in verse."28 Of course it is Homer's verse that Pope is interpreting, but he is seeing the picture in his mind's eye. Did Pope find in the Shield of Achilles anything beyond a series of magnificent pictures worthy of a god and reflecting the whole universe? When he calls it "the noblest part of the noblest poet" is he merely echoing Madame Dacier: "c'est le plus bel episode & le plus grand ornement que la There is nothing to poisie ait mis en ceuvre"?29 indicate that he regarded it as more than a parade piece which fills an interval between two actions. Of the allegorical significance which the ancients, both Christian and pagan, had sometimes attached to it, Pope says next to nothing.30
25 George Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope (New York, 1934), p. 216. 26 See Murray, tr. Iliad, Ii, 324, n. 1. 27 Nicolas Vleughels, 1668-1737, of Flemish extraction, passed most of his life in Paris. He was known for his paintings and engravings, especially of Biblical and classical subjects, and was on good terms with the greater painters of his time, particularly Watteau. His last years were spent in Rome, where, as director of the French Academy, he helped to restore its declining prestige. The original plate of the Shield of Achilles has been lost. See Pierre Clamorgan, "Un Directeur de 1 Acad6mie de France a Rome," Gazette des Beaux Arts (1917), pp. 327-343; Louis Dimier, Les Peintres francais du X VIlIe siecle (Paris, 1928), I, 245-253. 28 New Light on Pope (London, 1949), p. 81. 29 Iliad, v, 105; cf. L'liade, tr. Dacier, II, 476. 30 Felix Buffiere, Les Mythes d'Honere et la pensee grecque (Paris, 1956), discusses early allegorical interpretations of Homer. He shows that the Shield was sometimes seen as "la grandiuse allUgoriede la creation" (p. 157). Clement of

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Achilles' Shield: Some Observations on Pope's "Iliad" nature is to copy the ideal, whether in poetry or painting. This basic neoclassical aesthetic not only lends itself to ut pictura poesis but points toward the strong moral bent which became a marked characteristic of much eighteenth-century literature. Pope is never naively didactic; but he is too much the child of his age to resist either a central moral idea or a personified abstraction. The Shield never carries on it, for him, a form of the creation myth. It is a noble imitation of the universe, suited to the god who fashioned it and the hero who will lift it in battle. Even the Daciers, who never weary of finding Biblical parallels for Homer's scenes, make no link between Vulcan's work and the creation story of Genesis. Madame Dacier finds herself so carried away by the beauty of the Shield that she can see in her imagination all the scenes that Homer painted; she never explains why this should be. Both the Daciers and Pope seem satisfied with the perfection of representation which is to be enjoyed for its own sake. The significance of Pope's view will emerge further if we compare it not only with those of his predecessors but with those of later commentators on the Iliad. It was inevitable that, as the nineteenth century progressed, the Shield should be examined in the light of new archeological discoveries, or as an artifact to be compared with examples of early art-Phoenician, EgypJean Hagstrum tian, or, more recently, Greek.36 (pp. 19-22) studies it as the prototype of all iconic poetry. He stresses it as an illustration of Homer's love of the products of civilization and as an example of the miracle of art which can order refractory material to its own aesthetic ends. These studies all emphasize in one way or another the Shield as an object. The literary critic must ask different questions. Why is a shield which is adorned with pictures from the common life of man to be given to the proudest,
Alexandria claimed that Homer was actually indebted to the Biblical account of creation (Genesis i) for his lines describing the Shield (p. 165). 31 See Rosemary Freeman, English Emblem Books (London, 1948), pp. 1-18. 32Jean Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods (New York, 1961), pp. 95-99. 33 "Preface to the Translation of Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie," Critical Essays of the SeventeenthCentury, ed. J. Spingarn (Oxford, 1908), ii, 168. 34"Fable" in Poetical Index, Iliad, vI. See also Monsieur Bossu's Treatiseon the Epick Poem (London, 1695), p. 19. 36See Jane Harrison, Introductory Studies in Greek Art (London, 1885), p. 143. J. L. Myres, Who Were the Greeks? (Berkeley, Calif., 1930), studies the pattern of the Shield in great detail, connecting it with the geometric art of the early Greek vase painters (pp. 517-525).

Nor does he attempt to show that it is especially suitable to the hero, or that it plays a part in the larger design of the poem. Pope's ambivalence toward allegory is that of his age, which was passing from a conception of art as a "doctrinal and witty hieroglyphic" of the divine to one which demanded the representation of men, manners, and human passions, idealized, but based upon a realistic imitation of nature.31 The long-established tradition which gave to the gods and goddesses of Homer an allegorical significance had held even through the Renaissance. As the humanists turned back to ancient texts, they uncovered among the pagans mythological exegeses, particularly of Homer, which strengthened the interpretations of the medieval allegorists.32 For the Elizabethans, allegory is the very stuff of poetry, the means by which the brazen world is turned to golden, but by 1674 Thomas Rymer can find that it was a "vice of those Times to affect superstitiously the Allegory."33As respect for empirical fact grew with the increase of scientific knowledge, so did the imaginative and spiritual world of poetry shrink. In Le Bossu allegory is retained as moral teaching. Like Rapin, Le Bossu emphasizes the didactic as the chief end of poetry. Pope is content to adopt his moral for the Iliad: "That Concord among Governors, is the preservation of States, and Discord the ruin of them."4 Although Pope accepts this moral as central to the fable of the Iliad, he is uneasy with the more elaborate allegorical interpretations which cluttered traditional Homeric criticism. In his Poetical Index he devotes a section to Allegorical Fables; there we find that Minerva calming Achilles is Prudence restraining Passion; Venus removing Paris from battle is Love extinguishing Honour. Moreover, June is listed as "the element of air," Venus as "the passion of love." But beside this traditional lore should be set Pope's note to Book xvIIm,line 537. After glancing at the idea that the shield was intended to represent the creation of the universe and summarizing the elaborate allegorical interpretation offered by Eustathius and other earlier Greek writers, he ends with a downright rejection: "All these refinements (not to call 'em absolute whimsies) I leave just as I found 'em, to the reader's judgment or mercy. They call it Learning to have read 'em, but I fear it is Folly to quote 'em" (Iliad, v, 90). Once again we are brought back to Pope's interest in the poetry, which he conceives in terms of the same aesthetic principles that he had enunciated in the Essay on Criticism. To copy

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Fern Farnham

1577

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Pope's sketch of the Shield of Achilles as it appears in his Iliad MS.

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1578

Achilles' Shield:Soge Observations on Pope's"Iliad"

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The Shieldof Achillesfrom the first edition of Pope's Iliad.

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Fern Farnham most aristocratic of all Homer's heroes? Is the episode of the forging of the Shield a mere display piece in the total web of the poem? The answer to both questions lies in the relationship which can be established between the Shield and the hero for whom it was designed. The objection to treating the Shield as a series of conventionalized scenes, such as are found in Egyptian, Assyrian, or Phoenician art, was voiced in 1885 by Jane Harrison. She stresses the vitality and naturalism of Homer's descriptions, which she prefers to connect with objects found at Mycenae "carved with designs so free, so naturalistic, that they bear the evidence ... of a natural, spontaneous, indigenous art."36 Although in 1885 Jane Harrison thought of symbol as inert and lifeless, she was soon to discover in it a new vitality more profound than the vitality of naturalistic art. Along with other cultural anthropologists, she helped to open a new world, far older than Homer, a world rich in myth, ritual, and living symbol. These insights, added to those of the psychologists, have led to new ways of exploring the literary imagination, and to a growing acceptance of the idea that myth is an inevitable component of all great literature. Since myth is not to be captured by analytical reasoning, it is not easily defined. It has been described as being at its best only when presented "by a poet who feels rather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography.... Its defender is... at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory.... For myth is alive at once in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected."37 The most sensitive twentieth-century criticism of the Iliad has looked at Achilles' Shield in the light of myth. Samuel Bassett finds in it, symbolically portrayed, the life of man set within the great frame of nature. In his analysis of the poetic symmetry of the Shield he shows us Homer moving from the polis where there is both harmony and disharmony, through the city at war to the city forgotten in the delights of the country. Everywhere here-in the plowing, the reaping, and the vintage-there is joy. We constantly plunge deeper into nature, sometimes troubled, sometimes at peace. In the next to the last scene (Pope's "Sheep") all is serene harmony. Finally there is the Dance, which for Bassett completes the organic unity (not the mechanical symmetry) of the whole. Here is the harmony of a true fertility rite. There is music

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again, as at the beginning, for the shield is round and represents indeed the whole universe. "It is a symphony of the rapture of living."38 It is within this framework of faith that the heroic world operates. Achilles, withdrawn, arrogant, and vengeful, yet lives and will die by the faith that is depicted on his shield. The glory he will win, the reward of high heroic endeavor, will be his not because he has avenged Patroclus' death, or even because his is the decisive victory in the overthrowing of Troy, but because in his short life he has been absolute for honor and the very confidence in life as rich and meaningful which his shield represents. If this view of the Shield is accepted, the passage is seen as by no means an irrelevant interval in the poem's total structure. But before pursuing the implications which this mythic view can give, let us look at another insight which the twentieth century has developed-that of pattern. Although in the Poetical Index Pope emphasizes fable (what today would be called plot summary), he was aware of a tripartite division of the poem which covers a rising action and moves toward the last great duel between Achilles and Hector.39 But of "pattern" in the sense in which it has been used by twentieth-century critics from Sheppard to Lattimore and Whitman, Pope knows nothing.40That a critic could preface his account of the poem with a Prologue, "The Lame Metal-Worker's Pattern," and thus make the Shield passage a paradigm for his study of the entire poem would have seemed to him preposterous.41

Pope's neglect of pattern stems in part from his ignorance of what we today know of the techniques of early oral poetry with its acceptance of formulaic diction and repetitions.42
" P. 143. For Harrison's early views of symbol, see pp. 52-54. 37 J. R. R. Tolkien, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism, ed. L. E. Nicholson (Notre Dame, Ind., 1963), p. 63. 38 Samuel Bassett, The Poetry of Homer (Berkeley, Calif., 1938), pp. 94-99. 39 "An Essay on Homer's Battels," Iliad, ii, 10, 11. 40 J. T. Sheppard, The Pattern of the Iliad (London, 1922); Richmond Lattimore, tr. Iliad (Chicago, 1951), introd., pp. 30-33; Cedric Whitman, Homer and the Heroic Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), Ch. xi. 4' Sheppard, pp. 1-10. 42See Reuben Brower, Alexander Pope: The Poetry of Allusion (Oxford, 1959), pp. 92-95. Homer's repetitions are discussed by M. Bowra, Tradition and Design in the Iliad (Oxford, 1930), pp. 87-96. The effect of Pope's neglect of formulaic phrasing in his translation of Iliad vmII. 553-565 is commented on briefly by Adam Parry, "The Language of Achilles," The Language and Backgroundof Homer, ed. G. S. Kirk (Cambridge, Eng., 1964), pp. 48-50.

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1580

Achilles' Shield: Some Observations on Pope's "Iliad"

Achilles at the crucial moment of the poem, his first entry into battle.46 Although modern interpretations of the Iliad allow us to focus more clearly on the pattern and the central theme as it is projected by the hero Achilles, we suffer from a grave disadvantage. Our vision of the heroic world, unlike Pope's, is not the vision of conviction, but a mere nostalgic dream. The poignancy of the twentieth-century's loss has been recorded by Auden in his version of the Shield: She lookedover his shoulder For athletes at their games, Men and womenin a dance Moving their sweet limbs Quick,quick, to music, But there on the shiningshield His handshad set no dancing-floor But a weed-choked field. A raggedurchin,aimlessand alone, Loiteredabout that vacancy;a bird Flew up to safety fromhis well-aimed stone: That girls are raped,that two boys knife a third, Wereaxiomsto him, who'dnever heard Of any worldwherepromiseswerekept
Or one could weep because another wept.47

Homer's astonishing variety so impressed Pope that, although he rejects most of the attacks brought against the poet by the French critics, he shares their views in regard to Homer's repetitions. A full study of Pope's attitude toward repetitions and his debt on this question to the French critics would be beyond the scope of this paper. A single example of Pope's corrections of Homer must suffice. As he translates the four great arming scenes which show us Paris, Agamemnon, Patroclus, and Achilles preparing for battle, he varies the phrasing so that the identical lines with which Homer introduces the scenes are lost to us.43Thus we are not formally prepared, as for an important rite. Nor are we encouraged to link the four scenes in our minds. That Pope saw no connection between them is further shown by his entry in the Poetical Index under Military Descriptions. He lists the major arming scenes as only three, omitting Paris' name. Thus he robs the poem not only of a rite, but of a pattern which gives us subtle contrast and ironic juxtaposition, as the weakling Paris, struggling into his brother's armor, is no longer set deliberately beside the mighty Achilles whose armor is the gift of a god. Thus Pope misses certain aesthetic values which we of the twentieth century can find in the poem and, particularly, in the Shield passage, a passage which for us is firmly embedded in the totality of the design. Following an interpretation of it such as Bassett's or Sheppard's, we see its relevance to the whole pattern. Nowhere else in the Iliad do we find more clearly indicated the twofold theme of the epic: the exercise of the heroic will which wrests glory from life in the very face of death, and the necessity which that will has to bind itself to others in society.44 Here, too, the heroic life is embedded in the grand framework of nature, with the ocean flowing around it, and all the lights of heaven shining upon it. The dance that, with its harmony, resolves all discords is a type of the cosmic dance so often sung by the poets: Dancing,brightlady, then began to be Whenthe first seedswhereofthe worlddid spring, The fire, air, earth,and water did agree....45 The Shield passage is more than an interlude between the death of Patroclus and the avenging of that death. As the most explicit assertion of Homer's delight in the total scheme of the universe, it forms a majestic prelude to the final combat. Through the range and breadth of its universalized pictures it magnifies the stature of

For Pope the heroic world is no mere dream of the past; it is a world whose vision can still animate and inspire. As Douglas Knight has shown, Pope reinterpreted Homer by drawing on the whole tradition of European epic poetry, which included Virgil and Milton, and thus created a poem which in its own right was capable of speaking to and moving his fellow Englishmen.4 That Pope was able to express and pass on in
43A. T. Murraytranslatesthe four passages(nm.330-332; xi.17-19; xvi.131-133; xix.369-371), as follows: "The greavesfirst he set about his legs: beautifulthey were, and fittedwith silverankle-pieces, and next he did on the corselet about his chest." 44 See DouglasKnight,PopeandtheHeroicTradition (New Haven, 1951),p. 82. 45Sir John Davies, ed. E. M. Tillyard(London, Orchestra, 1948), p. 19.

ed. (New York, 1945),I, 50, writes,"That deep sense of the harmonybetween man and nature, which inspiresthe descriptionof Achilles'Shield, is dominantin Homer'sconceptionof the world."See also I, 49, for an accountof the Shield as "the finest expressionof the epic view of human life." 47W. H. Auden,Shield of Achilles (New York, 1951), p. 37.
48

46Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, 2nd

andof the means studyof Pope'smasteryof the epictradition he uses to establishcontact with that traditionfor his English readers.

See Pope and the Heroic Tradition, especially Ch. ii, for a

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Fern Farnham acceptable terms his Homeric vision was due in part to his wisdom in avoiding the entanglements of French criticism while at the same time holding firmly to the conviction that Homer and Nature were the same. In emphasizing the pictorial, in accepting the doctrine of ut pictura poesis, he stood in the forefront of his generation. Yet strong as is his interest in the graphic, it never leads him to lose himself in mere embellishment. Like the painters whom he admired, he strove to render human passion by its visible effects. Thus he is able to bring to his Iliad as a whole a sense

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of ordered philosophic affirmation which keeps it within the true epic tradition. His confidence in life was not quite Homer's, but because it was a comparable confidence in the possibility of the noble life, his translation still stands as a superbly successful creation of "something parallel, tho' not the same."49
NEWTONCOLLEGE OF THE SACRED HEART

Newton, Mass.
49Iliad, iv, 58.

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