Achilles' Shield Some Observations on Pope's Iliad

8/14/2019 Achilles' Shield Some Observations on Pope's Iliad

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Achilles' Shield: Some Observations on Pope's "Iliad"Author(s): Fern FarnhamSource: PMLA, Vol. 84, No. 6 (Oct., 1969), pp. 1571-1581Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261503.

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ACHILLES' SHIELD: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON POPE'S ILIADBY FERNFARNHAM

LTHOUGH Pope's Iliad has been the subjectof a number of studies, none has concen-trated on the passage in Iliad xvIII known as theShield of Achilles (11.551-704 in Pope's Iliad).'The passage had been a battleground in thequarrel between Ancients and Moderns, a quar-rel which had been waged with singular acrimonyin seventeenth-century France. In Pope's timethe controversy was being kept alive by the dis-pute between Madame Dacier and Houdar de laMotte, and the Shield passage continued to be acrucial one in any critical discussion of Homer.2My study will examine not only Pope's publishedtranslation of the passage, but also his manu-script revisions of it, his notes, his own sketch ofthe Shield, and the use he made of Vleughels'Shield of Achilles, which he borrowed from JeanBoivin to adorn the first edition of his Iliad.3 Ishall also look at the essay, "Observations on theShield of Achilles," which Pope appended to histranslation.4 Taken together, these form a unitwhich can help us to see more clearly Pope'sposition in the quarrel between Ancients andModerns, his own predilections, and finallysome of the limitations in knowledge and tastewithin which he worked. A consideration of somemodern ways of interpreting the Shield passage,based on insights of which Pope was necessarilyignorant, will help in evaluating further Pope'sview of the passage and its place in the Iliad.In the first edition Pope places his essay on theShield after his translation of Book xvIII; buthis discussion contains so many clues to a fullappreciation of his handling of the translationthat it should be examined first. The essay fallsinto three parts, preceded by a short introductionin which Pope describes the Shield in generalterms and deprecates the arrogance of moderncritics who "chuse the noblest part of the noblestpoet for the object of their blind censures."5Part I consists of a detailed refutation of thoseFrench critics who had dared to condemn theShield passage. Part II answers the argumentthat the Shield was too crowded with scenes tobe realistically possible by giving a brief descrip-tion of Vleughels' Shield. Pope borrows not onlythe plate from Boivin, but the Frenchman'saccount of the precise dimensions which couldbe allotted to each scene. Part iii discusses a sub-ject dear to Pope's heart, the art of painting, ofwhich the Shield as "an universal picture" is asplendid example. Here Pope's style takes on a

warmth and ease of manner entirely lacking inthe other two parts of the essay. Part I, es-pecially, is pedantic in tone and cluttered withlearned references. It has been recognized thatPope is deeply indebted to the French admirersofHomer for his own defense of the poet, both inhis notes and in this essay, but the extent of hisdependence 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 Chapterxxvi of Dacier's Aristotle.7Occasionally a shortpassage is omitted, but the translation is taken upagain with the most implacable literalness. Popemarches along, reproducingall of Dacier's learn-ing with complete nonchalance. Scaliger's re-marks, quotations from Eustathius, Pliny onNichomachus, Apelles, Aristides, Ctesilochus,with Latin quotations included, are all paradedbefore us. The only quotation which Pope addsis the obvious one from Aeneid vmii to whichDacier has pointed the way. For the detaileddescription of Aeneas' shield-a passage surelyknown to every schoolboy of the time-Pope is

1 The most recent account of the composition and publica-tion of Pope's translations of Homer is to be found in theTwickenham Edition of the translations, which appeared toolate for me to make use of it. See ThePoemsofAlexanderPope,Vol. vII, ed. Maynard Mack et al. (New Haven, Conn. 1967),pp. xxxv-xlii. To the list of earlier authorities which is givenon p. xxxv, n. 1, I would add Austin Warren, AlexanderPopeas Critic and Humanist (Gloucester, Mass., 1963), Ch. iii.See pp. 79-82 for a discussion of Pope's notes to the Iliadand 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 (Cam-bridge, Eng., 1929), pp. 344-348. For La Motte's tastelessreconstruction of the Shield see his L'Iliade Poene avec undiscours sur Homere(Paris, 1714), p. clxv (erroneouslypagedas 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 thisedition does not follow the first edition in giving the notes byRoman numerals, I shall cite all notes, as well as the essay, byvolume and page and all quotations from the text by bookand 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 Frenchcritics, and especially to Madame Dacier. He seems not tohave noticed that Part I of Pope's essay is from AndrdDacier.He attributes it instead to Boivin. See Audra, p. 297. Popedoes in fact translate Boivin in Part ii of his essay and drawson him for the last two paragraphsof Part I.7Aristotle, La Poetique, traduite en Frangois avec desRemarques Critiques par M. Dacier (Paris, 1692).

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Achilles' Shield: Some Observationson Pope's "Iliad"content to follow Dacier word for word as thoughhe had never looked at the original.Dacier's French appears to have had a notice-able effect on Pope's diction. But a carefulcomparison of Pope's essay with an anonymousEnglish translation of Dacier's notes (attachedto a translation of the Poetics based on Goul-ston's edition and published in London in 1705)shows that Pope was often content to make useof the hack writer's unidiomatic and literalphrasing. The following examples illustratePope's adoptions. "Homerwould have fallen intoan extravagant admirable" (Pope, Iliad, v, 106)has been inspired by the words "Homere seroittombe par-ladans 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 quelquechose de sem-blabledans les sept Chefs contre Thebes"(Dacier,p. 491) becomes "Aeschylus has feigned some-thing like it, in his sevencaptains against Thebes"(p. 106).Longer quotations will demonstrate more fullyPope's dependence and incidentally show usPope-or Dacier in 1692-answering Desmarestsde Saint Sorlin, one of the most literal-mindedof the cavillers against Homer. Not content withsummarizing the chief charges which had beenadvanced against Homer by the Moderns,Desmarests was capable of descending to suchabsurdities as are referred to in the followingpassages.8

Let us examine heparticularsor whichtheyblameHomer.They say he describes wo townson his shieldwhichspeakdifferentanguages.Tis the Latin transla-tion, and not Homer hat says so; the wordep6irwv,is a commonepithetof men,and whichsignifiesonly,that they have an articulate oice.These towns couldnot speak different anguages,since, as the ancientshave remarked,hey wereAthensandEleusina,bothwhichspake hesame anguage .. If apainter houldput into a pictureone town of Franceand anotherofFlanders,might not one say they were two townswhichspakedifferent anguages? Iliad, v, 106-107)

Examinonsde pluspres ce qu'on a bilme, Homerea mis, dit-on,deux VillesquiparlentdiversesLangues.C'est la traductionLatine qui le dit, & non pasHomere;e motutp6wrcovst uneEpitheteordinaire eshommes;& qui signifie seulement, qui ont la voixarticulge;es Villesne pouvoientpas parlerdiversesLangues,puisque,comme es Anciens 'ontremarque,c'etoit Athenes, & Eleusine qui parloient le memelangage. . Si un Peintre mettoit dans un Tableauune Ville de France&uneVillede Flandres,ne pour-roit-onpas direqu'il y auroit mis deuxVillesdont lelangageest different? (Dacier,p. 492)

Did Pope consider his theft justified? It seemsthat he did, since he names Dacier. But his use of"M. Dacier" is mystifying inasmuch as he some-times applies it to Madame Dacier as well.9Moreover, the faithfulness of the translation,innocent of quotation marks, is beyond all thatone expects after reading Pope's account of theexcellent principles which are to govern his ownpractice.10These he contrasts with the plagiarisminto which Madame Dacier has fallen in her useof Eustathius: "she is... more beholden to himthan she has confessed.""Although Andre Dacier's pedantic essayanswers all the standard complaints against theShield passage, one may well wonder at Pope'sslavish reliance on a work of criticism which had

appeared nearly thirty years earlier. Dacier wasa critic well-known in England to the previousgeneration, who ranked him with Rapin andLe Bossu.12His Essai sur la satire was translatedby Gildon as early as 1692 and reprinted alongwith a translation of Le Bossu's Traite du pommeepique in 1695. It had appealed at once to Dry-den, for in 1693 he made it the foundation of hisown lively essay, "The Original and Progressof Satire."With Dryden's example before him, Popemight well have adopted Dacier's arguments,interspersing them with comments of his own.No one who has read Pope's Preface to the Iliadcould doubt his enthusiasm for Homer or ques-tion his ability to defend the genius of the Greekpoet. It is true that he glances at the chargeswhich had been brought against Homer by theFrench critics.l3But it is Homer's fire and inven-tion which captivate him. As he lays down theprinciples which should guide any translator ofHomer, he stresses the need for a careful studyof the author himself. Concentration on thepoetry of the primary text will be more valuable

8Desmarests'attacks on Homerare discussedby Tilley,pp.324-325.9 E.g., Iliad, v, 94; cf. L'Iliade d'Homlretraduite enFrancoisavec des Remarquespar MadameDacier,3 vols.(Paris,j1711),II, 480-481,to whichPopeclearlyrefers.10See Iliad, I, 4, wherePopeclaims that whatever n hisnotes "isextractedromothers s constantlyown'd."1 Ibid.,p. 3.12J. G. Robertson,Studies in the Genesisof RomanticTheoryn theEighteenth enturyNewYork,1962),pp. 207-208.SeealsoCongreve,TheDoubleDealer,i, ii.13 Douglas Knight, "The Developmentof Pope's IliadPreface:A Study of the Manuscript,"EssentialArticlesortheStudyof Alexander ope,ed. MaynardMack (Hamden,Conn., 1964),pp. 611-625, shows the way in which Popeeliminated from the publishedPreface many details oftraditionaland contemporary cholarship.

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Fern Farnhamthan interpretations furnished from "any com-mentaries, how learned soever."'4The emphasis on Homer's beauties dominatesall of Pope's Iliad. It underlies the pictorialismwhich has been so often commented on as anoutstanding characteristic of his translation.'6It also helps to explain his indifference to theminutiae of Homeric criticism and, on the whole,his indifference to the quarrels of the Ancientsand Moderns, which he cannot ignore, but whichhe is glad to leave to the capable Andre Dacier.Pope's final word on the quarrelis found in hisPostscript to the Odyssey,where he is trying tomake amends to Madame Dacier, who had takenoffense at his description of Homer's work as awild paradise. Pope insists that he has "foughtunder Madame Dacier's banner and... wagedwar in defense of the divine Homer against allthe heretics of the age."'1The words have beenused to place Pope on the side of the Ancients,l7but the last part of the Postscript shows that hecould bow out of the fray with wit and even withpatriotism worthy of Perrault:18ournationhas onehappiness or which she [MadameDacier]mighthave preferredt to her own; that asmuch as we abound in other miserablemis-guidedsects, we have, at least, none of the blasphemers fHomer.We stedfastlyand unanimouslybelievebothhisPoem and ourConstitution o be the bestthat everhumanwit invented: hat the one is not more ncapa-ble of amendment han the other;and (old as theybothare)we despiseany Frenchor Englishmanwhat-ever, who shallpresume o retrench, o innovate,orto make the least alteration n either.

(Works, iv, 450-451)Content though Pope is to let the learned ofFrance, Dacier and Boivin, speak for him in thefirst two parts of his essay on the Shield, heshows, nevertheless, an acute interest in the pas-sage, which he recognizes as our earliest exampleof iconic poetry. In Part in of his essay Pope ex-tends the praise of Homer to the area of graphicpresentation and in doing so exhibits his owninterest 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 allits parts" (Iliad, v, 114). So convinced is Popeof the rightness of graphic presentation as ameans of stimulating the poetic imaginationthat he cannot think that Homer could havebeen ignorant of such a basic principle as that of"invention" or the finding of suitable objectswhich will portray the subject in "the liveliestand most agreeable light." Other principles,obviously understood by so great a genius as

Homer, according to Pope, are appropriatecharacterization, contrast, adherence to thethree unities, and finally the observance of whatPope calls aerialperspective, although he appearsto mean linear perspective.20 These principlesgovern Pope's translation of the scenes on theShield and help us to understand the manner inwhich he visualized it.Pope concludes his essay with a description ofthe twelve compartments of the Shield, scene byscene, and as he does so, he introduces his favor-ite painters. Compartment two, which repre-sents an assembly of people and therefore de-mands great variety of facial expression, couldbe painted by Raphael. Compartment six (TheBattel) contains an allegorical figure, Destiny,which could best be portrayed by Rubens. Com-partment ten, which Pope labels simply "Ani-mals," shows herds, herdsmen, dogs, lions, anda bull seized by two lions. This, says Pope,would have exercised "the warmth and spirit ofRubens or the great taste of Julio Romano."The scene, which in Homer is one of the mostcomplicated and difficult to visualize, is clearlyarranged by Pope, whose use of perspective givesorder to the picture. Finally, compartmenttwelve, captioned by Pope merely as "TheDance," could best be executed, he thinks, byGuido Reni. The four painters selected as bestable to record the scenes on the Shield show that

Pope shared the taste of his age.21He visualizes,for the most part, accordingto the styles of paint-ing that were then in vogue: historical scenes ormythological personifications, with landscapeserving principally as background.4 For the Iliad Preface and OdysseyPostscript I have usedTheWorks f Alexander ope, Esq.,9 vols. (London,1797),hereafter cited as Works.See iv, 416. For emphasisonHomer 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 inPope's Homer," JAA C, xxII (1963), 25-28.16Works, iv, 376, 442.17Warren, p. 85.18Perrault's denunciation of the Shield as wanting in suchelegance as the Frenchwere cultivating underLouis XIV is tobe found inhis poem, "Le Siecle de Louis le Grand,"publishedin Paralelle des Anciens et des Modernes (Paris, 1692). See I,7. For an account of the effect of the poem on the FrenchAcademy, see Hippolyte Rigault, Histoire de la querelledesanciens et des modernes(Paris, 1856), pp. 141-152.19See Hagstrum, pp. 210-242; on pp. 19-22 Hagstrum dis-cusses the Shield as our earliest example of iconic poetry.20Pope's blundercalled forth the scorn of Lessing, who alsoridiculed Pope for assuming that Homer knew the rules ofmodern 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 Observationson Pope's "Iliad"Turning to Pope's text and notes, let us seehow the interests which we have observed in his

essay affect his translation. An examination ofthe manuscript suggests that the passage offeredthe translatorunusual difficulties.22 n the marginopposite the first lines Pope has written, "Leave4 lines blank here," and it is evident that he ex-perimented a good deal before he was satisfied.As Callan has noted, Pope's revisions have littleto do with an accurate rendering of the Greek.23Adjectives, and sometimes phrases, are movedabout in order to vary the pauses, to satisfy therhymes, to help sound echo sense, and, especially,to emphasize the visual image, for Pope, we seeat once, is creating a picture gallery. One ex-ample must suffice. Here is a modern prose trans-lation by Murray of 11.490-496:

Therein ashionedhe also two cities of mortalmenexceeding air. In the one there were marriages ndfeastings,andby the lightof the blazing orches heywere eading he brides rom their bowers hrough hecity, and loud rose the bridalsong.And young menwerewhirling n the dance,and in their midst flutesand lyres soundedcontinually;and therethe womenstood each beforeher door and marvelled.24And here is Pope's translation with some of hisrevisions (omitting those which do not showclearly deviations from the Greek), as it runs inthe manuscript:Two cities radianton the shieldappear,The imageoneof peaceand one of war,selemft saefedHeresacredpomp,andgenialfeast delightgenialfeastAnd solemndance,andHymencalrite;Alongthe street the new-madebridesare led,ffroWithtorches laming o the nuptialbed:The youthfuldancers n a circleboundTo the soft flute,andcittern'ssilversound:Thro'the fairstreets,the matrons n a row,ftdmireStand in theirporches,and enjoythe show.(Iliad,Bk. xvIII,11. 67-576)

Pope has expanded Homer's single words "mar-riages" (ya'uo) and "feastings" (edXairLvat)otwo lines where the abstract adjectives "solemn,""sacred," and "genial" are moved about likecounters. In line 496 (1.576 in Pope) "marvelled"(Oa&gvuaov)as become first "admire" and finally,perhaps with the idea of adding vivid emotionalcontent, "enjoy." The tense has changed frompast to present as Pope sets the scene directlybefore us.

Pope's interest in the pictorial is seen again inhis portrayal of Pallas and Mars leading a squad-

ron from the city (11.599 ff. in Pope). Homeruses "gold" twice as he presents his gods whoare taller than the men who follow them. Popenot only produces a more glittering scene, butmakes his gods impressive by seeming to holdthem for an instant in a majestic pose.Goldwere the Gods,theirradiantgarmentsgold,Andgoldtheirarmour:Thesethe squadron ed,August,divine,superiorby the headFor the twentieth-century reader, the mostthrilling scene on the Shield is doubtless the last,which represents the dancing floor at Cnossus,cunningly wrought by Daedalus, where youthsand maidens, beautifully dressed, dance "hold-ing their hands upon the wrists one of the other"(Murray, II, 333). We see them circlingas lightly

as a wheel spins under the potter's hand, or run-ning forward in rows toward one another. HereHomer is at his best in catching the many levelsof meaning in the dance. It is placed far back inantiquity, faintly suggesting ritual; yet it is per-vaded by a spirit of youth, freshness, gaiety,and the renewing of life that is hinted in theslight pressure on the wrist. Pope grasps itsformal beauty, and he understands something ofthe antiquity of the story, as his note tells us.But here the neoclassical manner with its gen-eralized pictures is singularly inadequate. Themany revisions in the manuscript suggest thatPope had trouble visualizing the scene. Homer's"The youths wore well-woven tunics faintlyglistening with oil" (Murray, II, 333) is, in Pope'sfirst attempt, "The youths shed odours from thesilken vest." Obviously this will not do, but thefinal version is colorless:"The youths all gracefulin the glossy vest."Pope's notes arevery full on the whole passage,which, as crucial to the dispute between Ancientsand Moderns, had been much commented upon.The note to 1. 566 (Iliad, v, 91-92) draws onboth the Daciers for a discussion of Homer'sknowledge of astronomy. Once again Pope dis-misses the learning of the critics in order tofavor the poet: "whether Homer knew that theBear's not setting was occasioned by the lati-tude, and that in a smaller latitude it would set,is of no consequence; for if he had known it, itwas still more poetical not to take notice of it."The note to 1. 590 (Iliad, v, 94) gives us aglimpse of Pope at Stanton Harcourt where

22BritishMuseum,Add.MSS.4807-4808.23NormanCallan,"Pope's liad: A New Document,"Es-sentialArticles, p.593-610.24Homer,The Iliad, tr. A. T. Murray,Loeb ClassicalLibrary NewYork,1924), I, 325.

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Fern FarnhamBook xvIII was translated.25It also shows usPope, who is often accused of relying too heavilyon Madame Dacier's notes, differingfrom her anddeveloping an interpretation now commonlyaccepted by modern authorities.26Pope has thehonor 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 Itranslated this book."In the note to 1. 662 (Iliad, v, 100) we find amarked departure from Madame Dacier. Al-though she is familiar with the poet Linus, sheoffers the interpretation of the Linus Song asone sung to an instrument strung with flax(Xlvov). Pope will not have the ancient poet dis-posed of thus. He expands the meager informa-tion about the poet which Madame Dacier givesby consulting Pausanias and by reinforcing hisremarks with quotations from Virgil's Ecloguessix and four.

Pope's own design for the Shield is to be foundin a rough sketch in the Iliad MS. It is obviouslyincomplete, but it is worth examining, for itshows how distinctly Pope saw the Shield as aseries of balanced scenes. "Nothing is morewonderful than his [Homer's] exact observationof the contrast,not only between figureand figure,but between subject and subject," Pope writesin Part inI of his Shield essay (Iliad, v, 115).Instead of Boivin's twelve scenes, Pope has onlyeight. The city at peace balances the city at war.The Festival Dance balances what Pope callsthe Tillage (country plowing has been crossedout). Pasturage (sheep) balances Reaping, andPasturage (oxen) is set against culture of thevineyard. In the center are the sun, moon, andstars, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac,much as in Vleughels' design, and on the outeredge flows the ocean. Although Pope, in his essay,accepts Vleughels' twelve divisions of scene, it isevident that he was not fully satisfied with thedesign.27In fact the scenes are overcrowded andsometimes fail to provide a central focus for theviewer. Some of them even appearto be cut downfrom a larger canvas. Legs, arms, and sections ofanimals protrude into the pictures, and at leastone figure, in scene six, is practically headless.The plate, as Pope finally used it, was executedby Samuel Gribelin, Junior, and appears as theobverse of that done by Cochin for Boivin'sApologie d'Homtre. Pope has adopted Boivin'scaptions except for scenes eleven and twelve,which Boivin labels respectively, "Brebis etcabanes" and "Danse ronde." These titles Popeshortens to "Sheep" and "The Dance," titleswhich are less accurate either for Pope's transla-

tion or for Vleughels' design. Vleughels, by add-ing two human figures to scene eleven (Pope's"Sheep"), as well as huts, has gone beyondHomer's description in one direction, just asPope, by eliminating all but the sheep, has movedaway from Homer in another. Pope's intentionis made emphatic by his description of the scene."This is an intire landscape without human fig-ures, an Image of nature solitary and undis-turbed: The deepest repose and tranquility isthat which distinguishes it from the others"(Iliad, v, 124).This attempt to exclude all trace of humbleshepherds seems motivated by more than a de-sire for contrast. Epic decorum might precludeshepherds, but Pope is willing to admit themelsewhere, as well as plowmen and reapers (com-partments six, seven, and eight). Whatever theexplanation, Pope has unmistakably visualizeda landscape without a single human figure, sucha landscape, moreover, as was hardly paintedbefore the nineteenth century. Here is a furtherillustration of Norman Ault's statement that"Pope was the first of the great English land-scapists in verse."28 Of course it is Homer'sverse that Pope is interpreting, but he is seeingthe picture in his mind's eye.Did Pope findin the Shieldof Achillesanythingbeyond a series of magnificent pictures worthyof a god and reflecting the whole universe? Whenhe calls it "the noblest part of the noblest poet"is he merely echoing Madame Dacier: "c'est leplus bel episode & le plus grand ornement que lapoisie ait mis en ceuvre"?29There is nothing toindicate that he regarded it as more than a pa-rade piece which fills an interval between twoactions. Of the allegorical significance which theancients, both Christian and pagan, had some-times attached to it, Pope says next to nothing.30

25George Sherburn, The Early Careerof Alexander Pope(New York, 1934), p. 216.26See 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 paint-ings and engravings, especially of Biblical and classical sub-jects, and was on good terms with the greater painters of histime, particularly Watteau. His last years were spent inRome, where, as director of the French Academy, he helpedto restore its declining prestige. The original plate of theShield of Achilles has been lost. See Pierre Clamorgan, "UnDirecteur de 1Acad6mie de France a Rome," GazettedesBeaux Arts (1917), pp. 327-343; Louis Dimier, Les Peintresfrancais du X VIlIe siecle (Paris, 1928), I, 245-253.28 New Lighton 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 penseegrecque(Paris, 1956), discusses early allegorical interpretations ofHomer. 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 Observationson Pope's "Iliad"Nor does he attempt to show that it is especiallysuitable to the hero, or that it plays a part in thelarger design of the poem.Pope's ambivalence toward allegory is that ofhis age, which was passing from a conception ofart as a "doctrinal and witty hieroglyphic" ofthe divine to one which demanded the represen-tation of men, manners, and human passions,idealized, but based upon a realistic imitation ofnature.31The long-established tradition whichgave to the gods and goddesses of Homer anallegoricalsignificancehad held even through theRenaissance. As the humanists turned back toancient texts, they uncovered among the pagansmythological exegeses, particularly of Homer,which strengthened the interpretations of themedieval allegorists.32 For the Elizabethans,allegory is the very stuff of poetry, the means bywhich the brazen world is turned to golden, butby 1674 Thomas Rymer can find that it was a"vice of those Times to affect superstitiously theAllegory."33As respect for empirical fact grewwith the increase of scientific knowledge, so didthe imaginative and spiritual world of poetryshrink. In Le Bossu allegory is retained as moralteaching. Like Rapin, Le Bossu emphasizes thedidactic as the chief end of poetry. Pope is con-tent to adopt his moral for the Iliad: "ThatConcord among Governors, is the preservationof States, and Discord the ruin of them."4Although Pope accepts this moral as centralto the fable of the Iliad, he is uneasy with themore elaborate allegorical interpretations whichcluttered traditional Homeric criticism. In hisPoetical Index he devotes a section to AllegoricalFables; there we find that Minerva calmingAchilles is Prudence restraining Passion; Venusremoving Paris from battle is Love extinguishingHonour. Moreover,June is listed as "the elementof air," Venus as "the passion of love." But be-side this traditional lore should be set Pope'snote to Book xvIIm, ine 537. After glancing atthe idea that the shield was intended to representthe creation of the universe and summarizingthe elaborate allegorical interpretation offeredby Eustathius and other earlier Greek writers,he ends with a downright rejection: "All theserefinements (not to call 'em absolute whimsies)I leave just as I found 'em, to the reader's judg-ment or mercy. They call it Learning to haveread 'em, but I fear it is Folly to quote 'em"(Iliad, v, 90).Once again we are brought back to Pope'sinterest in the poetry, which he conceives interms of the same aesthetic principlesthat he hadenunciated in the Essay on Criticism. To copy

nature is to copy the ideal, whether in poetry orpainting. This basic neoclassical aesthetic notonly lends itself to ut pictura poesis but pointstoward the strong moral bent which became amarked characteristic of much eighteenth-cen-tury literature. Pope is never naively didactic;but he is too much the child of his age to resisteither a central moral idea or a personified ab-straction. The Shield never carries on it, for him,a form of the creation myth. It is a noble imita-tion of the universe, suited to the god who fash-ioned it and the hero who will lift it in battle.Even the Daciers, who never weary of findingBiblical parallels for Homer's scenes, make nolink between Vulcan's work and the creationstory of Genesis. Madame Dacier finds herself socarriedaway by the beauty of the Shield that shecan see in her imagination all the scenes thatHomer painted; she never explains why thisshould be. Both the Daciers and Pope seem satis-fied with the perfection of representation whichis to be enjoyed for its own sake.The significance of Pope's view will emergefurther if we compare it not only with those ofhis predecessorsbut with those of later commen-tators on the Iliad. It was inevitable that, as thenineteenth century progressed, the Shield shouldbe examined in the light of new archeologicaldiscoveries, or as an artifact to be comparedwith examples of early art-Phoenician, Egyp-tian, or, more recently, Greek.36 ean Hagstrum(pp. 19-22) studies it as the prototype of alliconic poetry. He stresses it as an illustration ofHomer's love of the products of civilization andas an example of the miracle of art which canorder refractory material to its own aestheticends. These studies all emphasize in one way oranother the Shield as an object. The literarycritic must ask different questions. Why is ashield which is adorned with pictures from thecommon life of man to be given to the proudest,Alexandria claimed that Homer was actually indebted to theBiblical account of creation (Genesis i) for his lines describ-ing the Shield (p. 165).31See Rosemary Freeman, English Emblem Books (Lon-don, 1948), pp. 1-18.32Jean Seznec, The Survivalof thePagan Gods(New York,1961), pp. 95-99.

33 "Preface to the Translation of Rapin's Reflections onAristotle's Treatise of Poesie," Critical Essays of the Seven-teenthCentury,ed. J. Spingarn (Oxford, 1908), ii, 168.34"Fable" in Poetical Index, Iliad, vI. See also MonsieurBossu's Treatiseon theEpick Poem (London, 1695), p. 19.36See Jane Harrison, IntroductoryStudies in Greek Art(London, 1885), p. 143. J. L. Myres, Who Were the Greeks?(Berkeley, Calif., 1930), studies the pattern of the Shield ingreat detail, connecting it with the geometric art of the earlyGreek vase painters (pp. 517-525).

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1578 Achilles'Shield:Soge ObservationsnPope's"Iliad"

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Fern Farnhammost aristocratic of all Homer's heroes? Is theepisode of the forging of the Shield a mere dis-play piece in the total web of the poem? Theanswer to both questions lies in the relationshipwhich can be established between the Shield andthe hero for whom it was designed.The objection to treating the Shield as a seriesof conventionalized scenes, such as are found inEgyptian, Assyrian, or Phoenician art, wasvoiced in 1885 by Jane Harrison. She stresses thevitality and naturalism of Homer's descriptions,which she prefers to connect with objects foundat Mycenae "carved with designs so free, sonaturalistic, that they bear the evidence ... of anatural, spontaneous, indigenous art."36 Al-though in 1885 Jane Harrison thought of symbolas inert and lifeless, she was soon to discover in ita new vitality more profound than the vitality ofnaturalistic art. Along with other cultural an-thropologists, she helped to open a new world, farolder than Homer, a world rich in myth, ritual,and living symbol. These insights, added tothose of the psychologists, have led to new waysof exploring the literary imagination, and to agrowing acceptance of the idea that myth is aninevitable component of all great literature.Since myth is not to be captured by analyticalreasoning, it is not easily defined. It has been de-scribed as being at its best only when presented"by a poet who feels rather than makes explicitwhat his theme portends; who presents it incar-nate in the world of history and geography....Its defender is... at a disadvantage: unless heis careful, and speaks in parables, he will killwhat he is studying by vivisection, and he willbe left with a formal or mechanical allegory....For myth is alive at once in all its parts, and diesbefore it can be dissected."37The most sensitive twentieth-century criti-cism of the Iliad has looked at Achilles' Shield inthe light of myth. Samuel Bassett finds in it,symbolically portrayed, the life of man set withinthe great frame of nature. In his analysis of thepoetic symmetry of the Shield he shows us Homermoving from the polis where there is both har-mony and disharmony, through the city at warto the city forgotten in the delights of thecountry. Everywhere here-in the plowing, thereaping, and the vintage-there is joy. We con-stantly plunge deeper into nature, sometimestroubled, sometimes at peace. In the next to thelast scene (Pope's "Sheep") all is serene har-mony. Finally there is the Dance, which forBassett completes the organic unity (not themechanical symmetry) of the whole. Here is theharmony of a true fertility rite. There is music

again, as at the beginning, for the shield is roundand represents indeed the whole universe. "It is asymphony of the rapture of living."38It is within this framework of faith that theheroic world operates. Achilles, withdrawn, ar-rogant, and vengeful, yet lives and will die by thefaith that is depicted on his shield. The gloryhe 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 victoryin the overthrowing of Troy, but because in hisshort life he has been absolute for honor and thevery confidence in life as rich and meaningfulwhich his shield represents.If this view of the Shield is accepted, thepassage is seen as by no means an irrelevant in-terval in the poem's total structure. But beforepursuing the implications which this mythic viewcan give, let us look at another insight which thetwentieth century has developed-that of pat-tern. Although in the Poetical Index Pope em-phasizes fable (what today would be called plotsummary), he was aware of a tripartite divisionof the poem which covers a rising action andmoves toward the last great duel between Achillesand Hector.39But of "pattern" in the sense inwhich it has been used by twentieth-centurycritics from Sheppardto Lattimore and Whitman,Pope knows nothing.40That a critic could prefacehis account of the poem with a Prologue, "TheLame Metal-Worker's Pattern," and thus makethe Shield passage a paradigm for his study ofthe entire poem would have seemed to him pre-posterous.41Pope's neglect of pattern stems in part fromhis ignorance of what we today know of thetechniques of early oral poetry with its accept-ance of formulaic diction and repetitions.42

" P. 143. For Harrison's early views of symbol, see pp.52-54.37J. R. R. Tolkien, "Beowulf: The Monsters and theCritics," 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 theIliad (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 Al-lusion (Oxford, 1959), pp. 92-95. Homer's repetitions arediscussed by M. Bowra, Tradition and Design in the Iliad(Oxford, 1930), pp. 87-96. The effect of Pope's neglect offormulaic phrasing in his translation of Iliad vmII. 53-565 iscommented on briefly by Adam Parry, "The Language ofAchilles," The Languageand Backgroundof Homer, ed. G. S.Kirk (Cambridge,Eng., 1964), pp. 48-50.

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Achilles'Shield: Some Observationsn Pope's "Iliad"Homer's astonishing variety so impressed Popethat, although he rejects most of the attacksbrought against the poet by the French critics,he shares their views in regard to Homer's repe-titions. A full study of Pope's attitude towardrepetitions and his debt on this question to theFrench critics would be beyond the scope of thispaper. A single example of Pope's corrections ofHomer must suffice. As he translates the fourgreat arming scenes which show us Paris,Agamemnon, Patroclus, and Achilles preparingfor battle, he varies the phrasing so that theidentical lines with which Homer introduces thescenes are lost to us.43Thus we are not formallyprepared, as for an important rite. Nor are weencouraged to link the four scenes in our minds.That Pope saw no connection between them isfurther shown by his entry in the Poetical Indexunder Military Descriptions. He lists the majorarming 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 contrastand ironic juxtaposition, as the weakling Paris,struggling into his brother's armor, is no longerset deliberately beside the mighty Achilleswhose armor is the gift of a god.Thus Pope misses certain aesthetic valueswhich we of the twentieth century can find in thepoem and, particularly, in the Shield passage, apassage which for us is firmly embedded in thetotality of the design. Following an interpreta-tion of it such as Bassett's or Sheppard's, we seeits relevance to the whole pattern. Nowhere elsein the Iliad do we find more clearly indicated thetwofold theme of the epic: the exercise of theheroic will which wrests glory from life in thevery face of death, and the necessity which thatwill has to bind itself to others in society.44 Here,too, the heroic life is embedded in the grandframework of nature, with the ocean flowingaround it, and all the lights of heaven shiningupon it. The dance that, with its harmony, re-solves all discords is a type of the cosmic danceso often sung by the poets:

Dancing,bright ady, thenbeganto beWhenthe first seedswhereof he worlddid spring,The fire,air,earth,andwater did agree....45The Shield passage is more than an interludebetween the death of Patroclus and the avengingof that death. As the most explicit assertion ofHomer's delight in the total scheme of the uni-verse, it forms a majestic prelude to the finalcombat. Through the range and breadth of itsuniversalized pictures it magnifies the stature of

Achilles at the crucial moment of the poem, hisfirst entry into battle.46Although modern interpretations of the Iliadallow us to focus more clearly on the pattern andthe central theme as it is projected by the heroAchilles, we suffer from a grave disadvantage.Our vision of the heroic world, unlike Pope's, isnot the vision of conviction, but a mere nostalgicdream. The poignancy of the twentieth-century'sloss has been recordedby Auden in his version ofthe Shield:She looked over his shoulderFor athletes at theirgames,Men andwomen n a danceMovingtheirsweetlimbsQuick,quick,to music,But thereon the shiningshieldHis handshad set no dancing-floorBut a weed-chokedield.A raggedurchin,aimlessand alone,Loiteredaboutthat vacancy;a birdFlewup to safetyfrom his well-aimed tone:That girlsareraped,that two boysknifea third,Wereaxiomsto him,who'd neverheardOfany worldwherepromiseswerekeptOr one could weep because another wept.47For Pope the heroic world is no mere dream ofthe past; it is a world whose vision can still

animate and inspire. As Douglas Knight hasshown, Pope reinterpreted Homer by drawing onthe whole tradition of European epic poetry,which included Virgil and Milton, and thuscreated a poem which in its own right was ca-pable of speaking to and moving his fellowEnglishmen.4That Pope was able to express and pass on in43A. T. Murray ranslates he fourpassages nm.330-332;xi.17-19; xvi.131-133; xix.369-371), as follows: "Thegreaves irsthe set abouthis legs: beautiful hey were,andfittedwithsilverankle-pieces,ndnexthedidon thecorseletabout his chest."44 SeeDouglasKnight,PopeandtheHeroicTraditionNewHaven,1951),p. 82.45SirJohnDavies,Orchestra,d. E. M. Tillyard(London,1948),p. 19.46WernerJaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of GreekCulture,2nded. (New York,1945),I, 50, writes,"Thatdeepsenseof theharmonybetweenman and nature,which inspiresthe de-scriptionof Achilles'Shield, is dominant n Homer'scon-ceptionof the world."See also I, 49, for an accountof theShieldas "the finestexpression f the epic view of humanlife."47W. H. Auden,Shieldof Achilles(New York, 1951),p.37.48 See Pope and theHeroic Tradition, especially Ch. ii, for a

studyofPope'smasteryof theepictradition ndof themeanshe uses to establishcontactwith that tradition or his En-glishreaders.

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Fern Farnhamacceptable terms his Homeric vision was due inpart to his wisdom in avoiding the entanglementsof French criticism while at the same time holdingfirmly to the conviction that Homer and Naturewere the same. In emphasizing the pictorial, inaccepting the doctrine of ut pictura poesis, hestood in the forefront of his generation. Yetstrong as is his interest in the graphic, it neverleads him to lose himself in mere embellishment.Like the painters whom he admired,he strove torender human passion by its visible effects. Thushe is able to bring to his Iliad as a whole a sense

of orderedphilosophic affirmation which keeps itwithin the true epic tradition.His confidencein lifewas not quite Homer's, but because it was acomparable confidence in the possibility of thenoble life, his translation still stands as a superblysuccessful creation of "something parallel, tho'not the same."49NEWTONCOLLEGEOFTHESACREDHEART

Newton, Mass.49 liad, iv, 58.

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Achilles' Shield Some Observations on Pope's Iliad

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