What is the shield of Achilles? Shield of Achilles: Fresco from Pompeii: Semantics of the shield The principle of contrasting pairs

In the home library of my meager childhood, which occurred during war times, there were only seven books. One of them was the most expensive of all, although not artistic, - the work of professor-historian N.A. Kun “What the Ancient Greeks Told About Their Gods and Heroes.”

I have read this book many times. Of the wonderful heroes of Ancient Hellas, I especially loved Achilles (or Achilles), a participant in the Trojan War, sung by the great singer Homer in the poem “The Iliad.”

I understand that there is hardly a reader who has not heard about Homer, the Iliad and the young leader of the Myrmidons Achilles, but I cannot resist briefly retelling the well-known story.

The greatest hero of Hellas, Achilles, was born in the palace of King Peleus. His mother, the goddess Thetis, one of the fifty daughters of the god of the deep sea Nereus, became the wife of a mortal man, for she was predicted to have a son who would surpass his father in power and glory. Neither Zeus nor any other Olympian god dared to take the beautiful Thetis as his wife. So they gave it to King Peleus.

At the wedding feast, the famous quarrel between the three great goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - took place. They argued: who should own the golden apple with the inscription “To the Most Beautiful”? The dispute between the immortal goddesses led people to the many years of the Trojan War.

The immortal Thetis knew that her son Achilles would die in this war. Dreaming of outwitting fate, from birth she hardened the baby’s body in the waters of the underground river Styx, holding Achilles by the heel. He became invulnerable to arrows and any other mortal weapon, and only his heel remained his weak point.

The fatal arrow, fired from the bow of the Trojan prince Paris and corrected in flight by the god Apollo himself, hit the heel. Achilles died, and his ashes were buried under a mound on the Sigean Cape (now Cape Yenisehir in Turkey)...

The good, one might say, greatest memory of Achilles has lived in my soul since childhood. As an adult, I learned that the glorious hero of the Iliad is liked by millions of people. It turned out that his fellow tribesmen, the Hellenes, did not agree with the death of Achilles under the walls of Troy and gave him a divine afterlife... on the Black Sea island of Snake. Of course, then, BC, the island in the Euxine Pontus was called Levka.

A wonderful gift for a hero who, in his youth, chose the first of two lots - a short life, but immortal glory, or a long life, but lived ingloriously. For many centuries, the image of Achilles became the embodiment of a worthy citizen and warrior.

In the 7th century BC, on the right bank of the Bug River (near the estuary, 35 kilometers from the city of Nikolaev), Greek colonists built a large city called Olbia. The city became a trading center on the Black Sea, through which the Hellenes communicated with Scythia.

The sailors, the founders of Olbia, worshiped Achilles and considered him their divine patron. They believed that the home of the hero-god and his beautiful wife Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the island of Levka. The Olbians built a magnificent temple on a deserted island, in which Achilles was revered as the ruler of the Euxine Pontus. All sailors, for the sake of the safety of the voyage, specially came to the island of Achilles and brought him expensive gifts and sacrifices.

For centuries, during the Greek colonization of the northern shores of the Black Sea, fabulous wealth accumulated in the temple. We can judge the artistic level of temple decorations from the pedestal for the statue of Achilles, which has survived to this day and is located in the Odessa Archaeological Museum.

In recent years, specialists from the Odessa Museum, speleologists and scuba divers have landed on Snake Island more than once. They examined underwater grottoes, karst caves, and the coastal seabed. So far, their search has not resulted in any serious discovery, which did not stop the museum director from declaring:

“In Europe there is no other island as valuable for archaeological science as Zmeiny. More than thirty ancient authors wrote about the island of Levka (White), as it was called in those days.

There is no doubt that the search for the statue of Achilles should continue!

In addition, we must not forget about the famous shield of the glorious hero, made for him in one night in the forge of the lame god Hephaestus.”

The shield, huge, convex, round, was made of five folded copper sheets and bound with a triple rim. The divine blacksmith-artist decorated the shield with many images made of gold, silver, and white tin. The sky stretched out in a semicircle above; a golden sun, a silver moon and brilliant constellations floated across it. Below was depicted the earth and the life of people as it passes on this earth.

In the middle of the earth there are two cities. One lives a peaceful life: a wedding procession moves through the streets dancing; people gathered in the square; between the townspeople, elders sit on hewn stones with scepters in their hands; they listen to the requests and complaints of citizens and adjudicate.

Another city was besieged by enemies; An army of city defenders comes out to meet them, sparkling with the bristles of their spears. Two figures in golden armor rise above the warriors - these are the gods Ares and Athena leading the troops. Enmity and ferocious Death prowl the ranks.

Behind the cities there are wide fields. Farmers drive oxen harnessed to a plow; All around the plowed earth turns black. Hired workers reap a golden field; Children follow them - they collect armfuls of compressed ears of corn and hand them over to the sheaf binders. The owner of the field stands between the workers. Off to the side, under the shade of an oak tree, the heralds are slaughtering sheep and roasting meat for the reapers' dinner, and women are sifting white flour to bake bread.

Beyond the field you can see a vineyard - all golden, with black bunches of grapes hanging in golden foliage. Boys and girls carry wicker baskets filled to the brim with cut grapes. A boy with a lyre in his hands entertains workers by singing.

Here is a herd of bulls, gold and silver, striving to drink; Shepherds with a whole pack of dogs follow the herd. Two fierce lions appeared from the reeds: they knocked over the leading bull and tormented him with their teeth and claws. Shepherds set dogs on lions, but the dogs are afraid to approach the predators and only bark from afar, with their tails between their legs.

The picture on the shield was closed by a cheerful round dance of boys and girls; the young men had golden knives on a silver belt hanging over their shoulders; the girls were all in light clothes, with wreaths on their heads. The shield was bordered by a white stripe - this was the world river Ocean, flowing around the earth.

Not a single artistic retelling of Homer's Iliad is complete without a detailed description of the miracle shield! Where is this magnificent masterpiece of divine art lost?

All treasure hunters are gullible optimists by nature. They willingly believe in the existence of the shield of Achilles and do not want to come to terms with its loss. The famous Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated ancient Troy with money earned in Russia, often said:

- I must find Achilles' shield.

It was enough for him to gain worldwide fame that he found the “treasure of King Priam” - the famous gold of Troy.

The shield of Achilles, in the reality of which G. Schliemann believed, is priceless because it represents an artistically executed great symbol of the whole world. Therefore, archaeologists from different countries never cease to hope that someone will be able to find it.

This goal does not remain aloof from the attention of the Russian Institute of Archeology, whose scientific expeditions follow in the footsteps of Russian researchers I. I. Blaramberg and P. A. Dubrox, who at the beginning of the 19th century discovered six marble columns. Having carefully studied ancient literature, archaeologists have suggested that these columns once belonged to the temple of Achilles.

It seems that archaeologists and treasure hunters of Ukraine have a chance. After all, in the Odessa Museum they have such an indisputable trump card as part of the pedestal of the statue of Achilles from the island of Levka (the name of the island, unfortunately, is spelled differently in different literary sources: either Levki or Levka). If they manage to find a statue of the hero off the coast of the island, then such a find will undoubtedly inspire all other seekers who dream of returning the legendary shield of Achilles to humanity.

In the home library of my meager childhood, which occurred during war times, there were only seven books. One of them was the most expensive of all, although not artistic, - the work of professor-historian N.A. Kun “What the ancient Greeks told about their gods and heroes.”

I have read this book many times. Of the wonderful heroes of Ancient Hellas, I especially loved Achilles (or Achilles), a participant in the Trojan War, sung by the great singer Homer in the poem “The Iliad.”

I understand that there is hardly a reader who has not heard about Homer, the Iliad and the young leader of the Myrmidons Achilles, but I cannot resist briefly retelling the well-known story.

The greatest hero of Hellas, Achilles, was born in the palace of King Peleus. His mother, the goddess Thetis, one of the fifty daughters of the god of the deep sea Nereus, became the wife of a mortal man, for she was predicted to have a son who would surpass his father in power and glory. Neither Zeus nor any other Olympian god dared to take the beautiful Thetis as his wife. So they gave it to King Peleus.

At the wedding feast, the famous quarrel between the three great goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - took place. They argued: who should own the golden apple with the inscription “To the Most Beautiful”? The dispute between the immortal goddesses led people to the many years of the Trojan War.

The immortal Thetis knew that her son Achilles would die in this war. Dreaming of outwitting fate, from birth she hardened the baby’s body in the waters of the underground river Styx, holding Achilles by the heel. He became invulnerable to arrows and any other mortal weapon, and only his heel remained his weak point.

The fatal arrow, fired from the bow of the Trojan prince Paris and corrected in flight by the god Apollo himself, hit the heel. Achilles died, and his ashes were buried under a mound on the Sigean Cape (now Cape Yenisehir in Turkey) ...

The good, one might say, greatest memory of Achilles has lived in my soul since childhood. As an adult, I learned that the glorious hero of the Iliad is liked by millions of people. It turned out that his fellow tribesmen, the Hellenes, did not agree with the death of Achilles under the walls of Troy and gave him a divine afterlife... on the Black Sea island of Snake. Of course, then, BC, the island in the Euxine Pontus was called Levka.

A wonderful gift for a hero who, in his youth, chose the first of two lots - a short life, but immortal glory, or a long life, but lived ingloriously. For many centuries, the image of Achilles became the embodiment of a worthy citizen and warrior.

In the 7th century BC, on the right bank of the Bug River (near the estuary, 35 kilometers from the city of Nikolaev), Greek colonists built a large city called Olbia. The city became a trading center on the Black Sea, through which the Hellenes communicated with Scythia.

The sailors, the founders of Olbia, worshiped Achilles and considered him their divine patron. They believed that the home of the hero-god and his beautiful wife Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the island of Levka. The Olbians built a magnificent temple on a deserted island, in which Achilles was revered as the ruler of the Euxine Pontus. All sailors, for the sake of the safety of the voyage, specially came to the island of Achilles and brought him expensive gifts and sacrifices.

For centuries, during the Greek colonization of the northern shores of the Black Sea, fabulous wealth accumulated in the temple. We can judge the artistic level of temple decorations from the pedestal for the statue of Achilles, which has survived to this day and is located in the Odessa Archaeological Museum.

In recent years, specialists from the Odessa Museum, speleologists and scuba divers have landed on Snake Island more than once. They examined underwater grottoes, karst caves, and the coastal seabed. So far, their search has not resulted in any serious discovery, which did not stop the museum director from declaring:

“In Europe there is no other island as valuable for archaeological science as Zmeiny. More than thirty ancient authors wrote about the island of Levka (White), as it was called in those days.

There is no doubt that the search for the statue of Achilles should continue!

In addition, we must not forget about the famous shield of the glorious hero, made for him in one night in the forge of the lame god Hephaestus.”

The shield, huge, convex, round, was made of five folded copper sheets and bound with a triple rim. The divine blacksmith-artist decorated the shield with many images made of gold, silver, and white tin. The sky stretched out in a semicircle above; a golden sun, a silver moon and brilliant constellations floated across it. Below was depicted the earth and the life of people as it passes on this earth.

In the middle of the earth there are two cities. One lives a peaceful life: a wedding procession moves through the streets dancing; people gathered in the square; between the townspeople, elders sit on hewn stones with scepters in their hands; they listen to the requests and complaints of citizens and adjudicate.

Another city was besieged by enemies; An army of city defenders comes out to meet them, sparkling with the bristles of their spears. Two figures in golden armor rise above the warriors - these are the gods Ares and Athena leading the troops. Enmity and ferocious Death prowl the ranks.

Behind the cities there are wide fields. Farmers drive oxen harnessed to a plow; All around the plowed earth turns black. Hired workers reap a golden field; Children follow them - they collect armfuls of compressed ears of corn and hand them over to the sheaf knitters. The owner of the field stands between the workers. Off to the side, under the shade of an oak tree, the heralds are slaughtering sheep and roasting meat for the reapers' dinner, and women are sifting white flour to bake bread.

Beyond the field you can see a vineyard - all golden, with black bunches of grapes hanging in golden foliage. Boys and girls carry wicker baskets filled to the brim with cut grapes. A boy with a lyre in his hands entertains workers by singing.

Here is a herd of bulls, gold and silver, striving to drink; Shepherds with a whole pack of dogs follow the herd. Two fierce lions appeared from the reeds: they knocked over the leading bull and tormented him with their teeth and claws. Shepherds set dogs on lions, but the dogs are afraid to approach the predators and only bark from afar, with their tails between their legs.

The picture on the shield was closed by a cheerful round dance of boys and girls; the young men had golden knives on a silver belt hanging over their shoulders; the girls were all in light clothes, with wreaths on their heads. The shield was bordered by a white stripe - this was the world river Ocean, flowing around the earth.

Not a single artistic retelling of Homer's Iliad is complete without a detailed description of the miracle shield! Where is this magnificent masterpiece of divine art lost?

All treasure hunters are gullible optimists by nature. They willingly believe in the existence of the shield of Achilles and do not want to come to terms with its loss. The famous Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated ancient Troy with money earned in Russia, often said:

I must find Achilles' shield.

It was enough for him to gain worldwide fame that he found the “treasure of King Priam” - the famous gold of Troy.

The shield of Achilles, in the reality of which G. Schliemann believed, is priceless because it represents an artistically executed great symbol of the whole world. Therefore, archaeologists from different countries never cease to hope that someone will be able to find it.

This goal does not remain aloof from the attention of the Russian Institute of Archeology, whose scientific expeditions follow in the footsteps of Russian researchers I. I. Blaramberg and P. A. Dubrox, who at the beginning of the 19th century discovered six marble columns. Having carefully studied ancient literature, archaeologists have suggested that these columns once belonged to the temple of Achilles.

It seems that archaeologists and treasure hunters of Ukraine have a chance. After all, in the Odessa Museum they have such an indisputable trump card as part of the pedestal of the statue of Achilles from the island of Levka (the name of the island, unfortunately, is spelled differently in different literary sources: either Levki or Levka). If they manage to find a statue of the hero off the coast of the island, then such a find will undoubtedly inspire all other seekers who dream of returning the legendary shield of Achilles to humanity.

Shield of Achilles- the shield that Hephaestus forged for Achilles in one night.

Achilles' shield was strong and large. The shield had a center with a slight rise, which symbolized the firmament of the earth, which, according to the ancients, should be shaped like a shield with a middle mountain, the “navel of the earth.”

The shield forged by Hephaestus for the famous warrior Achilles was strong and large. Five leather layers charged a triple dinner, shone brightly, and on the shield itself Hephaestus carved a lot of decorations and carefully thought-out images of various paintings from the life of Ancient Greece: descriptions of nature, scenes from urban and rural life. The poet placed the paintings with images in the following sequence:

1 picture. Sky and stars.

2 picture. Wedding in the city.

3 picture. Legal proceedings in the city square.

4 picture. Military operations near the city walls.

5 picture. Rural life. Work in the area.

6 picture. Harvesting on the field.

7 picture. Vintage.

8 picture. Out to the pasture.

9 picture. Dancing.

10 picture. Ocean.

This sequence suggests that the shield depicts the entire universe from the sky and vision above to the Ocean below. Between the ocean and the sky is human life in all its diversity.

The images on the shield of Achilles are arranged according to the principle of antithesis: peace - war. Of the ten paintings, eight are glorification of the world, a captivated celebration of the peaceful life of people; two paintings - a condemnation of war and violence.

Description of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad

First of all, he prepared a shield - strong and large,
Well decorated everywhere, also forged a triple dinner,
Clearly shiny, and fitted with a silver-plated belt at the back.
The shield was made of five layers of leather, and there were many floors
I carved out various decorations, thinking through everything subtly down to the smallest detail.
He depicted the earth on it masterfully, and the sky, and the sea,
The circle of the tireless sun, and the silver moon in the flood,
And countless constellations that crown the vaults of the sky,
Among them are the Pleiades, and the Padas, and the power of Orion,
And even the Bear - others also call her Cart.
Viz is spinning in place and only looks like Orion -
Only one is not involved in swimming in the Ocean River.
He also carved on the shield two beautiful
Cities. In one of them - a wedding and take into account they produce,
Young girls are led out by the light of clear torches
From their rooms they lead through the city to the singing of the wedding party.
Young men dance briskly and sound around
Flutes and forming are ringing, and women standing on the threshold
Their own houses, young people will be surprised to have fun.
The strength of the people in the city square spoke.
Stormy Bucha filmed there - two husbands were arguing about foam
The men of the murdered man. He swore alone in front of the people,
That he paid, and he objected to it in front of the people.
In the end they turned to the judge to end the feud.
There was noise all around: everyone was supporting the servants.
The heralds tried to appease the people. sacred circle
The elders all sat down on the smoothly hewn mantelpieces,
They took the scepter into their hands from the loud-voiced herald
And, getting up from their seats, they pronounced their verdict one by one.
And in the middle of them, two golden ones, lay talents,
To give them to the one who proves that he is right.
The second of the cities was surrounded by numerous two troops
The weapons are shiny. And in the military council they were divided -
Or destroy everything by taking it by force, or jewelry,
That there are so many of them in this beautiful city, we can divide them in half.
They did not give up and secretly prepared a new ambush.
They came out to the city walls to protect them and their dear wives,
And small children, and husbands whom old age has already bent,
The fighting is gone. At their head are Ares and Pallas Athena,
They walked golden and both dressed in gold,
Armed, majestic, beautiful, like real gods, everywhere
They were immediately noticeable: there were people much lower than them.
They quickly reached the place where their ambush should be,
Near the river where the herds all go to water.
They hid there, covered with shiny copper.
Two spies in front walked separately from the army,
And they waited for the arrival of sheep and steep-horned bulls.
Here they came, two shepherds calmly drove them,
Playing the flutes, no trouble was expected.
The same ones, as soon as they saw them from a distance, suddenly rushed
And they occupied a herd of sheep and a large herd
good cows, but both shepherds were killed.
The hum and noise of the herd was heard from afar in the state,
Sitting in the military council, and immediately on the trotting horses
Everyone jumped up, and immediately rushed to the river bank,
They entered into battle with the enemies in battle order,
And they stubbornly beat each other with copper spears.
Beyond the fertile fields he outlined wide expanses,
Plowed three times, and there are many plowmen with plows on them
Harnessed into the yoke, they drove back and forth.
And how, having reached the border on the arable land, they already had a spit,
A glass of wine is like honey; sweets, in your hands every time
My husband served it to them. And they returned the furrow again,
To ensure fertile fields as quickly as possible until the end of the road.
Like a plowed field, the arable land behind turned black,
Although it was all made of gold. This is the kind of miracle he carved.
Next, I outlined the fields for the ruler. ripe ears
Everywhere in those fields the Gostrolesim reapers reaped with their sickles.
Heavy armfuls of ears of corn fell to the ground nearby,
Their sheaf ties were then tied tightly by the overhangs.
Three sheaf vines stood in the distance. And the boys are behind
The harvested ears were collected and, grasping it with both hands,
they were served carefully. And then, with my heart rejoicing,
The owner stood silently on the edge, leaning on the staff.
Next, under the oak tree, the herald was already preparing a feast,
They sacrificed a bull, and they fussed around; and the wives
He seasoned it with barley flour for the reapers for dinner.
Next he cut out the vineyard, which was still heavy with brushes.
From gold, blue tassels, to blackness, were dappled across it;
Its leaves were held securely on silver supports;
It was surrounded by a dark moat, and around it was a Tin
Tin towered, only one path ran through it
For carriers who passed through it for the grape harvest.
Along the path of that girl and the guys, full of fun,
Brushes were carried in wicker baskets like honey; sweet.
The boy, walking between them, played the jingle forming
And Lina sang a wonderful song about beauty
In a gentle voice. And those, echoing his singing in unison,
They stamped their feet into the formation, and everyone danced merrily.
Next, he slaughtered the herd of strong, steep-horned bulls.
Some are made of gold, others are made of tin.
Everyone mooed loudly as they walked from the yard to the shore.
The river is stormy, densely overgrown with flexible reeds.
Four walked along the sides to see off the golden shepherds
A herd, and nine fleet-footed dogs ran after them.
Ahead suddenly two terrible lions attacked the herd
And they dragged the bull, he roared and mooed very
In the lion's claws, and the dogs and young men rushed to the rescue.
Passiven carved further lame artist incomparable
And a flock of sheep in that wonderful valley,
Covered sheds, and huts, and corrals, and shepherd's sheds.
Further, the incomparable artist of all trades outlined
A place for dancing, like the one in Knossos, which is spacious
When the glorious Daedalus built the mowing plant for Ariadne.
In the prime of life, young men and girls desired by many,
Holding hands tightly, they twirled in a joyful dance.
Crowds of people milled around and enjoyed themselves greatly.
That round dance. Sings loudly, divine singer
Played among them on the forming, and to the music of that sound
Two buffoons were jumping in the middle of a crowded circle.
Next he carved the waves of the powerful rivers of the Ocean
From the very edge of the shield that he crafted so carefully.

The shield depicted the Earth, the Sun, the constellations: the Pleiades, Hyades, Orion, Ursa Major, which is also called Voz. Even in the shield, the masterful hand of Hephaestus carved two beautiful cities. One depicts a wedding: young girls walk through the city and dance merrily along with the boys to wedding songs. Sedate women look at this fun with surprise from the thresholds of their houses. A crowd has gathered in the city square, inside which two men are arguing about paying for their murdered husband. Each of them proves their point. The elders are watching the dispute. They sit in a circle, and in front of them lie gold coins, which will be given to the one who proves that he is right.

There is a war going on in another city. An armed army surrounded the city. There is no agreement among the warriors: some of them want to destroy everything, and some want to divide the valuable treasures that exist in the beautiful city. And the defenders are preparing for defense. Women, small children, and old men, already bent by old age, came out to the city walls. The warriors, led by Ares and Pallas Athena, ambushed the river, killed two shepherds and killed their flocks. Hearing the noise from the herd, the defenders rushed at the attackers and started a battle with them.

The next image shows ripe ears of corn in the fields, reapers with sickles, bales in the distance and boys gathering ears of corn. The field, surrounded by a high fence, is crossed by a path along which children walk with baskets of grapes as sweet as honey. A boy walks between them and wins the “loud-voiced forming” and sings a cheerful song in a gentle voice. Young people dance to the music and singing of a boy.

Next is a painting depicting a herd of steep-horned bulls walking from the yard to the bank of a stormy river overgrown with reeds. Suddenly two terrible lions attacked the herd and drove their claws into the poor animal, which roared loudly.

The next picture depicts a place for dancing, where young men and women are spinning, holding hands, and two buffoons are jumping in a circle of people. The master decorated the edge of the shield with powerful ocean waves.

The paintings on the shield of Achilles accurately convey the beliefs, life, and worldview of the people who lived in ancient times. Homer used this technique to show the life of ordinary people who worked hard, courageously defended their cities from enemies, and knew how to celebrate cheerfully.

Since ancient times, adventurers have been attracted to historical artifacts. Such things had beauty and personality, and carried magical properties that they endowed their owner with. Risking their lives, people went in search of treasures to the farthest corners of the world for the chance to become the owner of the coveted specimen. One of these artifacts is the shield of Achilles, which will be discussed in this article.

What it is?

The description of the shield of Achilles occupies a special place in Homer's work "The Iliad", which tells about the last tragic months of the Trojan civilization. One of the most significant figures in the work is Achilles. The text devotes a large section to his shield, which was unique in its significance, beauty and mysticism. It was he who was supposed to bring victory to Achilles and his people in the ten-year war with the Trojans. And he brought it.

Hero of the Trojan War Mythology

Achilles was born as a result of the marriage of the Myrmidonian king Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis.

The goddess knew that fate had prepared for her son the opportunity to play an important role in the history of the Greeks during the capture of the city of Troy. That people will remember him for a long time as a brave, courageous, glorious young man, whose strength will not be equal for a long time in the world. But she also knew about the sad end of his life under the walls of Troy.

The mother tried with all her might to protect the child from the inevitable ending. Thetis rubbed the baby with ambrosia, kept her in the fire, and bathed her in the waters of the Styx at night. All these actions promised him immortality and protection, and only the child’s heel, by which the mother held the child above the water, remained defenseless. Subsequently, this will play a fatal role in the life of Achilles.

Having received her husband's disapproval for her actions with the child, Thetis was forced to leave her husband's house and hide in the sea element of her father Nereus forever. Achilles was given by his father to be raised by the centaur Chiron, who fed him with the brains and internal organs of bears and lions.

While still very young, the future hero killed ferocious animals, surpassed the fastest-footed animals in running, and masterfully wielded weapons and healing. His power and strength were unsurpassed. The mother watched the life of her son, rejoiced at his successes and was always there to help Achilles in difficult situations and protect him from any danger. Her help and participation were needed when the young hero was left without his armor during the siege of Troy. The father gave armor, a spear from Chiron and immortal horses from Poseidon to Achilles when he himself could no longer participate in the many years of the Trojan War.

Achilles, having cordially provided these things to his friend Patroclus in the battle of Troy, was left without uniform. Thetis went to the mountain to get new armor for her son. He could not refuse the beautiful goddess’s request and in one night forged a shield for the hero.

Was Hephaestus a blacksmith or an artist?

And Hephaestus threw copper, tin, silver and precious gold into the fire. From five copper sheets folded together, the master forged a large, round and slightly convex shield for Achilles. Three rims border it, and pictures of tin, silver and precious gold decorate it. What did Hephaestus depict on Achilles' shield?

At the top there is a semicircle of the sky, and in the center of the weapon there is a hillock, which symbolizes the earth: it is in the center of everything. What could be more important? Around are pictures from Two Cities, symbolizing joy and sadness, good and evil. One city evoked thoughts of fun, people there celebrated weddings on the streets of the city, young boys played various musical instruments, and beautifully dressed girls saw them off with their glances and smiles. The second city is besieged by enemies and people, in the struggle for life, ambush the enemy. The gods of war Ares and Pallas Athena help the inhabitants of the city, watching what is happening from above, and on the ground and enmity they look for prey among the valiant warriors who are fiercely opposing the enemy.

The shield also depicts the city court in the form of a people's assembly. The elders with staffs in their hands express their opinions on various disputes among the city residents who come to them with their problems every day. A reward in the form of gold awaits the elder who judges correctly and with honor.

What else is depicted on the shield of Achilles? He depicted Hephaestus and the fields. Plowmen work behind the plows. On the outskirts of the field, cups of cold wine and coolness in the shade await tired workers. The master is also depicted harvesting wheat. Some people reap bread, others knit it, and children gather ears of corn. The owner of the field watches with joy how the rich harvest is harvested. Separately depicted are people preparing food for field workers. Some slaughter livestock to cook meat over a fire, others bake bread. The adjacent image shows the grape harvest. Girls and men carry ripe grapes in baskets. A handsome man plays the lyre, and around him people lead a merry round dance.

The next image shows a herd of rare gold and silver colored bulls going to the river to drink water. Lions attack cattle and tear the body of one of the poor animals to pieces. The shepherds want to help, they try to drive away the lions with the help of dogs, but they feel fear of the king of animals and only bark at them. In the neighborhood, grazing sheep, buildings for animals and modest shepherds' huts are shown.

What's the brightest thing on Achilles' shield? Another image shows stately young men and beautiful girls dancing in a round dance and villagers looking with joy at these dances. All these pictures from people's lives are surrounded by the World Ocean. It is located on the shield with a beautiful border, representing a white stripe. Hephaestus completes the complete picture on the shield with an image of the starry sky with numerous constellations - Orion, Pleiades, Hyades and Ursa Major.

Universe on one shield

All worldly life is depicted on the shield of Achilles. It includes joy in the form of holidays, and losses from war, and the simple life of people with daily routine work in the fields, and holidays with young men and women in love, dancing with happiness.

All this is decorated with the sea and heaven with our constant luminaries of day and night - the Sun, which shines unquenchably for us every day, and the Moon, which rules the World Ocean. People also assign a huge role to stars; many destinies depend on their location. People look at them and navigate by them. The whole Universe is captured on the shield of Achilles, and in the center of everything is the earth's firmament. It is to her that a person owes his life, his family. This shield can easily be called the greatest work of art. He was unique. Until this moment, neither people nor gods had such a masterpiece.

Victory and death

With this shield, the young warrior Achilles brought victory over Troy to his people, as the astrologer prophesied even before the hero’s birth. But here, under the walls of the defeated city, Achilles said goodbye to life in battle with his enemy Paris. He hit him with a quick arrow in the heel, the same one that was never dipped into the waters of the River Styx. The immobilized Achilles was unable to dodge the enemy’s second arrow, and it fatally pierced his chest. As the soothsayer promised, Troy was defeated, the hero’s age was short-lived, but bright. People composed legends and songs in his honor. Temples and statues were created for lay offerings.

The magical properties of Achilles' shield

The golden mirror disk carried incredible magical properties. He made the owner omnipotent over people and events in life. With its help, Achilles could navigate anywhere, find any desired settlement or any other place on earth and in the sky. People submitted to the power of his master and his will. He carried within himself the attraction of fame, power and all the riches of life. For its owner, money and gold flowed like a river.

The shield of Achilles (photo interpretation is given in the article) is endowed with such power that it is able to show a person who looks into it any event in life, be it past, present or future. But not everyone obeys the shield and shows visions. A person must have certain high spiritual qualities and inner strength.

The disappearance of the shield and the discovery of Troy

After the death of Achilles, the shield was taken by the gods to Olympus, as they believed that people were unworthy of its mystical qualities. Over time, the gods were unable to divide an artifact of such power among themselves, and since then the shield has disappeared forever.

For a long time, historians and archaeologists have been looking for confirmation of the existence of the Trojan civilization in the past, its hero Achilles and a magical shield that had no equal. The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann managed to find and excavate the destroyed city of Troy in 1873. Subsequently, Henry tried to find the grave of Achilles himself, in order to find the famous shield that bestows power, but the search was unsuccessful. The shield was not found. Hitler also made attempts to find this artifact, but the location of the shield is unknown to this day.

The meaning of tattoos

Since ancient times, people have applied drawings to their bodies for various purposes. Patterns on the body carry information about belonging to tribes, nations, position in society, marital status and the presence of children. With the advent of civilization, many designations were abolished, and tattoos became part of the lives of many young urban people. The versatility of the pictures, shapes, and volumes that people depict on their bodies is amazing. Each of them is unique in its own way and carries its own special designation, purpose and influence on fate.

Magic shield on the body

What will the image of the magical shield of the Greek hero Achilles on his body bring us?

It is recommended for strong-willed people who are able to stand up for themselves to apply a tattoo of Achilles’s shield on their body. Then such a tattoo will become an ally in any endeavors and affairs. The drawing will protect a person from many misfortunes and hardships that fate may have in store for him. The owner will be endowed with confidence and stamina, determination and drive. Will tell you the right direction in life situations. Or maybe it will also give wealth to its owner...

Every fruitful hypothesis initiates an astonishing eruption of unforeseen discoveries.

Brillouin

According to legend, the shield of Achillesforged in one night by Hephaestus. Achilles' shield had a raised center, symbolizing "The center of the world" On the shield of Achilles, Hephaestus forged the earth, sky and stars. According to legend, no one had such a shield: neither the warriors nor the Olympian gods. Heinrich Schliemann tried unsuccessfully to discover the Shield of Achilles all his life. So what was Achilles' shield? Researchers of Homer's Iliad have long paid attention to the cosmogonic information woven into the narrative of the death of Troy. This is how one of theelectric dischargespace explosionswho destroyed Troy, in the eighteenth chapter of the Iliad:"Got up Achilles, favorite of Zeus. Athena dressed his powerful shoulders with the fringed aegis of Zeus. The goddess of goddesses thickened a golden cloud above her head, and lit a dazzling flame around herself..

Later, when talking about meteorite showers, we will clarify this information, but for now let’s recall some places from the legend of Achilles, which the Achaeans identified with cosmic explosions that occurred over Achaea.

According to legend, Achilles' mother, Thetis, wanting to make him invulnerable, holding the heel, dipped him into the waters of the underground river Styx. Therefore, the heel turned out to be Achilles’s only vulnerable spot. And still the expression "Achilles' heel" means "vulnerable spot" a place of death. This mythological story is known to every schoolchild. In Russian the word Pyatina designated pillar base, including the fiery pillar of a cosmic explosion. In addition, in the world flood mythology the symbols “ retribution comets» served figure five and a hand. According to the legend, death of Achilles everyone mourned Achaeans, after which he was burned and buried in gold urn, made by Hephaestus in the burial mound at Cape Sigei, at the entrance to the Hellespont from the Aegean Sea.

And this myth has its own historical justification. As archaeological excavations testify, after the Cretan cosmic catastrophe of 1528 BC, many areas of Achaea were almost completely depopulated. Therefore, it is easy for us to extract scientific information from the myth of Achilles. The mythological dictionary testifies that “there were also sanctuaries of Achilles in the cities of Byzantium, Erythra, near Smyrna, on the island of Levka at the mouth of the Danube, in the Northern Black Sea region, in Olbia, near the Kerch Strait, where there were temples, altars and just plots of land dedicated to Achilles". (See Mythological Dictionary edited by E.M. Meletinsky, M., “Soviet Encyclopedia” 1990)

I believe that in this case we are talking about scorched areas of the earth, which were traces of cosmic explosions of the Cretan space catastrophe (“ Pyatinakh"), which the Greeks called by the mythological term Achilles' heel. It should also be recalled that Paris, who struck Achilles in the heel with an arrow, was born by Hecuba, who, during pregnancy, had a prophetic dream that she gave birth to a flaming torch (comet), from which Troy burned. And I admire the brilliant mythological interpretation of this cosmic catastrophe. Cosmic explosions that caused massive deaths of troops, in addition to the Iliad, are also described in “ Mahabharata", in the chronicles of the times of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose the Second, as well as in Russian chronicles, which will be discussed in detail during the course of the story. Traditions of Mithraism, which substantiated the legislative basis for the mythologization of all information about global space disasters associated with “ comet - retribution"in Christianity, which I already wrote about in the article about tauroctonia, made it possible to create a magnificent world mythological school with its own traditions and laws. Thanks to this, ancient authors, with the help of myths, managed to convey to us without distortion scientific information about space disasters of the past, and especially in detail about Noah's flood.

And I managed to fairly fully recreate the events of this disaster. And so that the reader does not get the impression that the above explanation was invented by me to justify my hypothesis, let’s expand the scope of information about “ space fives» , taking as an example facts from world religions: Judaism, Islam and Russian Orthodoxy.

It is not without reason that Jerusalem is considered the city of three religions, because This is where one of the most powerful cosmic explosions took place Cretan disaster of 1528 BC. The events of this cosmic catastrophe formed the basis of all major modern religious beliefs. According to one legend, in ancient times, on the top of Mount Moriah, a archangel with a fiery sword, who brought it over the holy city of Jerusalem. And in that place "Where heel The divine messenger touched the rock, the rock turned black and melted. And in this form it has remained to this day.". Later, David's son Solomon would place a altar, and then the famous Jerusalem Temple, the ruins of which are still amazing and are one of the greatest Jewish shrines. By the way, in the drawing accompanying the text of the legend, the fiery sword of the archangel is depicted in the form of a tailed comet.

Mount Moriah is also associated with a beautiful Muslim legend about the foundation of the most amazing Caliph Omar Mosque. This mosque has created a unique light effect, which, penetrating inside through colored glass, flickers with all colors. rainbows, reminding about Rainbow of the Covenant. According to Muslim legend, later, on top of Mount Moriah, The memorable events of the Muslim “Night of Ascension” also took place, during which the Almighty transmitted to the prophet the divine knowledge of the Koran, and it was from this mountain that the Prophet Muhammad began the difficult path to the establishment of the Muslim faith. Currently, the symbolic place of the epicenter of the cosmic catastrophe is shown to gullible tourists and pilgrims as « the center of the world » and the center of the whole world.

Needless to say, not far from Jerusalem, considered the navel of the Earth, there is Ginnom valley, better known as biblical "fiery Gehenna", in which thousands of city residents died, seeking salvation from a cosmic explosion. The place of another “underworld” (i.e., the epicenter of another cosmic explosion) of the cosmic catastrophe of 1528 BC. legends call the city Kutu(modern Tell Ibrahim). Moreover, the consequences of this cosmic explosion were so horrifyingly terrible for eyewitnesses who visited the site of the tragedy that Muslims still often call the underworld the word kutu.

And the word Armageddon(literally “top” Megiddo mountains » ), due to the death of the city of the same name from a cosmic catastrophe, is still a common noun to designate the “second coming” and “last judgment” among Christians.

In addition, we should talk about the most famous hours in Orloy, which count down the time remaining until the next appearance " comets - retribution”, which was symbolically depicted as an “angel with a fiery sword”, who counts down the time remaining until end of the world.