DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0265
214 THE MYCENAEAN AGE '
kneeling two men, apparently unarmed ; and in the rear,
just under the "wall, are two figures, which are variously
interpreted. Some take them for lancers covered by oblong
shields ;1 but the lances, instead of being beaten out of the
metal (in repousse), like the bows and slings, are mere
scratches on the surface (apparently due to chance),
Hesiod's while the " shields " may be only short cloaks.
picture __., . , . . . _
lhus interpreted we may recognize in the figures
aged non-combatants, watching the conflict; and we have
a scene the very counterpart of one wrought by Hephaestus
on the shield of Herakles: —
" Above them warrior men
Waged battle grasping weapons in their hands.
Some from their city and their sires repell'd
Destruction : others hastened to destroy :
And many pressed the plain, but more still held
The combat. On the strong-constructed towers
In very life, by Vulcan's glorious craft,
Stood women, shrieking shrill, and rent their cheeks.
The elders, hoar ivith age, assembled stood
Without the gates and to the blessed gods
Their hands uplifted for their fighting sons,
Fear-stricken. These again the combat held." 2
How little of this scene is wanting even on our fragment!
The walled town with the frenzied women on the ramparts,
the elders without the walls, the townsmen repelling the
assault — all are present. And on other fragments, we
make out fallen warriors stretched upon the rocky ground;
others carrying off the dead or wounded; others still
1 So, Rossbach, Philologus, 1892 ; Perniee, Ath. Mitth.,xvn. 216 ; Reicbel,
Ueber Horn. Wqffen, 142, who makes out a shield-strap on the left shoulder
of the first lancer.
2 Hesiod, Skidd of Herakles, 237-248, tr. Elton. So in the Homeric " Shield
of Achilles," in the series of natural and purely human scenes wrought in
inlaid metals by Hephaestus, we see a beleaguered town, with the women and
children standing on the wall to guard it, and the old men with them (Iliad,
xviii. 514 i.).
kneeling two men, apparently unarmed ; and in the rear,
just under the "wall, are two figures, which are variously
interpreted. Some take them for lancers covered by oblong
shields ;1 but the lances, instead of being beaten out of the
metal (in repousse), like the bows and slings, are mere
scratches on the surface (apparently due to chance),
Hesiod's while the " shields " may be only short cloaks.
picture __., . , . . . _
lhus interpreted we may recognize in the figures
aged non-combatants, watching the conflict; and we have
a scene the very counterpart of one wrought by Hephaestus
on the shield of Herakles: —
" Above them warrior men
Waged battle grasping weapons in their hands.
Some from their city and their sires repell'd
Destruction : others hastened to destroy :
And many pressed the plain, but more still held
The combat. On the strong-constructed towers
In very life, by Vulcan's glorious craft,
Stood women, shrieking shrill, and rent their cheeks.
The elders, hoar ivith age, assembled stood
Without the gates and to the blessed gods
Their hands uplifted for their fighting sons,
Fear-stricken. These again the combat held." 2
How little of this scene is wanting even on our fragment!
The walled town with the frenzied women on the ramparts,
the elders without the walls, the townsmen repelling the
assault — all are present. And on other fragments, we
make out fallen warriors stretched upon the rocky ground;
others carrying off the dead or wounded; others still
1 So, Rossbach, Philologus, 1892 ; Perniee, Ath. Mitth.,xvn. 216 ; Reicbel,
Ueber Horn. Wqffen, 142, who makes out a shield-strap on the left shoulder
of the first lancer.
2 Hesiod, Skidd of Herakles, 237-248, tr. Elton. So in the Homeric " Shield
of Achilles," in the series of natural and purely human scenes wrought in
inlaid metals by Hephaestus, we see a beleaguered town, with the women and
children standing on the wall to guard it, and the old men with them (Iliad,
xviii. 514 i.).