Use of myth in The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden’s poem – The Shield of Achilles – is a great poem that incorporates both the thesis and anti-thesis into it formulating an interesting synthesis. On one hand, there is Thetis, a minor goddess from the Ancient Greek mythology who embodies fortune, virtue and goodness and on the other hand, there is Hephaestus, a firesmith god from the same mythology, who portrays poverty, hardship and misfortune. The poet uses these two contradicting characters to showcase the conflicts between war and love.

The poet employs two significant characters from the Ancient Greek poet Homer’s Iliad – Thetis and Hephaestus – through whom the readers get to learn about the greatest Greek hero of all time, Achilles. Achilles is the son of Thetis, a goddess, and Peleus, a mortal king. When he was still an infant, his mother gave him a bath in the river Styx of the underworld which gave him immortality. Unfortunately, as he was held by one of his heels, the water failed to reach that spot, making that part of his body vulnerable. Years later in the battle with the Trojans, Achilles would pass away after an arrow went through that heel.

Thetis wanted to gift Achilles a shield made only for him by the one of the major gods, Hephaestus. She wanted the god to forge everything nice on the shield. She would have liked to see olive tree and people amidst merrymaking. In addition, she wanted the god to engrave images of well-governed cities and magnificent ships on the untamed seas. However, much to her dismay, all she found, as she peered over the shoulders of the god, were grim images of death and destruction.

Hephaestus engraved desolate and barren lands with barely any greenery, much less an olive tree. He drew a barbed-wire enclosure where the grave punishment of three people was being overlooked by sentries under the hot sun. Moreover, he told stories of rape and murder and lonely urchins on the metal shield through his skillful hands. All in all, the imagery Hephaestus created on the shield for the greatest hero of all time was something Thetis never imagined to give as a gift to her son. But she knew very well that she was in no position to change what fate the god had given to Achilles. Hence, she was compelled to accept this fate of her son brace herself for the terrible affliction that was about to befall Achilles.

In the last stanza of the poem, the poet implied that Achilles’s death in the Trojan War may have occurred due to what Hephaestus had drawn on the shield. Hence, the poet has successfully given an alternate backstory to a popular legend using myth in his poem.