In the final stanza, Hephaestos represents the author. He is “thin-lipped”, speaking only the truth. He is simple, and contrasts with the glorious “Thetis of the shining breasts”. Though she is shining, he succeeds in bringing her to the harsh nature of reality. She is convinced, as she “cried out in dismay”. All she wanted was to please her son, and in the course of that action was in a larger sense caught up in the pretenses of war. She wanted him to take his new glorious shield and fight to victory; she didn’t understand war, and she didn’t understand the fate of Achilles, until the end, when she finally comprehends war, and comprehends that her son “would not live long.”

Thetis, still deluded in her maternal instinct, further anticipates a great feast in honor of the gods, in order to assure the warriors, especially Achilles, victory. She hopes to see “ritual pieties, white flower-garlanded heifers, libation and sacrifice”. These images of purity, honor, and tradition are expected by her, and symbolize the purity and virtues she ascribes Achilles. She is not glorifying war, but instead simply stating her belief in what her son’s war is; the author is emphasizing the delusions held by Thetis attempting to sanctify war with its accompanying rites. Thetis wants to see an altar, in honor of the gods, celebrating her son’s upcoming great occasion. Instead, she sees on the shield “barbed wire enclosing an arbitrary spot,” penning the soldiers in, perhaps against their own wills. The setting is not structured in rituals but arbitrary, not necessary, just like the war. “A crowd of ordinary decent folk” are not feasting in honor of the gods, but are forced to watch the atrocities of war in their own backyards.

Thetis’ misconceptions about her son’s fate extend to the glories she expects him to achieve in battle. Yet Hephaestos depicts a scene wherein all the “mass and majesty of this world…lay in the hands of others.” This suggests that the soldiers’ fates are out of their control, determined by higher forces. This image on the shield is analogous to Achilles’ fate; all his great deeds and potential lies in the hands of the gods, who unfortunately have decided that he will die. Hephaestos expresses the futility of war,

Some topics in this essay:
Thetis Achilles’, Thetis Hephaestos, Achilles Thetis, Achilles Hephaestos, Troy Hephaestos, Iliad Patroclus, Shield Achilles, honor gods, WH Auden’s, true nature war, spoils war, glory son, fate achilles, hephaestos goes, senselessness war, nature war, fate hephaestos, shield depicting, true nature,