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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—S

Shields

The most famous in story are the Shield of Achilles described by Homer, of Hercules, described by Hesiod, and of Æneas described by Virgil.

Other famous bucklers described in classic story are the following: That of

Agamemnon,
a gorgon.

Amycos
(son of Poseidon or Neptune), a crayfish, symbol of prudence. Cadmos and his descendants, a dragon, to indicate their descent from the dragon's teeth. Etcocles (4 syl.), one of the seven heroes against Thebes, a man scaling a wall.

Hector,
a lion.

Idoméneus
(4 syl.), a cock. Menetaos, a serpent at his heart: alluding to the elopement of his wife with Paris. Parthenopocos, one of the seven heroes, a sphinx holding a man in its claws. Ulysses, a dolphin. Whence he is sometimes called Delphinosemos.

Servius says that the Greeks in the siege of Troy had, as a rule, Neptune on their bucklers, and the Trojans Minerva.

It was a common custom, after a great victory, for the victorious general to hang his buckler on the walls of some temple.

The clang of shields.
When a chief doomed a man to death, he struck his shield with the blunt end of his spear, by way of notice to the royal bard to begin the death-song. (See Aegis.)

Cairbar rises in his arms,
The clang of shields is heard.

Ossian: Temora, f.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Shi-ites
Shield of Expectation
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