Achilles' shield is made by the smith god Hephaestus in Book XVIII, at the request of Achilles' mother, Thetis, because Hector took his old armor when he killed Patroclus. Hephaestus engraves on it a whole world. First come earth, sky, and sea, "the tireless sun and the full moon," and the stars. On the outermost rim, "the great force of the river Oceanus."
In the middle, two cities. In one there are weddings and banquets, brides led out by torchlight, and in the square a dispute over payment for the killing of a man, in which the elders give judgment one after another, and two gold talents await whoever speaks "the straightest judgment." The other city is surrounded by two armies, which divide between sacking it and sharing out its goods; among the fighters moves the deadly Ker, who "dragged a third, dead, by the feet through the press of battle."
Around them comes the life of labor: a field plowed three times, whose earth "darkened behind them and seemed plowed, though it was of gold," a vineyard of gold, a herd attacked by lions, and a dance like the one Daedalus made at Knossos for Ariadne. The shield shows peace and war side by side, as parts of the same world.
There is more than one reading. One sees in the shield a picture of everything war leaves out: marriage, justice, harvest, and dance, which the hero will carry on his arm while he kills. Another ties the shield to the coming death of the one who will use it, because Hephaestus himself tells Thetis that he would like to be able to hide it from death, "as surely as he will have fine armor." The gold of the shield also serves in battle: in Book XX it stops the spear of Aeneas.