NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES' SHIELD. 301 



Homer's words in other parts of the poem. Those 

 parts which admit of comparison where, for instance, 

 the same objects are described, but in different terms 

 are certainly inferior in the ' Shield of Hercules.' The 

 description is injured by the addition of unnecessary 

 or inharmonious details. Elton speaks, accordingly, 

 of these portions as if they were expansions of the 

 corresponding parts of the ' Shield of Achilles.' This 

 appears to me a mistake. It seems far more likely that 

 both descriptions are by the same poet. It is not neces- 

 sary for the support of my theory that this poet should 

 be Homer, but I think both descriptions show undoubted 

 traces of his handiwork. Indeed, all known imitations 

 of Homer are so easily recognisable as the work of 

 inferior poets, that I should have thought no doubt 

 could exist on this point, but for the attention which 

 the German theory respecting the Iliad ' has received. 

 Assigning both poems to Homer, the * Shield of Her- 

 cules ' may be regarded, not as an expansion (in parts) 

 of the ' Shield of Achilles,' but as an earlier work of 

 Homer's, improved and pruned by his maturer judgment, 

 when he desired to fit it into the plan of the ' Iliad.' Or 

 rather, each poem may be looked on as an abridgment 

 (the ' Shield of Hercules ' the earlier) of an independent 

 work on a subject presently to be mentioned. 



It is next to be shown that in the events preceding 

 the ' Oplopoeia,' there is a preparation for the introduc- 

 tion of a separate poem. 



In the first place, every reader of Homer is familiar 

 with the fact that the poet constantly makes use, when 



