328 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



which is undoubtedly only another version of the 

 "Shield of Achilles." The "Shield of Hercules" 

 occurs in a poem ascribed to Hesiod. But whatever 

 opinion may be formed respecting the authorship of 

 the description, there can be no doubt that it is not 

 Hesiod's work. It exhibits no trace of his dry, didac- 

 tic, somewhat heavy style. Elton ascribes the " Shield 

 of Hercules " to an imitator of Homer, and in support 

 of this view points out those respects in which the 

 poem resembles, and those in which it is inferior to, 

 the " Shield of Achilles." The two descriptions are, 

 however, absolutely identical in many places ; and this 

 would certainly not have happened if one had been an 

 honest imitation of the other. And those parts of the 

 " Shield of Hercules " which have no counterparts in 

 the " Shield of Achilles " are too well conceived and 

 expressed to be ascribed to a very inferior poet a poet 

 so inferior as to be reduced to the necessity of simply 

 reproducing 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 differ- 

 ent 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 expan- 

 sions 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 



