THE NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES'S SHIELD. 329 



poet. It is not necessary for the support of my theory 

 that this poet should be Homer, but I think both de- 

 scriptions show undoubted traces of his handiwork. 

 Indeed, all known imitations of Homer are so easily 

 recognizable 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 Hercules " 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 intro- 

 duction of a separate poem. 



In the first place, every reader of Homer is familiar 

 with the fact that the poet constantly makes use, when 

 occasion serves, of expressions, sentences, often even 

 of complete passages, which have been already applied 

 in a corresponding, or occasionally even in a wholly 

 different, relation. The same epithets are repeatedly 

 applied to the same deity or hero. A long message is 

 delivered in the very words which have been already 

 used by the sender of the message. In one well-known 



