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Achilles' Shield Essay In Book 18 in The Iliad Achilles receives new armor. Among the new items is a shield, made by Hephaistos. This shield held everything valued in Greek life. The center of five concentric circles was the Earth. Surrounding that were stars, the sun, and the moon. After that, there was a ring of two cities, one of peace and one of war. The next circle has in it the agricultural aspects of Greek …

…and song. In the last ring, the ocean is represented. Greece's topography was made up of many archipelagos, water was constantly surrounding them. The placement of the ring of water, surrounding all of the previous circles can be seen to represent that water surrounded their life and the world they lived in. The ancient Greek culture was also a barter economy. Greek traders traveled throughout the Mediterranean, living a life on and around the sea.