BBook Heavy spoilers Work: Iliad First appearance: Book XVIII Status: Complete

Iliad XVIII · The Armour of Achilles

Also known as: Iliad Book XVIII · Iliad 18

Iliad · Book XVIII

Achilles grieves for Patroclus and decides to return to battle, knowing that his own death will follow. Thetis asks Hephaestus to make him new armour, and the shield becomes the most famous object in the Iliad.

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Antilochus brings the news, and Achilles’ grief is violent and physical. He refuses food, cries out, and Thetis hears him from the sea. She warns him that his death will follow Hector’s, and he accepts it.

Achilles goes to the wall and shouts, and the Trojans retreat in panic. Thetis asks Hephaestus to make armour. The shield depicts the whole world: cities at peace and at war, farming, marriage, law, and dance. The book ends with Achilles arming and the poem preparing for Hector.

Opening lines

So fought they like unto blazing fire, but Antilochus, swift of foot, came to bear tidings to Achilles. Him he found in front of his ships with upright horns, boding in his heart the thing that even now was brought to pass; [5] and sore troubled he spake unto his own great-hearted spirit: — Homer, Iliad XVIII.1ff., trans. A. T. Murray (Loeb; Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Last updated: 2026-11-13 Entry type: Book