While Auden's The Shield of Achilles gives a glimpse of the mythology concerning the great Trojan War, the lines themselves are immersed in their own battle of legos vs. pathos as the two main characters' dissenting views and one's triumph over the other illustrate an everlasting plight of humanity. Thetis, the mother of Achilles, is hope personified, as she acts in desperation to save her son from death, in spite of the knowledge of his inevitable fate. As she watches Hephaestus forge the indestructible shield for her son, she relentlessly searches for signs in the shield's pictorial that her hope may be justified. Hephaestus, on the other hand, as Thetis' adversary, epitomizes pragmatism, the antagonist of hope, while sourcing from despair and wretchedness. In classical mythology, he proved wretched from birth, coming into life as a cripple and depicted here as a "thin-lipped armorer" who "hobbled", while "Thetis of the shining breasts" was one of the Nereids, sea-nymphs......

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Title: The Shield Of Achilles
Approximate Word Count: 445
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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