Greek Shield types from Bronze to Hellenistic Age

[Dan Howard]

Neither of the first two shields are ever mentioned by Homer. All of the shields described by Homer are circular. The tower and figure-8 shields are a couple of centuries earlier than the alleged date of the Trojan War. The next three are better contenders for Homeric shields. In addition, Homer uses the terms sakkos, aspis, and rhinos indiscriminantly - not to refer to different types of shield. More likely he just picked the word that best fit the meter of the poem. And before anyone tries the argument that Homer describes Aias' shield as tower shaped, no he doesn't. It takes a deliberate misinterpretation of the text to come up with that translation.

He also missed out on the earliest Mycenaean shield which was rectangular in shape as depicted on Akrotiri fresco.