Of shields certainly small and light, worn by the chiefs, there is not a notice in the _Iliad_, unless there be a hint to that effect in the accounts of heroes running, walking considerable distances, and "stepping lightly" under shields, supposed, by the critics, to be of crushing weight. In such passages the poet may be carried away by his own _verve_, or the heroes of ancient times may be deemed capable of exertions beyond those of the poet's contemporaries, as he often tells us that, in fact, the old heroes were. A poet is not a scientific military writer; and in the epic poetry of all other early races very gross exaggeration is permitted, as in the [blank space] the old Celtic romances, and, of course, the huge epics of India. In Homer "the skill of the poet makes things impossible convincing," Aristotle says; and it is a critical error to insist on taking Homer absolutely and always _au pied de la lettre_. He seems, undeniably, to have large body-covering shields present to his mind as in common use. Small shields of the Greek historic period are "unknown to Homer," Mr. Leaf says, "with a very few curious exceptions," [Footnote: _Iliad_, vol. i. p. 575.] detected by Reichel in Book X. 15 [Footnote: _Ibid,_ vol. i. p. 569, fig. 2.], where Diomede's men sleep with their heads resting on their shields, whereas a big-bellied Mycenaean shield rises, he says, too high for a pillow. But some Mycenzean shields were perfectly flat; while, again, nothing could be more comfortable, as a head-rest, than the hollow between the upper and lower bulges of the Mycenzean huge shield. The Zulu wooden head-rest is of the same character. Thus this passage in Book X. does not prove that small circular shields were known to Homer, nor does X. 5 13. 526-530, an obscure text in which it is uncertain whether Diomede and Odysseus ride or drive the horses of Rhesus. They _could_ ride, as every one must see, even though equipped with great body-covering shields. True, the shielded hero could neither put his shield at his back nor in front of him when he rode; but he could hang it sidewise, when it would cover his left side, as in the early Middle Ages (1060-1160 A.D.). The taking of the shield from a man's shoulders (XI. 374) does not prove the shield to be small; the shield hung by the belt (_telamon_) from the shoulder. [Footnote: On the other side, see Reichel, _Homerische Waffen_, pp. 40-44. Wien, 1901. We have replied to his arguments above.] So far we have the results that Homer seems most familiar with vast body-covering shields; that such shields were suspended by a baldric, not worn on the left arm; that they were made of layers of hide, plated with bronze, and that such a shield as Aias wore must have been tall, doubtless oblong, "like a tower," possibly it was semi-cylindrical. Whether the epithets denoting roundness refer to circular shields or to the double _targe_, g-shaped, of Mycenaean times is uncertain.