Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/120

106 And in close proximity was the delineation of a vintage; some gathering the fruit, vine-sickle in hand, and others carrying it away in baskets. By a marvellous skill in metals, a row of vines had been wrought in gold, waving with leaves and trellises of silver, and bending with grapes represented in some dark metal. Treading the winepress, and expressing the juice, completed the picture, which is less perfect than Homer's parallel passage.

But there was room found, it would seem, on this part of the shield, for athletic and field sports of various kinds, the chariot-race being the most elaborate description of the set:—

Around the shield's verge was represented the circumambient ocean, girding, as it did in Homer's view, the flat and circular earth with its boundless flood:—