Outer Ring: CIRCLE-DANCING. From the Shield of Achilles by Kathleen Vail
© All Rights Reserved

“He fashioned there, also, a wide dancing floor, like the one in Knossos’ palace
That Daidalos made for King Minos’ daughter, the beautiful Ariadne.
Young men he pictured with noble young girls, all dancing there, hand in hand.
The girls were dressed in the softest of linen, with wreaths woven for their hair;
The men wore tunics gleaming with oil, and gold daggers on silver chains.
They danced in a circle, always in step, as a potter gives a spin
To a pot he is making, to see how it runs as it turns upon his wheel.”

[Homer’s Iliad, Book 18, Lines 590-602, Vail’s translation]