significance of achilles shield in chapter 18

This is kind of involved. Hephaestus gets to work. First, he forges the shield of Achilles. On the shield he crafts the image of earth, sun, sky, and sea. He also makes the image of two cities. In one city, there are marriage celebrations and dancing. In the market, the people have assembled to watch the dispute over a killed man. Two men argue their cases against each other, with witnesses for both sides, while the elders listen and prepare to make a decision. The second city is at war, under seige, with neither side giving way. Ares and Athena are among the troops, taking part in the battle. Apart from the city, two herdsmen go about their work ignorant of the battle taking place. Soldiers of one of the armies kill the herdsmen and take their cattle and sheep, but then these soldiers are in turn overtaken by soldiers from the other army. Hephaestus makes a great field, where farmers work the soil and raise their crops. There is also a vineyard, where young men and women work to the music of a lyre. In another part of the shield, lions attack cattle while their herdsmen launch an ineffectual hunt for the predators. There is also a meadow with flocks of sheep, and in another scene young men and women dance on a great wide dancing floor. The Ocean River runs all around the shield's outer rim.