“Unbronzed of shields” is taken to be something like a kenning meaning that Ares manifests himself neither as a mass of bronze-clad warriors nor amidst one. An Ares not in the gear of war presents a riddle. The Thebans are clearly associating him with plague, but where can plague be a manifestation of war? In Athens the plague of 430 arrives on the heels of war, and in this sense, it is a manifestation of the war. The answer to the riddle of an Ares “unbronzed of shields,” then, is Athens. [Gt-a] [Apaon]