(This is really just a crossword puzzle. It's on an 11x11 grid. Use Wikipedia to look up whatever you need to look up.)
Thus wise Athena of Hephaestus bade:
Assemble all thy arts, and forge a shield
Eleven cubits broad, eleven tall,
Emblazoned with heroic epithets
Of gods and monsters dear to memory,
Each in its seemly place, all plainly writ,
And never touching but to intersect.
From topmost corner dexter (in the bearer's view)
Inscribe that Geatish hero, strong of arms,
Who Grendel slew, and made that ogre's arm
A present to great Hrothgar and his queen.
Descending from that name two more impress:
First, name that crafty sailor who contrived
To have no name, or by "No Man" be named,
And next that ghoulish Count the Poet met
Entrapped in Cocytean ice, who gnawed
At Ruggieri's nape, as once he had
At his own fingers gnawed, and gnawed perhaps
At other things. Athwart these names, announce
The maiden sweet that men called Ganymede,
Until from Arden's exile she withdrew;
Now make a shepherd's crook of that fair name,
And hang from its initial that of him
She loved, who deified her name.
Near to the far end of that name divine
A giant's name begins a steep descent:
That giant fell before my gorgon shield
And under Etna now uneasy rests.
(Another monster's title crosses his,
A noxious serpent's, who in Lerna laired,
Whose venom might slay man and beast alike—
—But Artemis, the Moon, the Huntress pure,
Puts down her foot upon the serpent's tail
And stays for now his fatal slitherings.)
The shield's foot will break the giant's fall.
And now, o able Smith, we come unto
The utmost corner of our work, where meet
Two mortal women, both beloved of gods:
The first of these lies stretched across the earth,
The bride of Cupid, luckless wife to Love,
Who suffered long and hard ere she was wed.
The second stands bedecked with laurel leaves,
Apollo's love—she stands eternally.
More names than these my aegis shall not need.
—So said Athena, and the Smith obeyed.
His forge glowed white; his hammer rained down sparks
To singe the heads of mortal craftspersons
Who fret o'er earthly crossword puzzle grids.
Eleven days and nights the master worked:
The mandate of a goddess drew his course.
At last Hephaestus raised a finished shield,
And reading cross its central braces saw
It answered wise Athena's requisites.
Answer Checker:
Hints: This is a crossword puzzle of sorts, on an 11x11 grid. You are allowed to use Google/Wikipedia/whatever. The names can't cross the boundary of the 11x11 grid, and they don't touch each other except when they intersect. If you're really getting stuck somewhere in the middle, you can try starting from the opposite corner. The answer is written horizontally across the middle (sixth) row.