In the war of Troy, the Greeks having sacked some of the neighbouring
towns, and taken from thence two beautiful captives, Chryseis and
Briseis, allotted the first to Agamemnon, and the last to Achilles.
Chryses, the father of Chryseis, and priest of Apollo, comes to the
Grecian camp to ransom her; with which the action of the poem opens, in
the tenth year of the siege. The priest being refused, and insolently
dismissed by Agamemnon, entreats for vengeance from his god; who
inflicts a pestilence on the Greeks. Achilles calls a council, and
encourages Chalcas to declare the cause of it; who attributes it to the
refusal of Chryseis. The king, being obliged to send back his captive,
enters into a furious contest with Achilles, which Nestor pacifies;
however, as he had the absolute command of the army, he seizes on
Briseis in revenge. Achilles in discontent withdraws himself and his
forces from the rest of the Greeks; and complaining to Thetis, she
supplicates Jupiter to render them sensible of the wrong done to her
son, by giving victory to the Trojans. Jupiter, granting her suit,
incenses Juno: between whom the debate runs high, till they are
reconciled by the address of Vulcan.
The time of two-and-twenty days is taken up in this book: nine during
the plague, one in the council and quarrel of the princes, and twelve
for Jupiter's stay with the Æthiopians, at whose return Thetis prefers
her petition. The scene lies in the Grecian camp, then changes to
Chrysa, and lastly to Olympus.