For nine years a fleet of one thousand one hundred and eighty-six ships
and an army of more than one hundred thousand Greeks, under the command of
Agamemnon, lay before King Priam's city of Troy to avenge the wrongs of
Menelaus, King of Sparta, and to reclaim Helen, his wife, who had been
carried away by Priam's son Paris, at the instigation of Venus.
Though they had not succeeded in taking Troy, the Greeks had conquered
many of the surrounding cities. From one of these, Agamemnon had taken as
his share of the booty Chryseis, the beautiful daughter of the priest
Chryses; and when her father had come to ransom her, he had been insulted
and driven away by the king. Chryses had prayed to Apollo for revenge, and
the god had sent upon the Greeks a pestilence which was slaying so many
thousands that a meeting was called to consult upon what to do to check
the plague and conciliate the god.
Calchas the seer had declared that the plague was sent because of the
detention of Chryseis, and Agamemnon, though indignant with the priest,
announced that he would send her back to save his army from destruction.
"Note, however," said he, "that I have now given up my booty. See that I
am recompensed for what I lose."
Then rose the leader of the Myrmidons, swift-footed Achilles, in his
wrath, and denounced Agamemnon for his greediness.
"Thou hast ever had thy share and more of all the booty, and thou knowest
well that there is now no common store from which to give thee spoil. But
wait until Troy town is sacked, and we will gladly give thee three and
fourfold thy recompense."
The angry Agamemnon declared that if he were not given the worth of what
he had lost he would seize the maidens of Ajax and Ulysses, or Achilles'
maid, Briseis.
Achilles was beside himself with rage. He had not come to Troy to
contribute to Agamemnon's glory. He and his followers had long borne the
brunt of battle only to see the largest share of booty given to Agamemnon,
who lay idle in his ships. Sooner than endure longer such indignity he
would return home to Phthia.
"Go!" replied Agamemnon. "I detest thee and thy ways. Go back over the sea
and rule over thy Myrmidons. But since Phoebus has taken away my maid, I
will carry off thy prize, thy rosy-cheeked Briseis, that thou may'st learn
that I am indeed king."
Warned by Pallas Athene, Achilles took his hand from his sword hilt, and
contented himself with telling Agamemnon that he would see the day when he
would fret to think he had driven Achilles from the Grecian ranks.
Though the persuasive orator, Nestor, endeavored to make peace between the
chiefs, Agamemnon could not be softened. As soon as the black ship bearing
Chryseis set sail, he sent his unwilling men to where Achilles sat by his
tent, beside the barren deep, to take the fair Briseis, whom Achilles
ordered to be led forth to them. Then the long days dragged by in the tent
where the chief sat eating his heart out in idleness, while his men
engaged in athletic sports, and the rest of the Greeks fought before Troy.
Both armies, worn out with indecisive battles, gladly hailed Hector's
proposal that a combat between Paris and Menelaus should decide the war.
As the armies stood in silence, watching the preparations for the combat,
Helen, summoned by Iris, left her room in Priam's palace, where she was
weaving among her maidens, and, robed and veiled in white, and shedding
tears at the recollection of her former home and husband, went down to the
Scaean gates, where sat Priam and the men too old for war. When they saw
bright-haired Helen they whispered among themselves that it was little
wonder that men warred for her sake, so fair was she, so like unto the
deathless goddesses.
In response to Priam's tender greeting she seated herself beside him and
pointed out the Greek heroes,--Agamemnon, ruler over wide lands, crafty
Ulysses, and the mighty Ajax; but she strained her eyes in vain for a
sight of her dearly loved brothers, Castor and Pollux, not knowing that
they already lay dead in pleasant Lacedaemon.
In the single combat between Paris and Menelaus, the spear of the Greek
was fixed in Paris's buckler, and his sword was shivered on his helmet
without injury to the Trojan. But, determined to overcome his hateful foe,
Menelaus seized Paris by the helm and dragged him towards the Grecian
ranks. Great glory would have been his had not the watchful Venus loosed
the helm and snatched away the god-like Paris in a cloud. While the Greeks
demanded Helen and her wealth as the price of Menelaus's victory,
Pandarus, prompted by Pallas, broke the truce by a shot aimed at Menelaus,
and the battle soon raged with greater fury than before.
Diomed, having received new strength and courage from Pallas, rushed madly
over the field, falling upon the affrighted Trojans like a lion in the
sheepfold; then, made more presumptuous by his success, and forgetful of
the few years promised the man who dares to meet the gods in battle, the
arrogant warrior struck at Venus and wounded her in the wrist, so that,
shrieking with pain, she yielded Æneas to Apollo, and fled to Olympus.
Perceiving that the Trojans were unable to withstand the fury of Diomed,
assisted as he was by Pallas and Juno, Hector hastened homeward to order a
sacrifice to Pallas that she might look with more favor upon their cause.
Having instructed his mother to lay her richest robe on Pallas's shrine,
Hector sought his wife, the white-armed Andromache, and their babe,
Astyanax. Andromache entreated Hector to go forth no more to battle, to
lose his life and leave their babe fatherless; but Hector, upon whom the
cares of war sat heavily, bade her a tender farewell, and kissing the
babe, returned with Paris to the field.
Incited by Pallas and Apollo, Helenus suggested to his brother Hector that
he should challenge the bravest of the Greeks to single combat. The lot
fell to Ajax the Greater, and the two mighty heroes contested with spears
and stones until twilight fell, and they were parted by a herald.
That night the Greeks feasted, and when, the next morning, a Trojan
messenger offered them the treasures of Helen if they would withdraw from
Troy, and proposed a truce, they indignantly rejected the offer, declaring
that they would not even accept Helen herself, but agreed upon a truce in
which to bury the dead.
When the battle was renewed, Jupiter forbade the gods to take part.
Opposed by no celestial foes, the Trojans were this day successful, and
having pursued the Greeks to the ships, sat all night, full of hope,
around their thousand watch fires, waiting for the morn.
In the Grecian camp, however, a different scene was being enacted.
Disheartened by their defeat, Agamemnon proposed that the armies give up
the siege and return to Greece.