He could have chosen to have any other girl, but it is Achilles’s booty he wants. The king in his turn sees the warrior over-reaching himself and punishes him by taking away his prized possession. Achilles regards himself as half-divine and speaks rather freely in the presence of Agamemnon. Is he then a good soldier? Again, you have to think to the argument between him and the king. Achilles here cares not for the well-being of his people, but for his own glory. But there is something so unpatriotic in wishing his enemy to win just to prove how important he is to the Greeks. After all, it was Agamemnon who displeased the gods. Is it just me, or Achilles acts rather childish in his grande exit from the Greek army? His reaction to having to surrender his own booty is understandable. Zeus gets angry at his wife and leaves, leaving Hera to be consoled by her son Hephaestus. But nothing escapes the queen of gods and she scolds him for taking part in the conflict. Zeus agrees to help, but hastes Thetis to leave before Hera, his Greek-favoring wife, discovers them plotting against her pets.

Soon after Achilles calls on his mother, water-nymph Thetis to convince Zeus to side with Trojans for a while and let them win a few battles to make them realize how valuable of a warrior they lost thanks to Agamemnon’s greed. Finally, Achilles gives in and exchange takes place, but his pride is wounded and the warrior flees home.Įurybates and Talthybius Lead Briseis to Agamemnon, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770).

The warrior rages some more and even contemplates to kill the insolent king, but he is stopped by a vision of Athena, who advises him to keep his cool. After much argument the King agrees to the demand, but only if Achilles surrenders his own trophy woman – Briseis. Achilles learns of the reason behind the god’s fury and demands Agamemnon to release the girl lest Apollo exterminates them all.

The multifaceted god sends plague on the evil-doers, which causes Achilles, the best Greek warrior to confront the kidnapper – King Agamemnon. This is also part of my TBR challenge, so I feel good starting the new year with knocking it down off my list.īook one opens with priest Chryses pleading Apollo to punish Greeks for taking his daughter as war booty. Ancient poetry is not your casual summer read, thus I want to take this opportunity to really get to know The Iliad. Instead of plowing through the poem and writing one post after I’m done, I would rather document my journey as I read each book. I am going to try and do something different with my Iliad reading.

The iliad book 1