Authors of Greece | Page 3

this insult Achilles half drew his sword to slay the King, but
was checked by Pallas Athena, who bade him confine his resentment to
taunts, for the time would come when Agamemnon would offer him
splendid gifts to atone for the wrong. Obeying the goddess Achilles

reviled his foe, swearing a solemn oath that he would not help the
Greeks when Hector swept them away. In vain did Nestor, the wise old
counsellor who had seen two generations of heroes, try to make up the
quarrel, beseeching Agamemnon not to outrage his best warrior and
Achilles not to contend with his leader. The meeting broke up; Achilles
departed to his huts, whence the heralds in obedience to Agamemnon
speedily carried away Briseis.
Going down to the sea-shore Achilles called upon Thetis his mother to
whom he told the story of his ill-treatment. In deep pity for his fate (for
he was born to a life of a short span), she promised that she would
appeal to Zeus to help him to his revenge; she had saved Zeus from
destruction by summoning the hundred-armed Briareus to check a
revolt among the gods against Zeus' authority. For the moment the king
of the gods was absent in Aethiopia; when he returned to Olympus on
the twelfth day she would win him over. Ascending to heaven, she
obtained the promise of Zeus' assistance, not without raising the
suspicions of Zeus' jealous consort Hera; a quarrel between them was
averted by their son Hephaestus, whose ungainly performance of the
duties of cupbearer to the Immortals made them forget all resentments
in laughter unquenchable.
True to his promise Zeus sent a dream to Agamemnon to assure him
that he would at last take Troy. The latter determined to summon an
Assembly of the host. In it the changeable temper of the Greeks is
vividly pictured. First Agamemnon told how he had the promise of
immediate triumph; when the army eagerly called for battle, he spoke
yet again describing their long years of toil and advising them to break
up the siege and fly home, for Troy was not to be taken. This speech
was welcomed with even greater enthusiasm than the other, the
warriors rushing down to the shore to launch away. Aghast at the
coming failure of the enterprise Athena stirred up Odysseus to check
the mad impulse. Taking from Agamemnon his royal sceptre as the
sign of authority, he pleaded with chieftains and their warriors, telling
them that it was not for them to know the counsel in the hearts of
Kings.
"We are not all Kings to bear rule here. 'Tis not good to have many
Lords; let there be one Lord, one King, to whom the
crooked-counselling son of Cronos hath given the rule."

Thus did Odysseus stop the flight, bringing to reason all save Thersites,
"whose heart was full of much unseemly wit, who talked rashly and
unruly, striving with Kings, saying what he deemed would make the
Achaeans smile".
He continued his chatter, bidding the Greeks persist in their homeward
flight. Knowing that argument with such an one was vain, Odysseus
laid his sceptre across his back with such heartiness that a fiery weal
started up beneath the stroke. The host praised the act, the best of the
many good deeds that Odysseus had done before Troy.
When the Assembly was stilled, Odysseus and Nestor and Agamemnon
told the plan of action; the dream bade them arm for a mighty conflict,
for the end could not be far off, the ten years' siege that had been
prophesied being all but completed. The names of the various
chieftains and the numbers of their ships are found in the famous
catalogue, a document which the Greeks treasured as evidence of
united action against a common foe. With equal eagerness the Trojans
poured from their town commanded by Hector; their host too has
received from Homer the glory of an everlasting memory in a detailed
catalogue.
Literary skill of a high order has brought upon the scene as quickly as
possible the chief figures of the poem. When the armies were about to
meet, Paris, seeing Menelaus whom he had wronged, shrank from the
combat. On being upbraided by Hector who called him "a joy to his
foes and a disgrace to himself", Paris was stung to an act of courage.
Hector's heart was as unwearied as an axe, his spirit knew not fear; yet
beauty too was a gift of the gods, not to be cast away. Let him be set to
fight Menelaus in single combat for Helen and her wealth; let an oath
be made between the two armies to abide by the result of the fight, that
both peoples might end the war and live in peace. Overjoyed, Hector
called