Great Books: #1a - Homer, The Iliad

Chryses, a priest of Apollo, whose daughter has been carried off by the Achaeans in one of their raids, comes to the camp to ransom her. But she has been assigned, in the division of booty, to the king who commands the Achaean army, Agamemnon, and he refuses to give her up. her father prays for help to Apollo, who sends a plauge that devastates the Achaean camp. Achilles, leader of the Myrmidons, one of the largest contingents of the Achaean army, summons the chieftains to an assembly. There they are told by the prophet Calchas that the girl must be returned to her father. Agamemnon has to give her up, but demands compensation for his loss. Achilles objcts: let Agamemnon wait untilmore booty is taken. A violent quarrel breaks out between the two men, and Agamemnon finally announces that he will take recompense for his loss from Achilles, in the form of the girl Briseis, Achilles' share of the booty. Achilles represes an urge to kill Agamemnon and withdraws from the assembly, threateing to leave for home, with all his troops, the next day. The priest's daughter is restored to him, Apollo puts an end to the plauge, and Briseis is taken away from Achilles' tent by Agamemnon's heralds.

Achilles turns to his goddess mother Thetis, asking her to prevail on Zeus, father of gods and men, to inflict loss and defeat on the Achaeans, so that they will realize how much they need him. Zeus is won over by Thetis (to whom he is indebted for help on a previous occasion), and in spite of the vehement objections of his wife Hera (who, like his daughter Athena, hates the Trojans and works for their destruction), he turns the tide of batle against the Achaeans. The Trojan leader Hector, son of Troy's old King Priam, dries the Achaeans back on their beached ships, round which they are forced to build a wall and ditch. At the urging of his chieftains, Agamemnon sends ambassadors to Achilles, offering him rich prizes and the hand of his daughter in marriage if he will return to the fighting line. The offer is refused, but hte please of one of the ambassadors, Phoenix, an older man who belongs to Achilles' household, do have some effect: Achilles withdraws his threat to leave the next day; he will stay until Hector and the Trojans reach his own ships.

The batle resumes and now the Trojan onslaught breaches the wall and threatens the ships. The Achaean chieftains - Agamemnon, his brother Menelaus, Diomedes and Odysseus - are wounded one by one. Achilles' closest friend, Patroclus, send by Achilles to find out how things stand int he Achaean camp, brings back the news and also pleads with Achilles ot relent. he does so only partly; he agrees to let Patroclus go into battle wiht Achilles' troops, wearing Achilles' armor. This is enough: the Trojans in their turn are thrown back. But Patroclus is killed by the god Apollo, Troy's protector, and by Hector, who strips off Achilles' armor and puts it on himself.

Achilles' rageis now directed against Hector, the killer of his dearest friend. He is reconciled with Aamemnon, and as soon as his mother brings hima splendid suit of armor, made by the smith-god Hephaestus, he returns to the battle, and after slaughtering many Trojans, meets and kills Hector. He lashes Hector's corpse to his chariot and drags it ot his own tent; he intends to throw it to the dogs and birds of prey. For patroclus he holds a magnificent funeral, complete with athletic contests and human sacrifice. Whenever renewed greif for the loss of his friend oercomes him, he drags Hector's body around patroclus' grave. But the body has been preserved from corruption by divine intervention, and the gods now decie (not unanimously, for Hera and Athena object) to send a message ot Achilles through hismother: he is to release hector's body for a ransom paid by King Priam of Troy. Achilles agrees, but what he dos not anticipate is the arrival in his tent of Priam himself, alone, in the middle of the night. Instead of sending a herald, he has brought the ransom himself and begs for the body of his son. Achilles is reminded of his own father, also an old man who will never see his son again; Achilles knows, for hismother has told him, that his death is to come soon after Hector's. he sends Priam back safely with Hetor's body to Troy and so, runs the last line of the poem, "the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses." We know already that the death of Troy's main defender seals the fate of the city and that, as Thetis told Achilles: "hard ont he heels of Hector's death your death must come at once."