![]() ![]() ![]() He sends her safely aboard a ship heading home, and then he sends his heralds to collect Briseis (Achilles' war prize) for him. Nevertheless, Agamemnon decides to appease Apollo he will return Chryseis, his war prize. He will not fight, and, furthermore, he and his men will return to their own country as soon as possible. Thus, he announces that he is withdrawing all of his troops from battle. However, Achilles is stunned by the public disgrace of having Agamemnon demand Briseis, and he refuses to accept the indignity that he feels Agamemnon has made him undergo in full view of all the soldiers. He insists that if he is forced to surrender Chryseis, his rightful war prize, then he must be repaid with Achilles' war prize, Briseis. When the soothsayer reveals that the plague is the result of Agamemnon's refusal to return Chryseis to her father, Agamemnon is furious that he has been publicly named as being responsible for the plague. Kalchas, an Achaian soothsayer, volunteers to explain the cause of the pestilence, but only if he is guaranteed personal protection. ![]() Usurping Agamemnon's authority, Achilles calls an assembly of the army, and he suggests that a soothsayer be called upon to determine the cause of Apollo's anger. On the tenth day of the plague, Achilles can wait no longer for King Agamemnon to act to end the plague. Consequently, Chryses prays to Apollo who brings a plague on the Achaian camp. The troops awarded these girls to Agamemnon, the commander-in-chief of the army, and to Achilles, the Achaians' greatest warrior.Ĭhryses, the father of Chryseis, pleads for her return but Agamemnon denies the plea. The reader is then carried to the point where the trouble originally arose, which is where the story of the Iliad actually begins: in the middle of war.ĭuring one of the Achaian (Greek) army's many raids on the cities located near Troy, the Achaians captured two beautiful enemy maidens, Chryseis and Briseis. In this invocation, Homer states his theme - the wrath, or the anger, of Achilles and its effects - and requests the aid of the muse so that he can properly recount the story. As was the tradition in epic poetry, the Iliad opens in medias res, meaning "in the middle of things," although the action is always preceded by the poet's invocation to the muse (the goddess) of poetry. As such the epic stands as a bridge between history and literature. ( l.c.) the genius or powers characteristic of a poet.Chronicling the deeds of great heroes from the past who helped form a society, the Iliad is an epic poem.( sometimes l.c.) the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.any goddess presiding over a particular art.Identified by the Romans with the Camenae. any of a number of sister goddesses, originally given as Aoede (song), Melete (meditation), and Mneme (memory), but latterly and more commonly as the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over various arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).See corresponding entry in Unabridged ponder, contemplate, deliberate. See corresponding entry in Unabridged cogitate, ruminate, think dream. Middle English musen to mutter, gaze meditatively on, be astonished 1300–50.ultimately derivative of Medieval Latin mūsum muzzle
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |