The tide of battle turns several times, but the Trojan forces under Hector eventually push the Achaeans back to the fortifications they have built around their ships. In the fighting, many soldiers distinguish themselves, including the Achaean Diomedes and Priam’s son Hector. The armies plunge into a battle that lasts several days. Menelaus is victorious, but the Trojans break the agreement sworn to beforehand. On the battlefield, Paris and Menelaus agree to duel to end the war. Since Achilles is fated to die a glorious death in battle, an Achaean collapse will help give Achilles glory, allowing him to come to their aid. He calls to his mother Thetis, an immortal sea-nymph, and asks her to beseech Zeus to turn the tide of the war against the Achaeans. Achilles is enraged by Agamemnon’s demand and refuses to fight for Agamemnon any longer.Īchilles, the greatest of the Achaean fighters, desires revenge on Agamemnon. Agamemnon agrees reluctantly, but demands that he be given Briseis, the captive girl given to the warrior Achilles, as compensation. Calchas instructs Agamemnon to give back Chryses’ daughter. Desperate for an answer, the Achaeans ask the prophet Calchas about the plague’s cause. Chryses prays to Apollo to punish the Achaeans, and Apollo rains down a plague on the Achaean army. Chryses, a priest of Apollo from the sacked city, approaches the Achaean camp and asks Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaeans, to release his daughter, who is one of the captives, from slavery.

The Achaeans have recently sacked a nearby city, taking several beautiful women captive along with a lot of treasure. The Achaeans raised a massive army and sailed to Troy, bent on winning Helen back by force.Īs the story begins, the war is in its ninth year. The conflict began when Paris, the son of Troy’s king Priam, seized a willing Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, from the Achaean king Menelaus. The Iliad recounts a brief but crucial period of the Trojan War, a conflict between the city of Troy and its allies against a confederation of Greek cities, collectively known as the Achaeans.

The illiad book 2