Homer, with his Iliad, is said to have
reached Olympian eminence in recording reality as seen through his vision. At least
that is what one tends to infer on reading about Achilles in Iliad. One wonders if mankind has materially changed in the last three
thousand years after what Homer has described
about the general structure of society, the
relations of men and women to one another, and
even the physical circumstances of their existence.
The plot of Iliad is simple. King
Agamemnon, the overlord of Greece (Homer's
Achaea), induces all those princes who are in
allegiance with him to fight against King Priam of
Troy, since one of his sons runs away with his
brother, Menelaus's wifethe beautiful Helen of Argos.
The Greek forces camp beside their ships on the shore near Troy. For the last nine
years, they have been fighting under the dashing leadership of Achilles. Yet, they could not
bring the war to a conclusion. They could,
however, capture and loot a number of villages in
the Trojan territory.
But this successful looting leads to a feud between Achilles and his
commander-in-chief. Agamemnon had been allotted the
girl, Chryseis, as his prize. Her father, a local
priest of Apollo, approaches the Achaean camp requesting them to release her by
accepting a ransom. But Agamemnon refuses to give her up. Instead, he heaps insult on the
priest. The priest then prays to his god. As a
result, a plague results in the Greece camp.
Giving in to the public feeling, Agamemnon
releases the girl to propitiate the angry god. |
