The Achaeans have just sacked a Trojan city. They are making their way home with their spoils. The
leader Agamemnon has claimed the greatest prize for himself: a beautiful woman named Chryseis,
the daughter of a Trojan priest named Chryses. The champion of the Achaeans, Achilleus, has
claimed the next best prize: a woman by the name of Briseis. The Achaeans are on their return
voyage when a Trojan ship carrying Chryses catches up to them. Chryses offers a great ransom
for his daughter but Agamemnon refuses. Chryses returns home and prays to the god Appollo for
assistance. Appollo begins to wipe out the Acheans and Agamemnon realizes he must return
Chryseis to her father. Agamemnon makes it clear that he intends to take the best prize
available, Briseis. These events occur in the first book and there is a dramatic speech between
Achilleus and Agamemnon that takes place between lines 120 and 190.
The argument is about the prizes seized from Troy, the two most beautiful women that they
captured. Agamemnon is forced to give up his prize to save his men and his ships, and as a result, the
great warrior Achilleus is forced to give up his prize to Agamemnon. As ruler Agamemnon feels he
should receive the greatest prize, and as the champion fighter Achilleus feels he should receive the
greatest prize, or at least, not have to give up his own. During this time the Trojan war is not decided
in either way, but the fighting on the side of the Achaians is dangerous because it could easily give an
This conflict between the two men is very important to the reader because it shows us what kinds of
things are important to the ancient Greeks. We can understand this situation today and we would
use words like "honor" and "pride", but the ancient Greeks had another term for this: "time". Time
refers to the honor of the individual and also to the possessions of the individual. The time that a
...