Chapter 16 16

The war entered its tenth year.Ajax, the Greek hero, went out to various places along the coast and returned with a full load of spoils.As Polydorus was murdered, this aroused the crazy hatred between the two sides, and even the gods in the sky intervened in this dispute on earth.Some gods only opposed the cruelty of the Greeks and sympathized with the Trojans; another part of the gods decided to protect the Greeks.Hera, Athena, Hermes, Poseidon, and Hephaestus sided with the Greeks; Ares and Aphrodite helped the Trojans.So in the tenth year of the Trojan War, there were more battles and stories than in the previous nine years combined.The poet St. Homer narrates his epic in terms of what happened in this period: the wrath of Achilles and the various sufferings he brought to the Argives.

The reason why Achilles was irritated was this: after their envoys returned from Troy, they threatened the Trojans, and the Greeks did not dare to relax and were ready for a decisive battle.At this moment, Chryses, the priest of Apollo, came to the barracks.His daughter was taken away by Achilles and later given to Agamemnon.In order to redeem his daughter, he held a golden rod of peace wrapped around the olive branch sacrificed to Apollo, and brought a large ransom, and came to beg the Greeks to return his daughter.He asked the sons of Atreus and the whole army: "Sons of Atreus and Agos, let the gods of heaven bless you to capture Troy and return to your hometown safely. If you are willing Accept the ransom I brought and return my daughter, and I will sincerely bless you. For the sake of God Apollo, hand over my daughter to me, I am the priest of Apollo!"

The soldiers listened to his speech and applauded enthusiastically to express their acceptance of his request.But King Agamemnon was unhappy.Not wanting to lose his beautiful slave girl, he objected angrily, "Old man, don't let you come near my ships again! Your daughter is my slave and will remain my slave. I will bring her to Jacob Si, live in my palace, let her weave for me all day! Go away, don't make me angry, and go home obediently!" Chryses was taken aback, retreated obediently, came silently to the shore, raised his hands to the sky, and prayed: "Apollo, you are the god who rules over such a large area, please listen to my complaint! For many years, I have cleaned the temple for you, chosen sacrifices for you, and sacrificed to you. I beg you to avenge me. Men of Goss, let them know how powerful your golden arrows are."

He prayed aloud.Apollo heard his request and left the holy mountain of Olympus angrily.With a bow and a quiver full of arrows on his shoulders, he came over the Greek camp with a gloomy face and shot down the poisonous arrows one by one.Those who were hit by the arrows all suffered from the plague and died miserably.In the beginning, Apollo just shot cattle and dogs.Later, he also shot people, and those who were shot died one by one.Firewood for the cremation of corpses was burned day and night in the camp.The plague spread for nine days, and on the tenth day, Achilles was inspired by Hera before calling the meeting.He asked for advice, hoping to ask a priest, a fortune-teller or a dream interpreter, to see what they could do to calm Apollo's anger and eliminate the disaster in the army.

Calchas, the soothsayer of the army, who could get omens from the flight of birds, stood up and said that if Achilles pardoned him, he could specify why the gods were angry.The son of Peleus told him to speak up so he could protect him.So he said: "The gods are not angry because we do not keep our vows and sacrifices. He is angry because Agamemnon abused his priests. If we do not return his daughter to him, Apollo will not be angry." He will let it go, and he will continue to bring disasters to us. Only by fulfilling his wishes can we regain the grace of God." Hearing this, Agamemnon's blood boiled with anger, his eyes flashed with anger, and he said aggressively: "You ominous prophet, you have never said a good word to me. Now you are here to confuse everyone again, saying that Apollo Send us the plague because I have refused Chryses to redeem my daughter. Indeed, I would like to keep her here. But to save the soldiers from the plague, I will give her up. Of course , there is one condition, I ask for a gift to exchange with her!"

When the king had finished speaking, Achilles replied: "Son of Immortal Atreus, greed drives you to demand and exchange spoils from the Argives. But the spoils we have taken from the conquered cities have long since It’s all gone, and now of course you can’t get back what was distributed to everyone. Therefore, please let go of the priest’s daughter! If Zeus blesses us and captures Troy, we will pay you three or four times more!” Brave hero," cried the king to him, "don't try to trick me! Do you think you can keep your booty well, and I will obey you and give it up? No! The Greeks don't make me up, then I'll take what I need out of your spoils. Whether it belongs to Ajax, Odysseus, or you Achilles, and it doesn't matter how angry you are , I don't even care. But we'll leave that for later. You go and prepare a big ship and sacrifices, put Chryses' daughter on board, and send a prince, I mean you, Achilles , personally escort this ship!"

Achilles said angrily: "Shameless and selfish king! Who else in Greece is willing to obey your command? The Trojans did not offend me, but I follow you and help you, for your brother Mene Laos revenge. Now you are ungrateful and want to take my spoils. Do you know that I took them and gave them to me from the Greeks! I captured cities, but the spoils I got were all Not as much as yours. I've been taking on the hardest combat missions, but when it comes to the spoils, you get the best part. Well, I'm going home to Futsia now! Here without me, see how much you can muster wealth!"

"Well, then go ahead!" cried Agamemnon. "Without you I still have heroes enough; Lyses's daughter back to him, but I will bring the lovely Brisaeus from your camp as compensation, and to let you know that I am nobler than you after all, so as to warn others, don't Against my will like you!" Achilles was enraged.He considered whether to draw his sword and kill the son of Atreus, or to endure it for now.At this moment, the goddess Athena quietly appeared behind him and said softly: "You must be calm and don't use your sword! If you are obedient, I will give you three times the reward!"

Achilles pushed the sword back into the scabbard obediently, but replied in angry words: "You despicable person, when did you think that you should fight the enemy with the noblest heroes of Greece on the battlefield?" Of course, it is very comfortable to snatch the spoils of a man who dares to contradict you here! I swear to you by this scepter: as this scepter cannot sprout from the oak branch. Similarly, from now on, you don’t want to see me fight on the battlefield again! When the fierce Hector slaughtered the Greeks like mowing grass, you don’t want me to save you. You will regret that you shouldn’t offend me in the future Your dignity is useless!" With these words, Achilles threw his staff on the ground and sat down.The righteous Nestor tried to persuade the two parties to reconcile, but it was still ineffective.Finally, Achilles said angrily to the king, "Do as you please, but don't expect me to obey you; I will not raise my hand against you or any other hero because of this girl. You may If she gives it to me, you can also take her away. But you have to remember, don't try to touch the other property on my ship, or I will kill you."

After the meeting was adjourned, Agamemnon ordered Chryses' daughter and sacrifices to be sent to the ship, and Odysseus would escort them back.Then the son of Atreus ordered the heralds Taltypius and Eurytes to bring the daughter of Blytheus from Achilles' barracks.They did not dare to disobey their master's order, and they came to the camp reluctantly. When they saw Achilles sitting at the door of the barracks, they were too timid to tell their purpose of coming.But Achilles had already guessed the purpose of their coming, so he said: "You don't have to worry, you are the heralds of Zeus and mortals, please come here, it's not your fault, it's Agamemnon's fault! My friend Patroclus, get the girl out and give them to bring her back! But I want you to testify before gods and mortals that if any one asks for my aid in the future and is rejected, it will not be my fault, but the Son of Atreus!"

Patroclus led the girl out.She reluctantly followed the two heralds, for she had fallen in love with her generous and gentle master.Achilles sat on the shore with tears in his eyes, stared at the dark water, and called to his mother Thetis to help him.Sure enough, a mother's voice came from the depths of the sea: "Oh, my child, I gave birth to you; your life is so short, but you have to endure so much suffering and insult! I will go to find you Thor, ask him to help you. But it will not be done immediately, because yesterday he went to the Gulf of Oceanos to enjoy the sacrifice of the pious Ethiopian, and he will not return in twelve days. Then I will go Find him, hug his knees and beg him! Now stay near the warships, ignore them, and don't go to the battle." Achilles left the shore and sat in the tent depressed, with his hands folded on his chest. Before, without saying a word. Odysseus came to the island of Charyses and returned the girl to Charyses.Surprised, the priest raised his hands to the sky, thanked God for his grace, and asked Apollo to stop bringing disasters to the Greeks.Sure enough, his prayers worked, and the plague stopped immediately.Odysseus sailed back to the camp and saw that all the sick had recovered. On the twelfth day, Thetis did not forget her promise, and she rose from the sea through the morning mist to the holy mountain of Olympus.She saw Zeus sitting on top of a high mountain, far above the other gods.Thetis sat down, embraced his knees with his left hand, stroked his chin with his right hand, and said, "Father, if I have served you in word and deed, allow me to serve you Pray: Watch over my son, for Fate wants his honor to wither prematurely. Agamemnon insulted him wantonly and robbed him of his spoils, so I pray you, all-father of gods, to bless the Trojans Now, let them keep the victory until the Greeks restore the honor to my son!" Zeus was silent for a long time, motionless.Thetis hugged his knees more lovingly, and whispered: "Father, please grant my request; or simply refuse me, and let me know that you appreciate me least of all gods!" Thetis entangled the All-Father unhappily and replied: "It's not good to do this. You are forcing me to fight and quarrel with Hera, the mother of gods. Go away and don't let her see you! I Nodding, it's my answer to you." Zeus just lowered his eyebrows, but the Holy Mountain of Olympus was already shaking.Satisfied, Thetis left Zeus and returned to the sea.But Hera blamed Zeus.Zeus said to her calmly: "Don't come to object to my decision. Don't talk too much, and obey my orders." Hera heard his words, was frightened, and dared not object to his decision any more.