Ahh.... the mood is set. Now to battle.
Starts off well enough. Not with a physical battle, but with a nice dilemma. Should the great king Agamemnon give up his prize for which his men fought so hard, or be merciful to an old temple priest whose daughter just so happens to be the aforementioned prize. Well... we all know the kindly nature of Agamemnon. Not! In true greedy form he threatens and frightens the poor man off. Who then goes off to ask his god, Apollo, to smite Agamemnon and his men. The gods seem to be very good at smiting. Family trait I guess.
Now the Achaians are in for it. Apollo is angry, and has a full quiver. Apollo hits them hard. Deaths everywhere with burning bodies day and night. That is, until a wise old bird interpreter(?), Kalchas, after asking Achilles to protect him from Agamemnon, tells of Agamemnon's greed being the cause of their plight.
Now we have the heated debate between Achilles and Agamemnon. Back-and-forth; back-and-forth; Achilles almost skewers Agamemnon out of anger(but Athena stops him); and then Agamemnon, after Nestor, whose "words [run] sweeter than honey," talks with great persuasion to both parties, decides that he'll just take Achilles prize as collateral for returning the priest's daughter.
Priest's daughter is returned with a big sacrifice and feast. Then Achilles' prize, Briseis, is taken away. He weeps, and asks his mom, Thetis, to ask Zeus to help the Trojans. So that he may prove how helpless Agamemnon is without him.
She asks and Zeus approves. Then Zeus has a marital spat with Hera because Hera has her money, so to speak, on the Achaians and Agamemnon. But thank goodness for Hephaistos who calms down the situation. The gods party and go to bed. End of Chapter 1.
Not too bad. Not quite the movie. Some of the sentences are a little hard to get the first time around. But it is a good start. Onward!
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