Description

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In the war of Troy, the Greeks having sacked some of the neighbouring towns, and takenfrom thence two beautiful captives, Chryseis and Briseis, allotted the first to Agamemnon, and the last to Achilles. Chryses, the father of Chryseis, and priest of Apollo, comes to theGrecian camp to ransom her; with which the action of the poem opens, in the tenth year ofthe siege. The priest being refused, and insolently dismissed by Agamemnon, entreats forvengeance from his god; who inflicts a pestilence on the Greeks. Achilles calls a council, andencourages Chalcas to declare the cause of it; who attributes it to the refusal of Chryseis.The king, being obliged to send back his captive, enters into a furious contest with Achilles, which Nestor pacifies; however, as he had the absolute command of the army, he seizes onBriseis in revenge. Achilles in discontent withdraws himself and his forces from the rest ofthe Greeks; and complaining to Thetis, she supplicates Jupiter to render them sensible ofthe wrong done to her son, by giving victory to the Trojans. Jupiter, granting her suit, incenses Juno: between whom the debate runs high, till they are reconciled by the addressof Vulc.