The trembling priest at this refusal appeals to Apollo for vengeance on the Greeks, to which the sun-god responds by sending a pestilence upon them, which lasts for nine days. A council of the chiefs is held, and the soothsayer Calchas reveals the cause of the pestilence to be the refusal of the king to release the daughter of the priest of Apollo. The king is furious at the revelation, but, on being reasoned with, eventually agrees to give up Chryseis if some of the other chiefs will give to him one of their captives to take her place in his tent, and pointedly refers to Briseis, the prize of Achilles. Incensed at this demand, Achilles half draws his sword, but his wrath is restrained by Minerva, who suddenly appears to him—' of the rest none other saw her there' -and only replies by a furious denunciation of the greed and insolent pride of Agamemnon, for whom and in whose cause, and that of his brother Menelaus, he will no longer fight.

Nor yet the rage his boiling breast forsook,
Which thus redoubling on Atrides broke:
'O monster! mixed of insolence and fear,
Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!

When wert thou known in ambushed fights to dare,
Or nobly face the horrid front of war?
'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try,

Thine to look on, and bid the valiant die.

So much 'tis safer through the camp to go,
And rob a subject than despoil a foe.
Scourge of thy people, violent and base !
Sent in Jove's anger on a slavish race,
Who, lost to sense of generous freedom past,
Are tamed to wrongs, or this had been thy last.

By this I swear, when bleeding Greece again
Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain.

When, flushed with slaughter, Hector comes to spread
The purpled shore with mountains of the dead,
Then shalt thou mourn th' affront thy madness gave,
Forced to deplore, when impotent to save :

Then rage in bitterness of soul, to know

This act has made the bravest Greek thy foe.'

He spoke; and furious hurled against the ground
His sceptre starred with golden studs around,
Then sternly silent sat.

Agamemnon cares not for the scorn and threats of Achilles, who is at length prevailed upon to relinquish his captive by the intercession and arguments of old Nestor, and the king sends to the tent of Achilles two unwilling heralds to bring away 'Briseis of the dainty cheek,' while at the same time he restores Chryseis to her father, and the plague is stayed.

Achilles, still angry, wanders away to the sea-shore, there to vent his spleen and bewail his insulted honour; and then appeals to Thetis, his goddess-mother, for

comfort. The goddess responds to his call, and consoles the angry hero by telling him she will try and induce Father Jupiter to enable the Trojans for a time to have the mastery over the Greeks, and thus cause Agamemnon to regret the strong arm of Achilles, and ultimately restore the captive Briseis. Thetis, to fulfil this promise, now winged her way to Olympus, but the mighty Jupiter has already promised his wife Juno that he would not add further to the honour of Achilles, and was somewhat reluctant in acceding to the request of Thetis, but at last consents if only it can be hidden from the watchful queen of Olympus. That goddess, however, has seen and suspected the purport of the interview between Jupiter and his daughter, and at once reproaches him with the intention of helping the son of Thetis; but the ruler of Olympus heeds not Juno's scolding reproof, and bids her be silent in such a manner as to cause the other gods to tremble with fear.

Jupiter, to fulfil his promise, now sends a deceptive dream to Agamemnon, encouraging him to persist in the siege of Troy, and at daybreak the king calls a council of the chiefs. Wishing to test their faithfulness to his cause-which he fears is weakened by the defec

tion of Achilles and his Myrmidons, as well as by the late pestilence—the king proposes to raise the siege and return home. Weary and dissatisfied, as they could not but be with their long and fruitless leaguer of Troy, the army wish no better counsel, and immediately prepare to embark in their ships. This retreat, however, does not accord with the plans of the Olympian gods, and Minerva is despatched by Juno to Ulysses, who is commanded to take the sceptre of Agamemnon and beat back the recreant Greeks from their galleys; while with the chiefs he uses the more politic powers of praise and persuasion :

'Warriors like you, with strength and wisdom blessed,

By brave examples should confirm the rest.

The monarch's will not yet revealed appears;

He tries our courage, but resents our fears.
The unwary Greeks his fury may provoke ;
Not thus the king in secret council spoke.

Jove loves our chief, from Jove his honour springs ;
Beware! for dreadful is the wrath of kings.'

But if a clamorous vile plebeian rose,

Him with reproof he checked, or tamed with blows

Be still, thou slave! and to thy betters yield!

Unknown alike in council and in field!

Ye gods, what dastards would our hosts command!
Swept to the war, the lumber of a land.

Be silent, wretch! and think not here allowed

That worst of tyrants, an usurping crowd.

To one sole monarch Jove commits the sway;
His are the laws, and him let all obey.'

With words like these the troops Ulysses ruled,
The loudest silenced, and the fiercest cooled.

Again the chiefs are convened in council, when Thersites, 'the ugliest man who came to Troy,' commences to abuse the king for his conduct to Achilles and to the army, says he will obey Agamemnon no longer, and urges the assembled Greeks to desert his standard; but here anew Ulysses interferes and chastises the outspoken Thersites for his revilings, then turning to the assembled Greeks, he harangues them upon their defection and attempted flight, and urges a further prosecution of the siege of Troy

'For mean it were and sorry so long here to remain, And empty-handed turn at last, and our dear homes regain.' Calchas and Nestor follow in a similar strain, and at last 'the Greeks of the curling crest' agree to stay. After a sacrifice to the gods, the king sets his army in order of battle, and the rival hosts are confronted and waiting the signal for the onset

When to the van, before the sons of fame

Whom Troy sent forth, the beauteous Paris came,

In form a god! the panther's speckled hide

Flowed o'er his armour with an easy pride,