The Illiad
Our story starts with the king of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, being asked by Chrysies, priest of Atreus, to free his daughter. Agamemnon decides to restore the girl to her father, but in retaliation takes Briseis from Achilles. Achilles, enraged, argues with Agamemnon, vows he will no longer fight for the Achaeans or for Agamemnon, and through his mother, Thetis, gets Zeus to fight for the Trojans. Zeus, keeping his promise to Thetis, tricks Agamemnon with a false dream into imagining he can capture Troy. Obysseus and Nestorthe oppose the plan to attack Troy.
The Trojan and Greek armies prepare themselves for battle. Paris then challenges Menelaus to single combat, to decide the war and the fate of Helen. Priam and Agamemnon agree to the duel and offer up sacrifices to Zeus. Paris then fights Menelaus and is about to be killed when Aphrodite rescues him and brings him back to Troy in a cloud. Agamemnon, angered, demands that the Trojans return Helen in fulfillment of their oath. Zeus agrees that the Trojans should suffer for Paris’ failure to fight, and sends Athene down to one of the Trojan archers and tries to persuade him to shoot at the unsuspecting Menelaus and gain fame for himself and his family. Pandarus, filled with greed, shoots at Menelaus and hits him in the leg. Agamemnon enraged, rallies his men for war. Diomed guided by Athene, kills many brave Trojan leaders. Although wounded, Diomed rushes and kills Pandarus and later wounds Aneans, and would have killed him had not his mother Aphrodite come and rescues him from death and carried him to Apollo. Knowing that Aphrodite is helping the Trojans, Diomed attacks and wounds her in the hand and drives her from the field. Athene then shows Diomed how to drive Ares from the battle since Ares has been helping the Trojans.
While the battle rages back and forth between the two armies, the Trojan Glaucus challenges Diomed, only to discover an old friendship which prevents them from...
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