Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ence of time at which the two poems were written. The " Odyssey " is evidently posterior to the " Iliad." 2. The unity of plan is perfectly observed in both poems, as we may judge by the exposition of the argument of the " Iliad " in the following chapter. CHAPTER III. ARGUMENT OF THE " ILIAD." The poet proposes to sing of Achilles's wrath, and its terrible consequences to the Greeks. When the poem opens, more than eight years of the war are supposed to have passed away. Chryseis, who has been allotted to Agamemnon as his portion of the Theban spoils, is the daughter of a priest of Apollo; her father proposes to ransom her, but is refused. Apollo, in order to avenge the cause of his servant, afflicts the army with pestilence. Achilles calls a council, at which Agamemnon consents to restore Chryseis, but declares that he will take in her place Briseis, the favorite of Achilles. Hence a fierce quarrel arises between the heroes, and Achilles refuses to take part in the war. He then entreats Thetis to prevail on Zeus to avenge his wrongs; she accedes to this request of her son, and her prayer is granted. Zeus, mindful of his promise to Thetis, deceives Agamemnon in a dream. A council of war is called, in which Thersites attacks Agamemnon for his conduct toward Achilles, and a battle is determined upon.This furnishes an opportunity for enumerating the forces, both of the Greeks and the Trojans. The armies now meet, and Paris challenges Mene- laus; Helen is to be the prize of the victor. Menelaus is victorious, but Paris is rescued by Aphrodite, and conveyed to the apartments of Helen. Agamemnon then demands the fulfilment of the conditions. Zeus sends Athene to renew hostilities, by causing some one to violate the truce. In the disguise of Lao- docus she persuades ...