Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/150

 136 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY of war. At this point comes in the dramatic ' motive 7 : Achilles (Gk. Achilleus), the noblest champion in the Grecian camp, in the name of the army, which has been victorious up to this time, demands from Agamemnon that he surrender this maiden Chrysei's. The plot deepens as follows: Agamemnon indeed grants the request, but in compensation for his own loss, takes away from Achil- les the girl Briseis, who has been given to him as a present by the army. Thereupon Achilles in anger with- draws from battle, and at his request his mother Thetis prays Zeus, the disposer of battle, to grant victory to the Trojans until her son shall have received full satis- faction. 179. In Books ii.-vii. comes the first climax, in a sub- sidiary plot. First Agamemnon tries to bring about an end of the war, without Achilles, by a single combat between Paris, who carried off Helen, and her rightful husband Menelatis. Paris, being vanquished, is rescued by Aphrodite, but the treaty is immediately broken by a treacherous shot of the Trojan Pandarus. Now the Achaians advance, and Diomedes, the son of Tydeus and ruler of Argos, who is under the special protection of Athena, and Ajax, the son of Telamon of Salamis, next to Achilles the most valiant of the Grecian heroes, distin- guish themselves in single combats. As Agamemnon already fancies that he has nearly won the victory over Troy, and at the same time over his rival Achilles, Zeus, out of regard for his promise made to Thetis, forbids the gods to take any further part in the struggle. Conse- quently the Greeks are driven back into their camp, where- upon the second climax begins, arid this time in the main plot (Books viii.-xii.).