Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/429

Rh It was obviously the point at which the poet might pass from the CHAP story of Achilleus to the exploits of other chieftains, and accordingly many books of the Iliad are taken up with narratives showing what The Iliad, those chiefs could and could not do without Achilleus. Whether these narratives formed part of the Iliad in its earliest form, is a point which we need not examine here ; but they are so arranged as to lead to the humiUating confession of Agamemnon that he has lost too many men to be able to continue the struggle with any hope of success — a confession which only admits in other words that the conqueror of lUon is not now in their assembly. The answer is obvious. Briseis must be restored, and Agamemnon must express his sorrow for all his evil words and evil deeds. If then any attempts were made to appease the wrath of Achilleus before the final reparation which he accepted, it follows that those attempts did not fulfil the conditions on which he insisted, and hence that the ninth of the books of the Iliad, as it now stands, could not possibly have formed part of the original Achilleis or Ilias. The apology which is here rejected is word for word the same as that which is afterwards held to suffice, and the reparation offered after the death of Patroklos is in no way larger than that which had been offered before. The rejection of a less complete submission is, however, in thorough accordance with the spirit of the old myth, and the mediation of Phoinix serves well to exhibit Achilleus to himself in the mirror of the character of Meleagros.

But taking the story as it now stands, we may well stand amazed The char- at the unbounded savagery of the picture. There is not only no Achilleus. pausing on the part of Achilleus to reflect that Agamemnon has a heart to feel as well as himself, and that the loss of Chryseis might at least weigh something against that of the daughter of Brises, but there is not the slightest heed to the sufferings of his countrymen and the hopeless misery of the protracted struggle. The one redeeming feature is his truthfulness, if this can be held to redeem a character which Patroklos describes ^ as fit only for one who is the child of the rugged rocks and the barren sea. If the tears of Patroklos are of any avail, it is not because he tells him of the wretched plight of the Achaian hosts, but because he is his friend, and his friendship is part of himself, his own selfish and personal concern ; and thus when that friend prays him, if he will not go forth himself, to let him have his horses, his armour, and his Myrmidons, Achilleus tells him that all his rage is because Agamemnon had taken from him the prize of his bow and spear, and that even now he would not have yielded a jot of his vow, if the war had not at length touched his own ships. '^ When

' //. xvi. 34. * lb. xvi. 63.