The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-22


together with suitable offering of ami
mails for sacrifice at the shrine of the
offended deity. All the chiefs demanded
that this Immediately be done and at last
Agamemnon angrily and reluctantly con-
sented. Then turning to Achilles he de-
clared that if Chryseis was sent back to
her father he would have Briseis, the cap
tive of Achilles. for his own. Achilles
angrily denied the demand and the two
kings quarreled in open council. But the
word of Agamemnon was the supreme
law, and a herald was sent to bring Bril-
ses from the tent of the son of Thetis to
that of the great king, while the sage
Ulysses, loading a ship with hecatomb
of animals for sacrifice, took the lovely
| Chryseis on board api conveyed her to
the port of Chrysa There, before the
sacred altar in the great temple, ne gave
| her into her fathers hands. The victims
we're sacrificed, the sun-god was placated
and the plague ceased to ravage the camp
of the Greeks.
But the wrath of Achilles at the injus-
tice done him by Agamemnon was as
potent for evil to the Grecian forces as
had been the wrath of Apollo. The love-
| ly Briseis, leaving the hero's tent with
reluctance and often looking back with
signs and forward with dread, had been
spectacle to move the hardest heart,
| and Achilles, throwing down before the
great King his sceptre starred with
golden studs, declared that never more
would he draw sword in the cause of
| org o 1l1
ster of pride and arrogance as the King
of Mycenae, that when Greece should
again call for the might of Achilles and
his myrmidons she should call in vain.
Then he sullenly retired to his tent and
gave orders that his troops should take
no further part in the military operations
before Troy.
This condition of affairs SO distressed
the sea nymph Thetis that she appealed
to Jupiter, greatest of the gods of high
Olympus to make the Greeks sensible of
the wrong they had done her son. Jupiter
consented, which angered Juno, his wife,
and from that time on the immortals in
terested themselves in the war. some aid
ing the one Side and some the other,
while Jupiter kept the balance straight,
so that, after all, it does not appear
that much was gained by either Greeks
or Trojans by the interference of the
mmortals
Agamemnon was not entirely dspleased
that Achilles had withdrawn himself
from the army. His exploits had been
such that his fame had eclipsed that of
the commander-in-chief and, no rational
conmander-in-ch chief can look with favor
upon a, subordinate general who gathers
a heavier crop of laurels than himself.
To take Troy without the help of Achil
les to prove to the world that Agamem-
non owed nothing to the warlike son of
Thetis, and to enjoy the companionship
OF the lovely Briseis, wrenched by his
power from the arms of the Boosting and
boosted general-that, indeed, would be
glory and revenge combined. And when
the hollow ships of Greece should bear
the army back over the many-sounding
seas to the shores of Hellas it would be
| Agamemnon alone whom the nations
would acclaim great and victorious. But
| the great King wes wary withal, and
feared that the long delay in conquering
tho Trojans, the recent pestilence and
the detection of Achilles had disheartened
the army to such an extent that 1t was
In no mood for further fighting. So first
he summoned the chiefs, and. receiving
them on board his great black ship,
told them that. in a vision of the night,
he had been commanded by Jupiter to
resume the war; that --nodding Ilium
waited her impending fall But first he
would test the temper of the troops. The
chiefs agreeing, heralds were sent forth
and the great army mustered on the
plain. To them the proclamation pre-
pared by Agamemnon was delivered.
He stated that Jove had evidently de-
serted them; that the chief of the gods,
before whose DEGREES empires and armies
crumbled into dust, had left the Greeks
only the alternative of flight or of per-
ishing miserably upon the Trojan Shore
Beyond the main, home and sweet Greece
awaited them. Why waste their lives
and efforts longer on this disastrous
war? What was the will Of Greece? The
mighty host at once demanded to be led
home again and rolled. a tumultuous tide,
toward the ships which, with much
clamor. they at once began to fit for the
return voyage. But Agamemnon deliv-
cred his truncheon of command to the
wise Ulysses. who. running through the
soldiers, upbraided them for their cow
ardce, and with threats and prayers be-
sought them not to abandon thus an
enterprise upon which they had labored
so long and in which they had sacrificed
SO much. He told them what Agamem-
non had said in secret council of his
vision. and in every way strove to arouse
the valor and ambition of the chiefs and
the soldiers II in the throng some
urge the flight, him would Ulysses check
with sharp reproof or tame with blows.
Thus did Ulysses stem the tide of re-
treat and, raising high the royal sceptre
and asserting the throne, brought the
Greeks once more back to their former
hardihood and valor. When they saw him
welding the delegated sceptre of Aga
mennon and realized that the comman-
der-in-chief had only been testing their
courage and their stamina, they rolled
back to their entrenched camp. clashine
their arms and shouting their war cries,
more bent than ever upon the destruction
Of Troy, because in each heart was a de-
termination to wipe out by valorous deeds
the disgrace of their temporary panic. II
was in this temper that the army was led
forth to battle the next day by Aga
memnon. AS the Greeks left their camu
the Trojans. who had observed the panic