The Hero 29
is at Troy for a simple reason: he promised he would fi ght. He gave
his word, swore an oath, and now he is in Asia Minor, rather than
back home in Greece. At the beginning of the poem he again makes
a promise, and this time it is not to fi ght, at least until Agamemnon
makes amends.
Agamemnon does try to make an apology when, after Achilles
leaves, the predictable happens and Hector, greatest of Trojan
fi ghters, goes raging through the Greek lines. Agamemnon now
understands that without Achilles the Greek army is not half what it
was. So Agamemnon calls his advisors together and tells them what
he will do. He will make restitution to Achilles; he will give him trea-
sure now: horses, gold, and armor. Later when Troy falls, Achilles
will have his pick of the plunder. Anything he wants he can have,
beginning with twenty women to serve in his house and join him in
his bed. When the troops return to Greece, Achilles can marry any
one of Agamemnon’s three daughters that he chooses and she will
bring an incomparable dowry. More than that, Agamemnon makes
a solemn promise: he will return Briseis to Achilles immediately.
And he swears that he has left her untouched: “I never mounted her
bed, never once made love with her— / the natu ral thing for man-
kind, men and women joined” (IX, 160–161).
But Agamemnon adds a fi nal clause. He will give Achilles all
these gifts and signs of res pect, but Achilles must do something too.
He must bow down to Agamemnon as his lawful king. He must be
willing to recognize that Agamemnon is superior. “Let him bow
down to me! I am the greater king, / I am the elder- born, I claim— the
greater man” (IX, 192–193).
When the ambassadors led by crafty Odysseus (the fi rst pragma-
tist) go off to speak to Achilles, they show him due res pect, and
they list for him the gifts the king is ready to give. They tell him
about the stallions and the gold and the marriage to one of the king’s
daughters and the dowry to follow. But Odysseus, being Odysseus,