Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

THE WRATH OF ACIIILLEUS. 16
son has been fully atoned. But to this Agamemnon will CHAP
IIL
not yet stoop. His chieftains stand around him in unim- „
paired strength, and the men whom they lead are eager for
the conflict. It was obviously the point at which the poet
might pass from the story of Achilleus to the exploits of
other chieftains, and accordingly many books of the Iliad
are taken up with narratives showing what 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 has been examined elsewhere; but they are so
arranged as to lead to the humiliating confession of Agamemnon
that he has lost too many men to be able to con-
tinue the struggle with any hope of success—a confession
which only admits in other words that the conqneror of
Ilion 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 Patro-
klos 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
at the unbounded savagery of the picture. There is not
only no 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 fea-
ture is his truthfulness, if this can be held to redeem a cha-