On hearing this, Agamemnon was very angry.  He said that he would send Chryseis home, but that he would take Briseis away from Achilles.  Then Achilles was drawing his great sword from the sheath to kill Agamemnon, but even in his anger he knew that this was wrong, so he merely called Agamemnon a greedy coward, “with face of dog and heart of deer,” and he swore that he and his men would fight no more against the Trojans.  Old Nestor tried to make peace, and swords were not drawn, but Briseis was taken away from Achilles, and Ulysses put Chryseis on board of his ship and sailed away with her to her father’s town, and gave her up to her father.  Then her father prayed to Apollo that the plague might cease, and it did cease—­when the Greeks had cleansed their camp, and purified themselves and cast their filth into the sea.

We know how fierce and brave Achilles was, and we may wonder that he did not challenge Agamemnon to fight a duel.  But the Greeks never fought duels, and Agamemnon was believed to be chief king by right divine.  Achilles went alone to the sea shore when his dear Briseis was led away, and he wept, and called to his mother, the silver-footed lady of the waters.  Then she arose from the grey sea, like a mist, and sat down beside her son, and stroked his hair with her hand, and he told her all his sorrows.  So she said that she would go up to the dwelling of the Gods, and pray Zeus, the chief of them all, to make the Trojans win a great battle, so that Agamemnon should feel his need of Achilles, and make amends for his insolence, and do him honour.

Thetis kept her promise, and Zeus gave his word that the Trojans should defeat the Greeks.  That night Zeus sent a deceitful dream to Agamemnon.  The dream took the shape of old Nestor, and said that Zeus would give him victory that day.  While he was still asleep, Agamemnon was fun of hope that he would instantly take Troy, but, when he woke, he seems not to have been nearly so confident, for in place of putting on his armour, and bidding the Greeks arm themselves, he merely dressed in his robe and mantle, took his sceptre, and went and told the chiefs about his dream.  They did not feel much encouraged, so he said that he would try the temper of the army.  He would call them together, and propose to return to Greece; but, if the soldiers took him at his word, the other chiefs were to stop them.  This was a foolish plan, for the soldiers were wearying for beautiful Greece, and their homes, and wives and children.  Therefore, when Agamemnon did as he had said, the whole army rose, like the sea under the west wind, and, with a shout, they rushed to the ships, while the dust blew in clouds from under their feet.  Then they began to launch their ships, and it seems that the princes were carried away in the rush, and were as eager as the rest to go home.