Homer's Iliad

4 Pages 969 Words

So it is this taking of Helen inspired by a divine beauty contest, that brings the men of Achaea to the city of Troy across the Aegean. King Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, both sons of Atrides, is the leader of the Argive forces because he controlled the most troops commanded by any other individual Achaean leader. Agamemnon is from the great bronze age city of Mycenae. It has been estimated that the Argive forces were comprised of about 1000 ships, sailing across the seas from Aulis!

The battle on this, the first day of battle that we see in Homer's Iliad, begins with a "council of gods", during which the gods consent to inspire the Argive fighters to rise up and fight! Agamemnon recieves a dream, winged to him by the most powerful immortal Zeus. The dream arrives in the form of Nestor, the wise king of Pylos. Zeus has the dream tell Agamemnon that he should attack tomorrow, and that if they do they will be able to easily take the streets and walls of Priam's city. Early in the morning, the head Argive leader began to speak to the highest kinds and other leaders in order about his plan to attack, and as he thinks, win Troy. Before telling the men straight-forwardly what he has in mind, Agamemnon tests the entire fleet of ships from all the Argives.

Eventually Agamemnon manages to get all his forces from Greece lined up, ready from Greece lived up, ready to face the equally preparing Trojans, rallying their troops after seeing the Achaeans moving into place. The armies quickly march to front each other, and the beauty of Troy, Paris, came forth from the lines of Trojans to challenge any Achaean man to do battle with him. Menelaus quickly accepted the chance to get at his rival, whom was one of the main causes and impetuses for the Trojan War to be fought. In a sense this battle between Paris and Menelaus is a microcosm of why the Trojan War is being fought, and between the two different foes. This opens our eyes even clearer to t...