The armament was again assembled at Aulis, but the goddess Artemis,
displeased with the boastful language of Agamemnon, prolonged the
duration of adverse winds, and the offending chief was compelled to
appease her by the well-known sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia. They
then proceeded to Tenedos, from whence Odysseus and Menelaus were
dispatched as envoys to Troy, to redemand Helen and the stolen property.
In spite of the prudent counsels of Antenor, who received the two
Grecian chiefs with friendly hospitality, the Trojans rejected the
demand, and the attack was resolved upon. It was foredoomed by the gods
that the Greek who first landed should perish: Protesilaus was generous
enough to put himself upon this forlorn hope, and accordingly fell by
the hand of Hector.
Meanwhile, the Trojans had assembled a large body of allies from
various parts of Asia Minor and Thrace: Dardanians under AEneas, Lycians
under Sarpedon, Mysians, Carians, Maeonians, Alizonians, Phrygians,
Thracians, and Paeonians. But vain was the attempt to oppose the landing
of the Greeks: the Trojans were routed, and even the invulnerable
Cyncus, son of Poseidon, one of the great bulwarks of the defense, was
slain by Achilles. Having driven the Trojans within their walls,
Achilles attacked and stormed Lyrnessus, Pedasus, Lesbos, and other
places in the neighborhood, twelve towns on the sea-coast, and eleven in
the interior: he drove off the oxen of AEneas and pursued the hero
himself, who narrowly escaped with his life: he surprised and killed the
youthful Troilus, son of Priam, and captured several of the other sons,
whom he sold as prisoners into the islands of the AEgean. He acquired as
his captive the fair Briseis, while Chryseis was awarded to Agamemnon;
he was, moreover, eager to see the divine Helen, the prize and stimulus
of this memorable struggle; and Aphrodite and Thetis contrived to bring
about an interview between them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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