that he would not help the Greeks when Hector swept them away. In vain
did Nestor, the wise old counsellor who had seen two generations of
heroes, try to make up the quarrel, beseeching Agamemnon not to
outrage his best warrior and Achilles not to contend with his leader.
The meeting broke up; Achilles departed to his huts, whence the
heralds in obedience to Agamemnon speedily carried away Briseis.

Going down to the sea-shore Achilles called upon Thetis his mother to
whom he told the story of his ill-treatment. In deep pity for his fate
(for he was born to a life of a short span), she promised that she
would appeal to Zeus to help him to his revenge; she had saved Zeus
from destruction by summoning the hundred-armed Briareus to check a
revolt among the gods against Zeus' authority. For the moment the king
of the gods was absent in Aethiopia; when he returned to Olympus on
the twelfth day she would win him over. Ascending to heaven, she
obtained the promise of Zeus' assistance, not without raising the
suspicions of Zeus' jealous consort Hera; a quarrel between them was
averted by their son Hephaestus, whose ungainly performance of the
duties of cupbearer to the Immortals made them forget all resentments
in laughter unquenchable.

True to his promise Zeus sent a dream to Agamemnon to assure him that
he would at last take Troy. The latter determined to summon an
Assembly of the host. In it the changeable temper of the Greeks is
vividly pictured. First Agamemnon told how he had the promise of
immediate triumph; when the army eagerly called for battle, he spoke
yet again describing their long years of toil and advising them to
break up the siege and fly home, for Troy was not to be taken. This
speech was welcomed with even greater enthusiasm than the other, the
warriors rushing down to the shore to launch away. Aghast at the