Angering Apollo

     After finally setting sail for Troy from Aulis, we stopped and raided several Trojan islands. All the booty was divided and among the prizes were Briseis, for myself, and Chryseis, for Agamemnon. Chryseis was the daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo, who pleads to Agamemnon to return his daughter, but he refuses. After many days of plague, Hera puts into my head the reason behind it. Kalchas the seer, after securing my promise to protect him during his revelation, tells Agamemnon that Apollo is angry due to his dishonoring of the priest. As a result Agamemnon must give up his prize, but he’s a greedy old man, and decided that he mustn’t be left without one. So he takes mine, Briseis. Had it not been for Athena interfering at that moment, I would have killed Agamemnon. Instead, I lashed out on him verbally and withdrew from fighting under this despicable man. Later while I was alone by my ships, I cried out to my mother, Thetis, to help me understand the situation. If I’m alleged to have a brief life, why does Zeus bring me no honor? Thetis then goes on to Olympos and asks Zeus himself, who owes her a favor from a past deed, to grant the Trojans temporary glory on the battlefield so that Agamemnon realizes my importance to the Greeks sacking Troy. He bows his head in assent.

     How can Agamemnon treat me, the best of the Achaeans, with no honor? After all, it was I who received the thoughts from Hera, who pitied all of the dying Greeks, as to why we were being punished. If not for that information, more Greeks would have perished, perhaps Agamemnon himself. He has taken many prizes over the years, and he needs to be insulted by losing one of them? As I mentioned to him, there will be plentiful prizes to replace Chryseis after we sack Troy, but that doesn’t sit well with him. One day maybe I will get my revenge or at least receive the honor I feel I deserve. Until then, I will not fight.