When Agamemnon heard Calchas's words, he was greatly stimulated. Anger flashed in his eyes, almost bursting out, and burned Calchas in his anger.
"Damn Calchas, has he surrendered to Achilles?"
Thinking of this, Agamemnon said to Calchas aggressively: "You are an ominous prophet, and you have not said a single pleasant word to me since you came here."
In fact, Agamemnon was so angry that he said this, but the prophecy of Calchas still helped a lot.
Far away, when Cynos was wreaking havoc in the Greek camp, Calchas predicted that Philoctetes could eliminate the troubles of Cynos; recently, Calchas and Odysseus went to invite Achilles to join the battle. And it seemed at the time that Agamemnon was very happy to hear this.
Agamemnon continued to speak loudly: "Now you come to deceive everyone again, saying that Apollo sent the plague to us because I refused Chryses to redeem his daughter."
At this point, Agamemnon suppressed his anger due to his long-term political literacy. It was impossible for him to confront the entire army. He said at the moment: "Indeed, I am willing to keep her here in my heart, but in order to protect the soldiers from I prefer to hand her back to Chryses despite the plague.”
Having said this, Agamemnon paused and said loudly: "Of course, you can ask me to hand over Chryseis, but I have a condition. I ask for a gift worthy of her, and you have to come up with it." Gifts exchanged with her.”
After Agamemnon finished speaking, out of his prestige and royal power, all the princes and heroes fell silent, including Calchas.
The young and arrogant Achilles felt something was wrong, stood up and replied: "Son of Atreus, how greedy you are. Greed even drives you to ask for spoils from princes and heroes."
"But have you ever thought about it, you are living in the hall, while many princes and heroes go out to conquer the countries in order to obtain food for the coalition, and 1/3 of each harvest will be handed over to you. You have already obtained what you deserve. It’s enough.”
"Besides, the loot we took from the conquered cities has long been divided (Note 1). It has been divided long ago. Only in this way can we maintain long-term morale. Now of course we cannot take back the loot distributed to everyone."
"In this case, everyone will no longer support you, son of Atreus."
"Since it is impossible to get the spoils back, I hope you can be more generous and let go of the priest's daughter so that our soldiers will endure less pain."
"Of course, if Zeus helps us capture the city of Troy, we are willing to compensate you three or four times!"
Achilles's words were loud and well-founded, directly expressing his attitude of compensating Agamemnon and hoping that Agamemnon would take into account the overall situation now.
"Brave hero, don't try to lie to me." This is actually reasonable and well-founded, but Agamemnon heard it even more harshly, because it shows that Achilles is not a simple warrior, but has a mind. Although now He is just "reasonable" and does not understand "humanity" yet, but he will learn it as he gets older, so he becomes more fearful and shouts loudly.
"You think you can keep your trophies well and I will obey your orders and hand over Chryseis?"
"No, if the Greeks do not compensate me, then I will take what I need from your spoils."
"Whether these things belong to Ajax, Odysseus, or you Achilles, or how angry you are, I don't care."
Agamemnon is now determined to ask for compensation, otherwise he will never retreat. In his opinion, if he takes a step back, it will be a compromise to Achilles and even the princes, which will cause great harm. His authority.
"Now, Achilles, I have to tell you that although I have promised to return Chryses's daughter to him, I will bring a noble woman from your camp as compensation."
"And I want you to understand that I am nobler than you after all. This is also a warning to others not to go against my will like you."
Agamemnon has lost his basic reason for what Achilles said. Although every prince knows the truth, it is not appropriate to say it publicly.
The young Achilles was immediately angered by Agamemnon. He pressed his sword and already had the idea of drawing the sword to kill the commander.
Blood splattered five steps, no problem.
At this moment, Athena, who had sensed the evil omen in her fate, quickly appeared behind Achilles and said softly: "Calm down and don't use the sword. If you can be obedient, I will give you three times the amount." reward."
If Achilles drew his sword, things would be serious, the Greek coalition would immediately fall apart, and the entire fate would be reversed (Note 2).
Achilles heard this voice and knew that the gods were talking to him. Since the gods told him not to use the sword, he could only choose to endure it temporarily.
Agamemnon didn't know that he had walked through the entrance to hell. If Athena hadn't stopped him in time, he might have needed to go to the realm of Hades.
Achilles obediently pushed the sword back into the scabbard and replied with anger: "You despicable person, when did you ever think that you should fight the enemy on the battlefield with the noblest heroes of Greece? If the war When encountering any difficulties, you are always the first to hide."
"Of course, here, it is a very comfortable thing to snatch the trophies from someone who dares to contradict you!"
Then, he pointed to the royal staff in Agamemnon's hand and said to Agamemnon: "I point to this royal staff and swear to you: just as this staff can no longer sprout and leaf out like a branch, from now on Get up, you never want to see me fighting on the battlefield again!"
"You can't expect me to save you while fierce Hector is slaughtering the Greeks like mowing grass."
"It will be useless for you to regret that you should not offend my dignity in the future!"
Achilles was also completely angered by Agamemnon, and he didn't leave any room for words.
"Arrogant young man, do you think we can't fight without you? Do you think I will come and beg you to save me? I tell you, you are daydreaming."
"I will definitely let you understand that without you, an arrogant young man, the Greeks can still win this war and conquer the city of Troy." Agamemnon was also mad at Achilles' words. He said furiously.
The two men were confronting each other. No hero or prince was present to dissuade them. Everyone watched silently.
Because he also knows that neither of these two people can persuade him. Not to mention Agamemnon, even Achilles is angry now and cannot listen to any advice.
"You can do whatever you want, but don't expect me to obey you; I won't raise my hand against you or any other hero because of this girl."
"You can go get it yourself, but you have to remember, don't even think about touching other property on my ship, otherwise I will kill you."
These words were a naked threat to Agamemnon with force, and everyone's expressions changed. After saying this, Achilles ignored everyone present and left the barracks and returned to his ship.
Everyone looked at each other in shock, not expecting that things would turn out like this.
"Have you seen it? Have you all seen it? This arrogant young man has never taken me seriously, nor has he taken anyone else seriously. Don't worry, without him, I, Agamemnon, can lead everyone to victory. .”
Everyone was silent and had reservations about Agamemnon's words. Under his leadership, several years passed without any substantial progress in the war against Troy.
"The meeting is dismissed." After Agamemnon announced that the meeting was dismissed, he returned to his barracks glumly, and everyone also dispersed. At this time, Achilles and Agamemnon were very worried about the conflict between them.
After the meeting, Calchas also looked worried. Faced with Agamemnon's aggressiveness, he chose to let Achilles protect him.
But in the end, Achilles and Agamemnon broke up on bad terms, and he could only hope that Agamemnon would compromise with Achilles, otherwise, his good days would be over.
Agamemnon returned to the barracks, still sulking, thinking that there was still a girl in Achilles's barracks who had not yet been brought back, so he quickly called the heralds Taltipios and Eurydice.
"You two go to Achilles's barracks and bring a noble maiden with you."
"Yes." The heralds Tartipios and Eurydice did not dare to disobey Agamemnon's will, so they agreed bravely.
Achilles and Agamemnon had a conflict at the princes' meeting, and now everyone in the camp knew about it. They were Agamemnon's heralds, and they knew about it immediately.
In this situation, they were asked to go to Achilles's barracks to fetch the girl, for fear of being killed by Achilles.
But no matter how reluctant they were, they had to rush to Achilles's barracks, otherwise Agamemnon would be the first to let go without Achilles taking action.
They reluctantly arrived at Achilles's barracks and saw Achilles sitting at the door of the barracks.
Because they were timid and did not dare to explain their intentions to Achilles, they could only linger far outside Achilles' barracks.
Achilles actually saw the two of them coming from a distance and guessed their purpose. He saw them wandering outside his barracks, looking like they were hesitant to speak, and he knew that they were afraid of him.
Achilles said: "I know the purpose of your coming here, you don't have to worry, it's not your fault, it's Agamemnon's fault!"
After speaking, he loudly said: "Patroclus, please bring the girl out and give it to them to take back."
"However, I want you to bear witness before gods and mortals. If anyone asks for my help in the future and is refused, then do not blame me, but blame the son of Atreus."
The heralds Tartipios and Eurydice looked at each other. They did not dare to answer. They could only pretend that they did not know about the contradiction between Achilles and Agamemnon.
At this time, Patroclus led a noble girl out. She was reluctant and kept looking at Prince Achilles with resentful eyes. Achilles turned his face to avoid her gaze and said: "Take her back."
The heralds Tartipios and Euryantes took the girl out. Patroclus saw Achilles' uncomfortable look and said, "Prince Achilles, you..."
Before the words could be spoken, Achilles waved his hand to stop him: "Patroclus, you don't have to worry about me, I'm fine, just let me sit alone."
Patroclus sighed helplessly and returned to the barracks, while Achilles got up and walked to the seaside, unknowingly bursting into tears due to shame.
Note 1: In the era of Greek city-states, unlike China’s centralized system, most of the soldiers were citizens, and the weapons were provided by citizens themselves. The state generally did not pay for it. As a price, 1/3 of the loot was usually given to them, so Achilles If you say you can't take it back, you'll offend the whole army.
Note 2: If Achilles draws his sword, one or both of Agamemnon and Agamemnon must die, and the Greeks will fail. Therefore, in a world with gods, the gods will not allow this kind of internal conflict to occur. Directly provoking internal strife is difficult to hide from the gods and take effect.
(End of chapter)