Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Zeus, keeping his promise to Thetis, forbade the gods to help either side and tipped the day toward Hector. The Achaeans were driven behind their new wall; Hector camped on the plain by the Scamander, fires burning night-long opposite the ships—a terror Agamemnon had not yet known. In despair Agamemnon proposed flight; Diomedes and Nestor overruled him. Nestor named the root: Agamemnon must win Achilles back with gifts and gentle words. Agamemnon offered vast amends: tripods, gold, horses, women, Briseis with an oath he had not touched her, and—if Troy fell—the richest share of spoil plus marriage to a daughter and seven cities of Messenia. Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix went as envoys, with two heralds; they found Achilles at the lyre with Patroclus. Odysseus recited the gifts and pleaded the army’s need. Achilles refused: he hated Agamemnon’s gifts as he hated the man; he would sail home at dawn; honor from Zeus mattered more than from Agamemnon. Phoenix wept and told the tale of Meleager, who saved Calydon too late after gifts and kin persuasion—yet Achilles still said Phoenix must stay as father-figure or leave with him, not rejoin Agamemnon. Ajax spoke last, bluntly: friendship and the host’s danger. Achilles softened only so far—he would not fight until Hector reached the Myrmidon ships and fire. The embassy returned empty-handed; the Achaeans slept under the shadow of Hector’s fires.