Chryses, a priest of Apollo, comes to the Greek camp with a ransom and begs the kings to give back his captured daughter, Chryseïs. The Greeks shout that the priest should be respected and the girl released. Agamemnon does not agree. He tells the old man to leave, swears the girl will grow old in his house at Argos, and warns him not to lean on the god's ensigns. The priest walks away along the shore in silence, then prays to Apollo for revenge. The god comes down with his silver bow. His arrows fall first on mules and dogs, then on men, and for nine nights the pyres burn.
On the tenth day Achilles calls the army to council and asks for a seer to name the cause. Calchas will speak only if Achilles swears to protect him, because a king who is corrected holds a grudge. Achilles swears, and Calchas says the plague is Agamemnon's doing. The king's eyes blaze. He will give the girl back, but only if the army makes up his loss with another prize. When Achilles answers that there are no spare prizes to hand out, Agamemnon says he will take Briseïs from Achilles' own tent. Achilles' hand goes to his sword. It is half out of the sheath when Athena catches him by the golden hair. Only he can see her. She tells him to hold back, and promises that the king will one day beg for his friendship with gifts. He puts the blade away, but his tongue is not as obedient. He calls Agamemnon a dog in the face and a deer in the heart. He swears by a sceptre that will never bear leaves again that Greece will call for him and call in vain, and he hurls it on the ground. Nestor stands and talks of better men he once knew. Neither man gives way.
Chryseïs sails for home with Odysseus. The army washes itself clean and burns offerings to Apollo. Agamemnon sends two heralds to Achilles' tent, and they stand there in silence, afraid to say why they have come. Achilles tells them it is not their fault, sends Patroclus to bring Briseïs out, and makes them witness his vow that he will stay out of the fight even if Greece bleeds. Briseïs walks away with the heralds, looking back. Achilles goes down to the shore, leans over the sea and calls to his mother. Thetis rises like a mist. He tells her the whole story and asks her to go to Zeus and have the Greeks driven back to their ships, so that the king learns what he has thrown away. She promises to go, but not yet. Zeus is away feasting among the Ethiopians for twelve days.
When the twelve days are over, Thetis kneels at Zeus's knees with one hand under his beard. He says nothing. She asks again, and he tells her to leave before Hera sees her, and then he nods, and all Olympus shakes. Hera has already seen them whispering and demands to know what he has promised. Zeus tells her not to ask. Vulcan, the smith of the gods, fills a cup, tells his mother to give way, and pours wine for the rest with an awkward grace that sets the whole sky laughing. Down on the beach, Achilles sits by his ships and does not move.
