ThinkQuest - Troy: Myth and Reality

Conflicts Among the Greeks

Conflicts arose in the Greek camp during the Trojan War, the most noteworthy of which took place between Agamemnon and Achilles. Because Agamemnon lost Chryseis, his personal servant, he took Briseis, the slave girl of Achilles, to stand in her stead. Naturally, this angered Achilles to no end. He withdrew from battle and begged his mother to appeal to Zeus for the Trojans until Agamemnon apologized for taking Briseis. Agamemnon held onto his prize and the Greek army suffered all the while at the hands of the Trojans without their greatest hero.

The god Apollo rained down arrows of misfortune upon the Greek camp, and while they lost dozens of men, Achilles watched and brooded from his tent, unwilling to help his fellow countrymen. With the Greeks losing men, Patroclus, Achilles’s best friend, donned Achilles’s armor and joined the Greeks on the battlefield. When the Trojans saw Achilles’s armor back in action, they assumed that it was Achilles who had rejoined the Greek ranks. Hector also believed Patroclus to be Achilles and rushed towards him, driven by blood lust. He ran him through and stripped Patroclus of Achilles’s armor.

Battle When word reached Achilles that his dearest companion had been killed by Hector on the battlefield, he went berserk with rage. Dressing himself in magnificent armor made by Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, Achilles stepped out onto the battlefield to gain vengeance for Patroclus. Any man who stood in Achilles’s path was instantly slain.

(Battle)

When he reached Hector, an incredible battle ensued. The fighting was fierce and both men knew that only one hero would walk away alive. The battle raged on furious for what seems like hours, but Achilles’s superior armor and superior skills were to be the death of Hector, and he was slain in revenge that very hour. Achilles stripped Hector of his armor and degraded the body, dragging it around the city walls from the back of his chariot. After that, the Greeks lost their good fortune and favor with the gods.

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	When word reached Achilles that his dearest companion had been killed by Hector on the battlefield, he went berserk with rage. Dressing himself in magnificent armor made by Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, Achilles stepped out onto the battlefield to gain vengeance for Patroclus. Any man who stood in Achilles’s path was instantly slain.
(Battle)