Iliad Book Nineteen

This is a translation of the nineteenth book of Homer’s Iliad, continuing

the sequence of books already available. 

Though this is one of the shorter books of the poem, it has a number of

interesting points, not least of which is that we are spared further

blood-letting until Akhilleus returns to the battle in the next book. The

major incidents in the book are the delivery by Thetis of Akhilleus’s new 

armour, and the subsequent reconciliation of Agamemnon and Akhilleus

as the former delivers the range of gifts promised the day before. 

One notable aspect of the transfer of gifts is the adroit way Odysseus

prompts Agamemnon to swear he has not laid a hand on Briseis, the 

beautiful slave-girl awarded to Akhilleus as a war-prize, and confiscated

by Agamemnon in an act of extreme stupidity.