Book I

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The heavenly goddess here invoked was Calliʹope, the patroness of epic song, and one of the nine Muses. These were sister deities, daughters of Jupiter, who presided over poetry, science, music, and dancing. Apollo, as god of music and the fine arts, was their leader. They held their meetings on the top of Mount Par-nas'sus in Greece. On the slope of this mount was the celebrated spring or fountain of Cas-taʹli-a, whose waters were supposed to give the true poetic spirit to all who drank of them.

The epic poets usually began their poems by invoking the aid of the Muse. Homer does this in the very first line of the Iliad, the word for word translation of which is: "O goddess, sing the wrath of Achilles, the son of Peleus."

So also the English poet, Milton, begins his great epic poem, "Paradise Lost," which tells about the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden:

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, _Sing, heavenly Muse_, that, on the secret top Of Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of Chaos; or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd Fast by the oracle of God, _I thence_ _Invoke thy aid_ to my advent'rous song.

VI. THE DREAM OF AGAMEMNON.

Very soon great evils came upon the Greeks because of the strife between the chiefs. When Chryseis was restored to her father, Apollo stopped the plague; but the wrong done to Achilles provoked the anger of another deity. This was Thetis, who, having much power with Jupiter, was able to persuade him to take up the cause of her injured son.

For as soon as the heralds departed from his tent, leading away the fair-cheeked Briseis, Achilles withdrew from his friends, retired to the seashore, and sitting there alone he bitterly wept, and with outstretched hands prayed to his mother, Thetis. The goddess heard his voice, and ascending from the depths of the ocean, where she dwelt in the palace of her aged father, Nereus, she sat down beside the hero, and soothing him with her hand, she inquired the cause of his distress. "Why do you weep, my son? What grief has come upon thy mind?"

Then Achilles related to his mother what Agamemnon had done, and he begged her to go to Mount Olympus and entreat Jupiter to punish the insult that had been offered to her son. He spoke of the service she had done for Jupiter long before, when Juno, Neptune, and Minerva had made a plot to bind him, and cast him from the throne of heaven. They might have succeeded in doing this if Thetis had not called Briʹa-reus up from Pluto's kingdom to help Jupiter. Briareus was a mighty giant who had a hundred hands, and his appearance in Olympus so terrified the conspirators that they did not attempt to carry out their wicked plot.

"Now," said Achilles to his mother, "remind Jupiter of this, and beg him to aid the Trojans and give them victory in battle, so that Agamemnon may feel the effects of his folly in dishonoring me."

"Ascend to heaven and bring thy prayer to Jove, If e'er by word or act thou gav'st him aid. For I remember, in my father's halls I often heard thee, glorying, tell how thou, Alone of all the gods, didst interpose To save the cloud-compeller, Saturn's son, From shameful overthrow, when all the rest Who dwell upon Olympus had conspired To bind him,--Juno, Neptune, and with them Pallas Athene. Thou didst come and loose His bonds, and call up to the Olympian heights The hundred-handed, whom the immortal gods Have named Briareus."

BRYANT, _Iliad_,