Storytelling - Week 2 : Fred's iliad

Once upon a time, there was a gorgeous woman named Helen. She was a wife of this charming man named Menelaus. One day, Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus, was kidnapped by the evil prince, Paris. Agamemnon found out that his brother was crying. So he asked,

"My beloved brother, why are you feeling sorrow?"

Agamemnon asked.

"Oh my brother, the king of all kings in the Greeks. My wife, My beloved wife was taken by that evil prince of Troy. I want to take her back, but I am nothing but an individual who has no power over the great country."

Menelaus cried. Agamemnon was furious. No man is allowed to take anything from his beloved brother. Agamemnon called heroes of Greeks. He reminded the promise that they made before Menelaus was chosen by Helen. All Greeks' brave warriors gathered.

Everything went well. Heroes united and they created friendship by sharing their brave stories. However, when they finally reached the shore of Troy, the problem happened. There was this beautiful lady who Agamemnon bought when he landed on the shore of Troy. She was the daughter of the priest who served Apollo. The old priest asked to get his daughter back and he would pay for any price. Agamemnon refused.

This action angered Apollo. Apollo decided to stand with his priest and started to kill Greek soldiers who were serving Agamemnon. Heroes of the Greeks knew that all soldiers would be dead before fighting against Trojans. The brave Hero, Achilles confronted Agamemnon with this problem. However, the ignorant king decided to take what was Achilles instead of admitting his fault. Agamemnon scolded Achilles, and Achilles angrily replied.

"Listen, the most arrogant king of all Greeks. Your eyes see nothing but yourself, your ears listen no words but your own. My hands are for those who respect the great Achilles, if you cannot see my skills and listen to my braveness, then my hands will no longer swing for you. I will not fight for you any longer."

Achilles gave the girl to the ignorant king and decided to leave the land. Agamemnon thought no Achilles would be needed to win the war. After all, there are many great warriors and they were all fighting for him, so he believed that one hero should not matter a lot.

He was wrong. Apparently, Troy had many brave warriors as well. Out of all Trojan warriors, Hector, a prince of Troy, the brother of Paris, shined among them all. He was the greatest fighter of Troy and no heroes of Greeks could stand against him. Many heroes died in the battle, and Hector, with his honor and the bless of gods, he was leading Troy to the Victory.

Agamemnon finally realized that, without Great Achilles, he could not win this war. He needed Achilles to defeat Hector. He knew this well, but he could not ask Achilles to rejoin the war again. So he called heroes who were close to Achilles.

"I am a great king. I am a king of all kings in Greeks. No one, but gods in Olympus, is above me, and Achilles shall not be the exception. With my pride and dignity, I would not ask Achilles to join this war. However, if he is willing to fight for his honor and fight for his friends, and fight for all nations of Greek!, then I will let him rejoin the battle."

Agamemnon said. Heroes were speechless. They all knew this was caused by Agamemnon and he was playing a role of victim. He was using all soldiers, and heroes to make Achilles feel guilty. They had no other choice but to convey the words of Agamemnon.

"What a selfish, foolish, and ignorant king he is. He may be a king of all kings, but no one is above anyone in the war. He is hiding under his tent and watching brave Greek soldiers die, yet he is talking about honor and glory. I would not rejoin the battle, my fellow heroes, as long as the greatest king of Greek is leading this war. With Agamemnon in my sight, you shall not see no shadow of mine either."

Achilles rejected Agamemnon. In fact, he decided to leave the battle ground to go back to his own country.

"Tell this to Agamemnon, my glory heroes. I am not running away from the war, nor running away from that brawny Hector, but I am indeed running away from the ignorance and arrogance of King Agamemnon."

The next day, Achilles left with his friend Patroclus. Patroclus insisted that he would fight against Hector, but Achilles stopped him. Finally, Achilles left the war.

Few months later, heroes of Greek returned. They were defeated. They could not take over Troy because no one could fight against Hector. In the returning ship, no shadow of Agamemnon could be seen. He was dead.

(Achilles who defeated Hector by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra)

Author's note : This is the story about the war between Greeks and Troy. The main story of Homer's Iliad was focusing on conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, and battle between Achilles and Hector. There are few side stories such as Thetis is begging for helping Trojans to help regain his son's glory, but I thought main focus of the story was about Achilles. I have chosen this story because I hated Agamemnon and I want to write a story about what if, Patroclus did not die so no one could defeat Hector. Agamemnon surely was just hiding under the tent so he cannot. In the original story, Agamemnon and Achilles argued and Agamemnon kicked Achilles from his troop. However, when he realized that Hector could only be defeated by Achilles, he sent few people to convince him to rejoin the battle. Achilles rejected but Patroclus, Achilles' friend was killed by Hector and eventually Achilles rejoined the battle and killed Hector. I did not like the story at all. I liked how Achilles honored his fridenship with Patroclus than anything but eventually Agamemnon got what he wanted. So I wrote a story of Agamemnon who got paid for his arrogance and ignorance.

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad from the Iliad retold by Alfred J. Church. Web Source: Mythology and Folklore Un-textbook