BOOK NINE

The god Panic grips the Achaeans that night, and Agamemnon calls the chieftains to council. He weeps, suggesting that they go home. Diomedes speaks out against that plan, saying that he and his co-commander Sthenalus will fight, if needs be, alone. The chieftains shout their approval of his words. Nestor speaks next, suggesting that they take their evening meal as usual and that Agamemnon should give a feast for the chieftains. Nestor also proposes a plan for keeping careful watch during the night. Agamemnon follows the old chieftain's advice.

After the chieftains have had their fill of food and drink, Nestor advises Agamemnon to make peace with Achilles so that he will rejoin the fighting. Agamemnon agrees that it was madness that made him insult their greatest warrior, and prepares an offer for Achilles. He will give the great warrior fabulous riches, including one of Agamemnon's own daughters as wife and seven of Agamemnon's citadels, if only he will return and "yield place to me, inasmuch as I am the kinglier" (9. 160). Nestor proposes sending Phoenix, Great Ajax, and Odysseus, as well as the heralds Odius and Eurybates.

The ambassadorial party goes to the Myrmidon encampment, and they find Achilles playing his lyre and sitting with his beloved companion Patroclus. The two men rise on seeing the party, and Achilles treats his guests with great courtesy, asking Patroclus to ready food and drink for them. A good meal is prepared, with sacrifices to the gods, and Odysseus makes his proposal to Achilles. He tells him that the Achaeans are in trouble and need their greatest fighter, and he gives Achilles Agamemnon's offer. The offer is repeated verbatim from Agamemnon's own speech until the end, where Odysseus leaves out Agamemnon's statement about Achilles needing to yield to Agamemnon's kingly majesty. Odysseus also adds one final, important argument: if Achilles still hates Agamemnon, he should rejoin the fighting out of pity for his friends and fellow soldiers, who are being slaughtered for want of their greatest warrior.

Achilles responds that he will not return, nor would he even if he were offered treasures far richer and greater than those offered by Agamemnon. The possessions, Achilles argues, are not worth his life. His mother has told him that he can either stay and fight and gain great glory, or he can return home and have a long life. Achilles says that he will choose the latter option. He and the Myrmidons will sail for home. He asks Phoenix to return with them, if he wishes. Phoenix, now an older man, was an exile taken in by Achilles' father Peleus. Phoenix helped to raise Achilles, and he asks Achilles to listen to him now. He tells the story of Meleager, a man who was wronged and then out of pride refused to defend his country. He retired to his room with his beloved wife and stayed out of the fighting until the enemy was closing in and his own wife begged him to rejoin the fighting. Because he realized that his wife's own safety would be threatened if his countrymen lost the war, he finally went to battle. He drove the enemy away, but because of the suffering he had allowed to fall on his own people Meleager won little honor. Phoenix urges Achilles not to make a similar mistake. Achilles is still not moved. Ajax makes a final, angry entreaty, and Achilles responds that he will only fight if Hector comes and threatens the ships of the Myrmidons. The ambassadorial group returns to Agamemnon, without Phoenix, who stays with Achilles. Back at Agamemnon's encampment, the news of Achilles' continued withdrawal from the war is disheartening, but Diomedes tries to raise the men's spirits.