mere
reprisals for the carrying off of Hesione by Telamon. Antenor having
been sent to Greece to demand reparation and rudely treated, Paris
makes a regular raid in vengeance, and so the war begins with a sort
of balance of cause for it on the Trojan side. Before the actual
fighting, some personal descriptions of the chief heroes and heroines
are given, curiously feeble and strongly tinged with mediaeval
peculiarities, but thought to be possibly derived from some similar
things attributed to the rhetorician Philostratus at the end of the
third century. And among these a great place is given to Troilus and
"Briseida."

Nearly half the book is filled with these preliminaries, with an
account of the fruitless embassy of Ulysses and Diomed to Troy, and
with enumerating the forces and allies of the two parties. But when
Dares gets to work he proceeds with a rapidity which may be partly
due to the desire to contradict Homer. The landing and death of
Protesilaus, avenged to some extent by Achilles, the battle in which
Hector slays Patroclus (to whom Dares adds Meriones), and that at the
ships, are all lumped together; and the funerals of Protesilaus and
Patroclus are simultaneously celebrated. Palamedes begins to plot
against Agamemnon. The fighting generally goes much against the
Greeks; and Agamemnon sues for a three years' truce, which is granted
despite Hector's very natural suspicion of such an uncommonly long
time. It is skipped in a line; and then, the fighting having gone
against the Trojans, they beg for a six months' truce in their turn.
This is followed by a twelve days' fight and a thirty days' truce
asked by the Greeks. Then comes Andromache's dream, the fruitless
attempt to prevent Hector fighting, and his death at the hands of
Achilles. After more truces, Palamedes supplants Agamemnon, and
conducts the war with pretty good success. Achilles sees Polyxena at
the tomb of Hector, falls in love with her, demands her hand, and is
promised it if he can bring about peace. In the next batch of
fighting, Palamedes kills Deiphobus and Sarpedon, but is killed by
Paris; and in consequence a fresh battle at the ships and the firing
of them takes place, Achilles abstaining, but Ajax keeping up the
battle till (natural) night. Troilus then becomes the hero of a seven
days' battle followed by the usual truce, during which Agamemnon tries
to coax Achilles out of the sulks, and on his refusal holds a great
council of war. When