Achilles Restrained by Athena in Agamemnon's Tent, from Iliad, Book I

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This drawing by Sweden’s most important Neoclassical sculptor and draftsman depicts a scene from Homer’s Iliad , set during the Trojan War. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, prays to Apollo for help after Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, has refused to return his kidnapped daughter. In response, Apollo inflicts a plague upon the Greeks. Agamemnon returns Chryses’s daughter, but demands Chryses’s second kidnapped daughter, who is held by Achilles, in exchange. Enraged, Achilles draws his sword on Agamemnon, at which point Athena intervenes, as seen in the drawing.

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