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BOOK II.
ARGUMENT.
THE TRIAL OF THE ARMY, AND CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES.
Jupiter, in pursuance of the request of Thetis, sends a deceitful vision
to Agamemnon, persuading him to lead the army to battle, in order to make
the Greeks sensible of their want of Achilles. The general, who is deluded
with the hopes of taking Troy without his assistance, but fears the army
was discouraged by his absence, and the late plague, as well as by the
length of time, contrives to make trial of their disposition by a
stratagem. He first communicates his design to the princes in council,
that he would propose a return to the soldiers, and that they should put a
stop to them if the proposal was embraced. Then he assembles the whole
host, and upon moving for a return to Greece, they unanimously agree to
it, and run to prepare the ships. They are detained by the management of
Ulysses, who chastises the insolence of Thersites. The assembly is
recalled, several speeches made on the occasion, and at length the advice
of Nestor followed, which was to make a general muster of the troops, and
to divide them into their several nations, before they proceeded to
battle. This gives occasion to the poet to enumerate all the forces of the
Greeks and Trojans, and in a large catalogue.
The time employed in this book consists not entirely of one day. The scene
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