Agamemnon’s Prizefighter Although Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad, is set during the Greek siege on the city of Troy, the story’s main conflict transpires within the Greek beachhead camp between their supreme commander, Agamemnon, and their greatest warrior, Achilles. The first book details the falling-out between Agamemnon and Achilles after Agamemnon takes away Achilles’s war prize, Briseis, causing Achilles to remove himself from battle in spite of Agamemnon. This scene shows the origins of Achilles’s rage, which Achilles harnesses to either punish the Greeks or defeat the Trojans. James Redfield examines the underlying causes behind the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon. Redfield draws on certain inherent characteristics within the two characters that create an inevitable feud between the two dominant figures. Since Homer aptly begins the story during the tenth year of the war, tensions within the Greek camp are at their highest. Achilles’s stature and prominence allows him to challenge Agamemnon’s power as king. And Agamemnon’s own rule and influence as commander are at stake when Achilles tests his authority. Achilles, himself, is at stake for Agamemnon, but Agamemnon’s self-importance ensures that he loses his best warrior for most of the narrative. Throughout the first book, the reader sees similar instances of Agamemnon trying to maintain control over different aspects of his authority while urging others to remain in the fight. However, his efforts to assert his preeminence tend to backfire and negatively impact his reign. When Agamemnon realizes that his authority and honor are at risk, he desperately tries to reaffirm his power as king, which inadvertently leads to the opposite effect. Agamemnon’s army is initially at stake after he ignores the pleas from the ranks. Redfield reveals that even though Agamemnon is “king of kings, dominant by virtue