Imagine – I and Achilles, wrangling over a girl,
battling man-to-man. And I, I was the first
to let my anger flare. Ah if the two of us
could ever think as one, Troy could delay
her day of death no longer, not one moment.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 2, lines 448-452. Speaking to his counselor Nestor, Agamemnon expresses some regret for having argued with Achilles – "wrangling over a girl," as he puts it. He knows how valuable the Trojan hero is to the Achaean war effort. If only he and Achilles could work together they could take Troy in a day, Agamemnon says, almost in a spirit of friendship for the man he quarreled with.