Military in the media sex from their husbands to prevent them from going to war. The "Iliad", an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameters traditionally attributed to Homer, is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, and tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. The "Odyssey", also ascribed to Homer, is, in part, a sequel to the "Iliad", and is fundamental to the modern Western canon. The "Aeneid", written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, tells the legendary
The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses excerpted and reproduced, sometimes under the title of "Death the Leveller." Included in collections of familiar quotations, the poem is the most famous and popular work in Shirley's canon; Louisa May Alcott quotes its concluding line in "Little Women." The poem was set to music, and was well known as a song — King Charles II was reportedly fond of it. The play is set in the Grecian camp outside the walls of Troy, during the Trojan War; it opens soon after the death of Achilles, with the pages of Ajax and Ulysses disputing the relative worths of their masters.