Overview of the Plot

Summary

I shall tell you briefly about the actions that will make up my whole book and about what I propose to treat in it. At the very beginning I shall tell you about Peleus, who lived for more than a hundred years. He had a noble wife, lady Thetis; that was her name, I believe. The two of them had a son, Achilles, who became very worthy and renowned. Next I shall tell you how Jason and Hercules, through their ingenuity and treachery, went to seek the Golden Fleece and how Medea used her knowledge to help them obtain and get hold of it. Then I shall tell you by what pretext they brought down Ilion and all of Troy, which was not yet very large, and how Laomedon, who was king and lord of that country, was slain. And you will hear how, after this destruction, Priam, a wise and courtly king, rebuilt it, how wide it was and how broad, and by which people it was populated; how they deliberated with lord Hector and Paris about seeking their aunt Hesiona, and how the noble count Antenor went to Greece to ask for her return. Afterwards, you will hear told and recounted what lord Paris, who abducted lady Helen, accomplished, how the temple, in which a thousand men were hacked to pieces, was destroyed, and about their marriage and its consummation, for which many paid dearly. (145–84)

Afterwards, you will hear the prophecies that no one wanted to heed or believe in any way at all, and because of this misfortune befell Priam. For Agamemnon and Menelaus, Telamon and Ajax, Palamedes and Ulysses, the duke of Athens and Achilles, together with a hundred powerful and renowned kings, set sail in anger with a great and formidable fleet to attack the Trojans. Never before or after did so many powerful knights unite, according to what I find in Dares's History. You will hear how many were in the fleet, how it was assembled, including the descriptions and appearances, the manners, characteristics and features of the kings and princes, damsels, ladies and the maidens who were part of the expedition.