The offer
After the Achaeans are driven back, Agamemnon admits his mistake and offers Achilles a great compensation: Briseis untouched, treasure, cities, and a marriage alliance. Odysseus presents the offer with diplomatic skill, and Phoenix, Achilles’ old tutor, adds a personal appeal and the story of Meleager, who was persuaded to return to battle.
Achilles listens and refuses. He says that Agamemnon’s gifts are hateful to him, that he has no need of them, and that he will sail home the next day. The refusal is not simply pride: Achilles has begun to see the heroic code as a bad bargain.
The failure
Ajax appeals to Achilles’ sense of friendship, and Achilles softens slightly: he will not sail at once, but he will not fight until the Trojans reach his own ships. The embassy leaves without success.
The failure is the poem’s turning point. If Achilles had accepted, Patroclus would not have needed to enter battle, and the tragedy would not unfold. The scene also gives the poem its clearest debate about the value of honour, and it makes Achilles’ later return a matter of grief rather than reconciliation.