English · Epic Poetry · Grades 9–12
The Iliad
One man’s anger, one city’s last weeks, and one of the oldest war stories ever written down.
The Greeks have been camped outside Troy for nine years. Then their two greatest leaders have a fight over a prize, and the best warrior in the army goes back to his tent and refuses to come out. Before his anger cools, his closest friend will be dead, the Trojans will be setting fire to the Greek ships, and the noblest man in Troy will be dragged through the dust.
That’s the Iliad. On this page you’ll get the background you need, meet the people on both sides (and the gods who can’t stay out of it), follow the story book by book, read the most famous lines, then test yourself with a game and a quiz.
Before You Read
What is it?
An epic: a very long poem about heroes, war and the gods. The Iliad has about 15,700 lines, split by later editors into 24 “books.” Its title means “the poem about Ilion,” the Greek name for Troy.
Who was Homer?
Nobody knows for sure. The ancient Greeks credited the Iliad and the Odyssey to a poet named Homer. Most scholars think the poem grew out of a long tradition of singers performing from memory and took its final shape in the 700s or 600s BCE.
How much of the war is in it?
Very little. The poem covers only a few weeks in the tenth year of the Trojan War. It never shows the Trojan Horse or the death of Achilles. Those stories were told in other early poems (the lost Epic Cycle) and are retold in the Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid.
Was Troy real?
A real city stood at Hisarlik in northwest Turkey, and archaeologists have dug there since the 1870s. It was destroyed more than once. Whether a war like Homer’s ever happened there is still debated.
Why do the names change?
Homer calls the Greeks Achaeans, Argives or Danaans. Our quotes come from Samuel Butler’s 1898 prose translation, which uses Roman names for the gods: Jove for Zeus, Juno for Hera, Minerva for Athena, Venus for Aphrodite, Mars for Ares.
What’s the poem’s first word?
In Greek it’s mēnin, “wrath” or “rage.” Homer tells you the subject right away: not the war, but one man’s anger and what it costs everyone around him.
Who’s Who
There are hundreds of named warriors. These are the ones you need. The gods take sides too, and they aren’t shy about it.
The Achaeans (Greeks)
Achilles
Greatest Greek warrior · son of the sea goddess Thetis
Proud, brilliant and furious. When Agamemnon insults him, he quits the war, and the poem follows that choice to its end.
Agamemnon
King of Mycenae · leader of the whole army
Powerful but touchy about his status. He starts the quarrel by taking Achilles’ prize, the captive woman Briseis.
Patroclus
Achilles’ dearest friend
Gentle and loyal. He goes into battle wearing Achilles’ armor, and his death turns Achilles’ anger toward Troy.
Odysseus
King of Ithaca · the clever one
A smooth speaker and tough fighter. You’ll follow his own long trip home in the Odyssey.
Diomedes, Ajax and Nestor
The other big names
Diomedes is the young star who even wounds gods. Ajax is the huge, steady defender. Nestor is the old king who loves giving advice.
The Trojans and Their Allies
Hector
Prince of Troy · its best defender
A devoted husband and father who fights for his city because he must, not because he loves war.
Priam and Hecuba
King and queen of Troy
Hector’s aging parents. Priam’s visit to Achilles in the final book is one of the great scenes in literature.
Paris and Helen
The cause of the war
Paris, Hector’s brother, carried off Helen, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. She is now in Troy and often bitter about it.
Andromache
Hector’s wife
She has already lost her family to Achilles. She begs Hector to stay close to the walls.
Aeneas and Sarpedon
Trojan prince · Lycian ally
Aeneas will later star in Virgil’s Aeneid. Sarpedon, a son of Zeus, leads Troy’s allies from Lycia.
The Gods
Zeus
King of the gods (Butler’s Jove)
Promises Thetis he’ll let the Trojans win for a while, so the Greeks will feel Achilles’ absence.
Hera, Athena, Poseidon
For the Greeks
Hera and Athena hate Troy. Poseidon helps the Greeks behind Zeus’s back.
Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares
For the Trojans
Apollo sends the plague that starts the story. Aphrodite rescues Paris. Ares joins the Trojan side in battle.
The Story Book by Book
Homer’s 24 books aren’t grouped into parts. We’ve grouped them into four acts to make the shape of the story easier to see.
Books 1–4
Act I: The Quarrel
- 1Apollo strikes the Greek camp with plague because Agamemnon won’t return Chryseis, the daughter of Apollo’s priest. Agamemnon gives her back but takes Briseis from Achilles. Achilles withdraws and asks his mother Thetis to get Zeus to help the Trojans.
- 2Zeus sends Agamemnon a false dream. Agamemnon tests his army by suggesting they sail home, and they nearly do, until Odysseus stops them. The book ends with the long “Catalogue of Ships.”
- 3Paris and Menelaus fight a duel to settle the war. Menelaus is winning when Aphrodite whisks Paris away. From the walls, Helen points out the Greek leaders to Priam.
- 4Urged on by Athena, the Trojan archer Pandarus shoots Menelaus and breaks the truce. Full battle begins.
Books 5–10
Act II: The War Without Achilles
- 5Diomedes rampages through the Trojans and, with Athena’s help, wounds Aphrodite and Ares.
- 6Diomedes and the Lycian Glaucus find out their grandfathers were friends, so they swap armor instead of fighting. In Troy, Hector says goodbye to Andromache and their baby son, Astyanax.
- 7Hector duels Ajax until nightfall ends it in a draw. The Greeks build a wall and ditch around their ships.
- 8Zeus forbids the gods to interfere. The Trojans drive the Greeks back and camp out on the plain, their fires burning all night.
- 9Agamemnon offers Achilles huge gifts to return. Odysseus, Ajax and old Phoenix make the case. Achilles refuses.
- 10Odysseus and Diomedes go on a night raid, capture the Trojan spy Dolon, and steal the horses of King Rhesus.
Books 11–17
Act III: Fire at the Ships
- 11Agamemnon, Diomedes and Odysseus are all wounded. Nestor suggests Patroclus fight in Achilles’ armor.
- 12The Trojans storm the Greek wall, and Hector smashes the gate with a boulder.
- 13Poseidon secretly rallies the Greeks.
- 14Hera seduces Zeus and has Sleep put him under, giving the Greeks a break.
- 15Zeus wakes up angry. With Apollo’s help, Hector reaches the ships, and Ajax fights them off almost alone.
- 16As the first ship burns, Achilles lets Patroclus lead his men. Patroclus kills Sarpedon and charges toward Troy, until Apollo stuns him and Hector kills him.
- 17The armies fight over Patroclus’ body. Hector strips off Achilles’ armor and puts it on.
Books 18–24
Act IV: The Anger Turns
- 18Achilles hears the news and collapses in grief. The god Hephaestus forges him new armor, including a shield covered with scenes of cities at peace and at war, farms and dancing.
- 19Achilles and Agamemnon make peace, and Briseis is returned. Achilles’ horse warns him that his own death is near.
- 20The gods join the battle themselves. Poseidon rescues Aeneas from Achilles.
- 21Achilles kills so many Trojans that the river Scamander rises up to fight him. Hephaestus drives the river back with fire.
- 22Hector faces Achilles alone outside the walls. He runs three times around the city, is tricked by Athena, and dies. Achilles drags his body behind his chariot.
- 23The Greeks hold Patroclus’ funeral, followed by athletic games, including a chariot race.
- 24Guided by the god Hermes, Priam sneaks into the Greek camp and begs Achilles for his son’s body. Achilles gives it back. The poem ends with Hector’s funeral.
Lines Worth Knowing
All quotations are from Samuel Butler’s 1898 prose translation (public domain), cited by book.
“Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.”
The opening line names the subject: not Troy, not the war, but anger. Ancient poets began by asking the Muse, a goddess of poetry, to sing through them.
“Men come and go as leaves year by year upon the trees.”
In the middle of a battlefield, a warrior pauses to say that human lives fall and regrow like leaves. Then the two enemies decide not to fight.
“He stretched his arms towards his child, but the boy cried and nestled in his nurse’s bosom, scared at the sight of his father’s armour.”
Hector laughs, takes off his helmet, and holds his son. The baby is frightened of the same thing that makes Hector a hero.
“If I stay here and fight, I shall not return alive but my name will live for ever: whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me.”
Achilles knows his choice: a short life with lasting glory, or a long life nobody remembers. The Greek word for that glory is kleos.
“There is one omen, and one only—that a man should fight for his country.”
Hector brushes off a warning bird sign. Is this courage or stubbornness? The rest of the poem lets you decide.
“I … have raised to my lips the hand of him who slew my son.”
An old king kisses the hands that killed his child. Achilles thinks of his own father, and the two enemies weep together.
“Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector tamer of horses.”
The poem that began with Achilles’ anger ends quietly with his enemy’s funeral.
Big Ideas
Anger and its cost
Achilles is right that Agamemnon wronged him. But his anger keeps spreading, and Patroclus pays for it.
Glory and death
Heroes fight for kleos, the fame that outlives them. The poem also lingers on how each one dies, often naming his home and family.
Honor and pride
Prizes like Briseis stand for a warrior’s worth. Losing one in public is a deep insult, which is why the quarrel matters so much.
Pity for the enemy
Homer is Greek, but he gives Troy’s families some of the most moving scenes. The poem ends in a moment of shared grief.
Read it closely: Homer loves epithets, short tags that stick to a name, like “fleet Achilles,” “Hector tamer of horses” and “rosy-fingered Dawn” (all three as Butler translates them). They helped singers fill out the rhythm of a line from memory. Notice when they show up and what they tell you.
Game: Whose Side?
Sort the fighters
Pick a name, then pick the side it belongs to. Gods go in the gods’ box. Get all 14 right to win. Works with a mouse, a finger or the keyboard (Tab to move, Enter to choose). About 3 minutes.
Pick a name to start.
Sorted: 0 of 14 · Mistakes: 0
Quiz
Talk About It
- Is Achilles right to refuse Agamemnon’s gifts in Book IX? What would you need to hear before you forgave someone?
- Hector knows Troy will probably fall, and he fights anyway. Is that brave, or does it make his family’s suffering worse?
- The gods often seem petty and play favorites. Why might Homer show them that way in a poem about human courage?
- Homer was Greek, yet some of his most sympathetic characters are Trojans. What does that tell you about how he sees war?
- Why do you think the poem ends with Hector’s funeral instead of the fall of Troy?
Sources and Credits
- Homer, The Iliad, translated by Samuel Butler (1898). Public domain. Read Butler’s Iliad free at Project Gutenberg (eBook #2199).
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Iliad”, for the poem’s length, date and background.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Archaeological Site of Troy, for the site at Hisarlik.
- Art: the vase painting and icon on this page are original drawings made for Jugami in the style of Greek black-figure pottery. No museum images are reproduced.