The Iliad

The Iliad is a Greek epic poem attributed to Homer and composed around the second half of the 8th century BC, after generations of oral transmission.

The Iliad begins with the wrath of Achilles, the most formidable warrior in ancient Greece, against Agamemnon, leader of the Achaean expedition. Their conflict triggers a series of events that change the course of the war against Troy and the fates of its protagonists.

In 24 books, The Iliad deals with anger, honor, revenge, and fate, against the background of the Trojan War. It also explores divine intervention and the complex relationship between the gods of Olympus and the mortal world.

It covers only a few weeks of a ten-year siege, and it ends not with the fall of Troy but with king Priam crossing the enemy lines at night to beg Achilles for the body of his son Hector: one of the oldest and least consoling scenes in Western literature.

"O Goddess! Sing the wrath of Peleus’ son
Achilles; sing the deadly wrath that brought
Woes numberless upon the Greeks, and swept
To Hades many a valiant soul, and gave
Their limbs a prey to dogs and birds of air—"