The Iliad
Homer (-750)
“The first and greatest war poem ever written — not a celebration of combat but a reckoning with what combat costs, built around one man's rage and the moment he finally lets it go.”
Short Summary
In the tenth year of the Trojan War, the Greek warrior Achilles withdraws from battle after King Agamemnon seizes his war prize, the captive woman Briseis. Without Achilles, the Greeks are driven back to their ships. Achilles' companion Patroclus borrows his armor and enters the fight but is killed by the Trojan prince Hector. Maddened by grief, Achilles returns to battle, kills Hector, and drags his body behind his chariot for days. The poem ends not with victory but with mercy: the aged King Priam comes alone to Achilles' tent to beg for his son's body, and Achilles — recognizing in the old man a reflection of his own father — gives it back. They weep together.
Detailed Summary
The Iliad opens in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy. The war itself began when the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of the Greek king Menelaus, and brought her to Troy. A coalition of Greek kings, led by Agamemnon of Mycenae, has been besieging the city for a decade. But t...