The Iliad

Paris carried off Helen from Sparta. The Greek coalition sails to the Troad to demand her return.

Nine years of stalemate. Our story opens in the tenth.

Greek camp on the beach. Priest Chryses begs ransom for his daughter.

Agamemnon insults the priest and refuses.

Chryses prays; Apollo sends a plague.

Forced assembly; Agamemnon must return the girl and demands a replacement prize.

With the plague raging, Agamemnon returns Chryseïs but insists on recompense.

He seizes Briseïs, Achilles’ prize.

“I shall not fight.” Achilles withdraws from battle.

Greek strength collapses without its greatest warrior.

On Olympus after Achilles’ appeal to his mother.

Thetis kneels to Zeus: make the Greeks lose until they honor Achilles.

Zeus nods assent — a binding sign among gods.

Trojans surge; the war tilts toward Troy.

A truce: one duel to end the war.

Menelaus overpowers Paris.

Aphrodite rescues Paris, breaking the truce.

Fighting resumes; trust dissolves.

Troy’s walls.

Andromache begs Hector to stay off the plain.

Hector chooses duty over safety.

Foreboding of his death — and Troy’s.

Greeks falter; hope turns to Achilles.

Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax offer rich gifts and honor.

Achilles refuses: no price for a dishonored life.

Greeks face the next assault without him.

At the ships; Zeus distracted.

Poseidon defies Zeus’s tilt toward Troy.

He breathes strength into Ajax and Odysseus.

The Greek line holds — barely.

Ships burn; the Greeks beg.

Achilles lets Patroclus wear his armor to save the fleet.

Patroclus drives Trojans back but presses too far.

Hector kills Patroclus; Achilles’ grief turns to rage.

Hector stands outside Troy’s walls.

Athena tricks Hector to face Achilles.

Achilles gives chase; duel and death.

Achilles defiles the body; mourning in Troy.

By night in the Greek camp.

Guided by Hermes, Priam begs for Hector’s body.

Achilles weeps with him and relents.

Trojan funeral honors close the poem.