Summary
Summary of The Iliad
Who it’s for
For readers who love epic battles, meddling gods and heroes torn between honour and anger, and anyone exploring the poem’s plot and ideas for study, curiosity or a first reading.
What this book is
The Iliad is a long poem in twenty-four books, composed in ancient Greek and credited to Homer. It was shaped in the eighth or seventh century BC, out of songs that bards had sung for generations. It tells of a few weeks in the tenth year of the Trojan War, when a Greek army besieges the city of Troy on the coast of what is now Turkey.
The poem does not tell the whole war. It does not begin with the judgement of Paris or the sailing of the ships, and it does not reach the wooden horse. It begins with an argument between two men, Agamemnon, the king who leads the Greeks, and Achilles, the best fighter in his army. From that quarrel flow anger, pride, grief and a great deal of killing.
What do you get from it? You get a story of battles, councils, gods who meddle and warriors who speak before they strike. You also get a sharp look at what honour costs and what anger does to the person who feels it. Let us begin where Homer begins, with a priest at the Greek camp and a insult that starts everything.
In this summary
- 1A quarrel splits the Greek campFree
- 2Achilles withdraws and Zeus makes a promise
- 3A duel is offered and a truce fails
- 4Diomedes fights and even gods bleed
- 5Hector says goodbye to his family
- 6Zeus tips the scales against the Greeks
- 7Achilles refuses the embassy
- 8Honour, anger and the shadow of death
- 9How Homer builds the poem for the ear
Key point 1 of 9
A quarrel splits the Greek camp
The poem opens in the tenth year of the siege. A priest of Apollo named Chryses comes to the Greek ships with ransom, hoping to buy back his daughter Chryseis. Agamemnon, who holds her as a prize of war, refuses and sends the old man away with harsh words. Chryses prays to Apollo, and the god answers by sending a plague that falls first on the mules and dogs and then on the men.
For nine days the funeral fires burn. On the tenth day Achilles calls the army to an assembly and asks a seer to say why Apollo is angry. The seer, Calchas, fears the wrath of the king and asks Achilles for protection before he speaks. Achilles promises it, and Calchas names the cause: Agamemnon has dishonoured the priest and must return the girl.
Agamemnon gives way, but he does so with a sour temper. If he must lose his prize, he says, he will take another man's. He names Briseis, the woman who was given to Achilles as his own share of the spoils. Achilles is furious, and for a moment he reaches for his sword, ready to kill the king where he stands.
The goddess Athena, unseen by anyone but Achilles, catches him by the hair and tells him to stop. She promises that one day he will be repaid threefold for this insult. So Achilles sheathes the blade but he does not hold his tongue. He swears a great oath that the Greeks will one day long for him, when men are dying by the hundred under the hands of Hector.
The old counsellor Nestor tries to make peace and fails. Heralds go to take Briseis from Achilles' hut, and he lets her go. This is the spark of the whole poem. A fight over a captive woman is really a fight over rank, and the question is who deserves the greatest honour in the army.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Achilles
- The strongest Greek warrior and son of Thetis, he quarrels with Agamemnon over his honour.
- Agamemnon
- King of Mycenae and commander of the Greeks, he clashes with Achilles over their war prizes.
- Hector
- Troy's chief defender and Priam's son, he is a devoted husband and father.
- Patroclus
- Achilles' dearest companion, he cares deeply about the suffering of their fellow Greeks.
- Odysseus
- The clever king of Ithaca, he helps Agamemnon negotiate with the angry Achilles.
- Priam
- The aged king of besieged Troy, he is father to Hector and Paris.
- Helen
- Menelaus's wife, now living with Paris in Troy, she longs for her former home.
- Zeus
- King of the gods, he hears Thetis's plea on behalf of her son Achilles.
- Thetis
- Achilles' mother, a sea goddess, she appeals to Zeus over her son's treatment.
- Paris
- Hector's brother and Priam's son, his taking of Helen has brought war to Troy.
- Menelaus
- Helen's husband and Agamemnon's brother, he faces Paris as his rival.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 155,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 10 h 20 min
- Listening time17 h 10 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages