An Outline of the Iliad
In the Bronze Age, at the end of the thirteenth century, a loose confederation of Greek kingdoms besieged the walled city of Troy. The legendary reason for this attack was to avenge the abduction of Helen, the wife of Menelaus, one of the Greek kings, by a Trojan prince, Alexandros (Paris). To recover Helen, the King of Mycenae, Agamemnon, sailed with the leaders of various Greek cities and their warriors to the plains of Troy. For nine years, the Achaians and their allies were frustrated in their efforts to conquer the Trojans, who remained in their fortified city except for brief military clashes. From time to time, the Greek troops raided neighboring cities, taking prisoners for ransom. The events narrated in the Iliad occur in the course of fifty-two days, most of them spent in waiting. The real action of the poem takes only nine days.
Principal Characters on the Achaian Side
Achilles, son of Peleus, king of Phthia, whose people are called Myrmidons, and of the sea-goddess Thetis; the greatest warrior in the poem.
Agamemnon, sometimes called Atreides, the son of Atreus; king of Mycenae.
Briseis, a woman captured by Achilles in a raid.
Diomedes, son of Tydeus; the ideal Greek warrior hero.
Menelaus, Agamemnon’s brother, the king of Sparta and the husband deserted by Helen.
Odysseus, son of Laertes, king of Ithaca, and the craftiest of the Greeks.
Patroclus, the intimate friend of Achilles.
Principal Characters on the Trojan Side
Hector, son of Priam and the defender of the Trojans.
Andromache, wife of Hector.
Astyanax, infant son of Hector and Andromache.
Priam, aged king of Troy.
Hecuba, wife of Priam.
Paris (Alexandros), another son of Priam, the abductor of Helen.
Glaucus, a Trojan ally from Lycia.
Sarpedon, son of Zeus and a Trojan ally from Lycia.
Helen, the cause of the war; daughter of Leda and Zeus; wife of Paris and former wife of Menelaus.
Synopsis of Action
Homer did not divide his poems into 24 books, since he would not have thought in terms of the needs of readers, but descriptions of the different units of action within the poem follow.
Book 1: A quarrel leads Achilles to withdraw from fighting.
Book 2: Agamemnon tries to test his troops’ resolve to continue fighting without Achilles by suggesting that they all go home. This tactic backfires when the Greeks start to rush to their ships, and only Odysseus’s powers of persuasion convince them to stay.
Book 3: Menelaus and Paris, the two husbands of Helen, join in a duel; when Menelaus is about to win, Aphrodite whisks Paris back to Troy in a cloud.
Book 4: The gods argue on Olympus; the Greeks and the Trojans begin to fight in earnest.
Books 5-8: With the exception of a brief interlude in Book 6, when Hector is seen with his wife and child in Troy, these books relate battle scenes. The Greeks are doing very well until Zeus contrives to give unusual success to the Trojans.
Book 9: One of the turning points in the poem occurs when Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax go to the tent of Achilles to plead with him to return to battle; despite the promise of treasure from Agamemnon, Achilles refuses.
Books 10-15: Fighting resumes, with the gods taking their favorites’ sides, and the Trojans achieve their greatest triumphs. Emboldened for the first time, they leave the safety of their walled city and attack the Greek camp.
Books 16-18: The next major turning point in the poem occurs when Patroclus, Achilles’ closest friend and alter ego, receives permission from Achilles to borrow his armor and fight against the Trojans in his place. Hector kills Patroclus and drags his body in the dirt, preventing burial. Achilles, in despair, prepares to take revenge and returns to battle, armed with a new shield made for him by Hephaestus.
Books 19-21: Knowing he is to die soon after he kills Hector, Achilles sets out to kill Hector and punish the Trojans. He is superhuman in his bravery and cruelty.
Book 22: Achilles kills Hector.
Book 23: The body of Patroclus is buried in an elaborate funeral.
Book 24: Achilles returns the body of Hector to his father, Priam, and Hector is buried in an elaborate funeral.
