WorldLibsLibrariesBooksVisitGlobeShelfSearch

The Iliad

Homer, c. 750 BCE

Held by Project Gutenberg, PG 2199read here

Read it here about 11 h of reading

Add to a shelf
Your shelves
See your shelves

The Iliad covers a few weeks in the tenth year of the Greek siege of Troy. Agamemnon, commander of the Greek armies, takes the war prize Briseis from Achilles, the best of the Greek fighters, who then refuses to fight. With him out, the Trojans under Hector push the Greeks back to their ships. Achilles sends his friend Patroclus into battle in his armor, Hector kills Patroclus, and Achilles returns in rage to kill Hector and drag his body behind his chariot. The poem ends when Hector's father Priam comes to Achilles at night and begs for his son's body.

Where it happens

  1. Troy The city besieged for ten years by a coalition of Greek states; the poem covers the war's final weeks.1
  2. Mycenae Seat of Agamemnon, who leads the Greek armies at Troy.1
  3. Athens Host of the Panathenaia, one of the festivals where professional reciters performed the poem.1

Through time

  1. 800 BCHomer, traditional author of the Iliad and Odyssey, is possibly born around the 8th century BC.2
  2. 725 BCThe Iliad is likely composed between the late 8th and early 7th century BC.1
  3. 1835Samuel Butler, later translator of the Iliad into English prose, is born at Langar, Nottinghamshire.3

Who is in it, and behind it

Homer author

Traditionally credited as author of the Iliad and the Odyssey; his identity and existence are debated.2

Achilles character

The greatest Greek warrior, whose wrath drives the plot from his quarrel with Agamemnon to the killing of Hector.1

Agamemnon character

King of Mycenae and commander of the united Greek armies; his seizure of Briseis starts Achilles' anger.1

Hector character

Trojan prince and the city's leading hero, killed by Achilles.1

Patroclus character

Achilles' companion, who fights in his armor and is killed by Hector.1

Priam character

King of Troy, who crosses the Greek camp with gifts to ask for Hector's body.1

Thetis character

Sea nymph and mother of Achilles, who asks Zeus to favor the Trojans until her son's honor is restored.1

Samuel Butler translator

English novelist and critic whose prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey are still consulted.3

What it is about

The wrath of Achilles

The first word, menis, names the theme. Achilles' wounded pride sets off the Greek defeats, the deaths of Patroclus and Hector, and the fall of Troy.1

Fate binds gods and men

Fate drives most events, and neither gods nor mortals can change it; heroes accept their appointed deaths and fight on.1

Glory against going home

Achilles gives up a homecoming for kleos, imperishable fame, so heroism and its price are the poem's central matter.1

Gods as partisans

The Olympians help favored warriors and cities and quarrel among themselves, which made them concrete for Greek audiences.1

In its own words

Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.
BOOK I.. The opening invocation, naming the wrath that the whole poem follows. Read on
Dear husband,” said she, “your valour will bring you to destruction; think on your infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your widow—for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you.
BOOK VI.. Andromache pleads with Hector on the walls of Troy, the poem's domestic side. Read on
Patroclus is lying dead in my tent, all hacked and hewn, with his feet to the door, and his comrades are mourning round him. Therefore I can take thought of nothing save only slaughter and blood and the rattle in the throat of the dying.”
BOOK XIX.. Achilles refuses food as grief for Patroclus replaces his quarrel with Agamemnon. Read on
no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out all through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall and glut grim Mars with his life’s blood.
BOOK XXII.. Achilles rejects Hector's offer of terms before their duel. Read on
Think of your father, O Achilles like unto the gods, who is such even as I am, on the sad threshold of old age. It may be that those who dwell near him harass him, and there is none to keep war and ruin from him.
BOOK XXIV.. Priam's appeal to Achilles, the emotional close of the poem. Read on
two urns, the one filled with evil gifts, and the other with good ones.
BOOK XXIV.. Achilles tells Priam how Zeus doles out good and evil, the poem's view of human fortune. Read on

The shape of the book

26 chapters, 152,717 words. Point at a bar.

How it came to be here

The poem is attributed to Homer and was probably composed in the late 8th or early 7th century BC, in a mixed Greek literary dialect. How it was composed, whether by one poet and whether it was oral, is still debated as the Homeric Question. Professional reciters performed it at festivals such as the Panathenaia, and it became part of Greek schooling. This site carries Samuel Butler's English prose translation from Project Gutenberg, with a verse version by Pope in the same volume. Readers have long taken the poem as a starting point for European literature.

Free to read elsewhere

Sources

  1. Iliad (Wikipedia)
  2. Homer (Wikipedia)
  3. Samuel Butler (novelist) (Wikipedia)
  4. The Iliad by Homer (Project Gutenberg)

Text: PG 2199, 6130 | translator: Samuel Butler (2199); Alexander Pope (6130). US public domain (Project Gutenberg licence).

Holder's record