The Iliad summary

The Iliad, one of the two main works of ancient Greek poet Homer, is widely regarded as one of the foundational works of Western literature. Although it was written almost 3000 years ago – probably in the eighth century BC – it remains popular with readers all over the world today.

This is no surprise, given that it’s essentially the blueprint for the superhero stories we still love today. The Iliad is an epic tale of the final days of the Greek siege of Troy, featuring intrigue and betrayal, quarrels between gods and men, and epic battle scenes. The narrative centers on Greek warrior Achilles, but features an infinite supporting cast of other war heroes, gods, and mythological figures. 

The Iliad consists of 24 books, each describing different episodes in the last days of the war. It features 15,693 lines of verse and was probably first written down in Homeric Greek – a mix of several different Greek dialects. To this day, scholars debate whether the story was written by Homer himself or was part of a larger oral tradition. But regardless of who first thought of it, it remains one of the most important stories in literary history. 

Once the truce is broken, the Greeks and Trojans restart the fighting with new vigor. In the books that follow, we learn of the heroic exploits of two of the most important Greek and Trojan warriors. 

One of them is Diomedes, a Greek commander. With help from the goddess Athena, Diomedes goes on a rampage, managing to kill a bunch of Trojans in battle. He even beats Aeneas, one of Priam’s sons – but Aphrodite intervenes to save him. Furious, Diomedes attacks her, killing one of Aeneas’s associates and wounding the goddess. So Apollo, who has sided with the Trojans, sends war god Ares to defeat Diomedes. 

Ares is joined by Priam’s other son Hector, but Diomedes still has the goddess Athena’s help. They manage to wound Ares and knock him out of action. The Greeks are enjoying some success now. But they haven’t reckoned with Hector, who rallies the Trojan troops and manages to prevent a rout – that is, a retreat.

We learn about the heroes on the enemy side as well. Back in Troy, Hector urges his people to pray and make sacrifices to the gods in order to ensure victory. But he doesn’t seem so sure himself. When he leaves again for battle, he parts with his wife Andromache and their young son as if for the last time. 

The gods have planned a duel between Hector and a Greek. A lottery selects Greek warrior Ajax. He and Hector fight, but by dusk, there’s still no clear winner. The fighters are forced to retire. 

Once more, the Trojans quarrel about returning Helen. Paris makes a generous offer to return everything he took from the Greeks to end the war – except for Helen. Naturally, the Greeks refuse the deal. The two sides manage, however, to agree on a truce in order to collect and bury their dead. The Greeks use the opportunity to start building a defensive wall and ditch to protect their camp and ships. 

The fighting continues, and it’s not looking good for the Greeks. God-king Zeus predicts that the Greeks will continue losing until Achilles returns to battle. But he warns his fellow gods not to interfere – speaking to goddesses Hera and Athena in particular, who have taken a liking to the Greeks. Luckily for them, the goddesses have no intention of listening to Zeus. 

As night falls, breaking off the second day of fighting, Trojan leader Hector is full of confidence. He and his men camp out on the plain, right in front of Greek defenses.

With good reason, the Greeks are growing desperate. Agamemnon’s advisor Nestor urges him to apologize to Achilles. So Agamenon draws up a new offer of compensation – including giving back Briseis – and sends an embassy to Achilles. Achilles has been hanging out with his companion Patroclus, somewhere far away from the action. The embassy, consisting of war hero Odysseus among others, is supposed to persuade him to return to battle. But their pleas fall on deaf ears – Achilles is still sulking. He tells them he’ll only return to battle if the Trojans attack the Greek ships. 

Back at camp, Odysseus has to report this failure. Diomedes scoffs that they have to just “keep fighting.” But Agamemnon is still pretty worried. Unable to sleep, he calls a midnight council to consult with the men. Nestor suggests sending a nighttime spying mission to the Trojan camps, and Diomedes and Odysseus volunteer. Across the plain, Trojan leader Hector has the same idea, and sends one of his men to spy on the Greeks. But Diomedes and Odysseus catch the Trojan spy, milk him for information, and kill him. They then slaughter a camp of sleeping Thracians, a Balkan tribe that has allied with the Trojans.

But they can’t bask in glory for long. In the morning, Hector rejoins the battle. Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus are all wounded in the bloody combat that follows, and the Greeks are forced to retreat. Achilles’s buddy Patroclus comes to check in on the Greek camps, and Nestor urges him once more to convince Achilles to return to battle. 

The Trojans are so close to the camps now that they have to continue their attack on foot. They storm the Greek defensive wall, managing to smash considerable parts of it. Finally, Hector is able to bring down the main gate. The Greeks have to flee back to their ships. 

Sea god Poseidon takes pity on their sorry fate. While Zeus is not paying attention, he spurs on the Greek warriors to fight back. He gets some extra support from Hera, who seduces Zeus to sleep so that Poseidon can keep helping the Greeks. But Trojan leader Hector refuses to turn back his men. In the bloody battle that ensues, hundreds of Greeks and Trojans are killed. Hector himself is wounded by Greek warrior Ajax, and has to be carried back to Troy. 

When Zeus wakes up, he’s furious to find out about Poseidon’s treachery and calls him back immediately. In order to restore balance, he sends out Apollo to help the Trojans. With the god on their side, the Trojans once again breach the Greek defensive wall, and the battle now reaches the ships.

Upon learning how much trouble the Greeks are in, Achilles’s comrade Patroclus begs Achilles to allow him to return to battle in Achilles’s stead. Achilles agrees, and even allows Patroclus to wear his armor.

Patroclus arrives just in time: Ajax has been forced into retreat, and the Trojan army has started setting fire to the Greek ships. Patroclus leads the Trojans back into battle, and wreaks considerable havoc. He even manages to kill Trojan ally Sarpedon, son of Zeus. 

Despite Achilles’s warning not to pursue the Trojans, Patroclus beats them back all the way to the gates of Troy. There, he’s attacked by Apollo and a Trojan named Euphorbos. Euphorbus stabs Patroclus, and Hector finishes him off. He then takes the precious armor from him. As he lies dying, Patroclus prophesizes that Hector will die at the hands of Achilles. 

The Trojans grab hold of Patroclus’s dead body and attempt to take it back to Troy. But the Greeks won’t let them get away with it. Another bloody battle ensues, in which Greek warrior Menelaus manages to kill Euphorbus. With Athena’s help, he manages to drag Patroclus’s body back to the Greek side. The fighting is broken off when a thick mist descends upon the battlefield. When Zeus lifts the mist, the Greeks continue to retreat. 

Messenger Antilochus is sent to Achilles to give him the bad news. When Achilles finds out about Patroclus’s death, he weeps so loudly that his mother takes notice deep in the sea. She and her fellow sea nymphs come to weep with him. She also warns him not to go after Hector, because she’s foreseen that his own death will follow soon after. But Achilles is determined to return to battle, help bring Patroclus’s body to safety, and – as a little bonus – kill Hector.

The only problem is that he has no armor to wear. So Athena bathes him in a brilliant protective light. Radiating rage, Achilles stands next to the Greek defensive wall and lets out a battle cry. The Trojans are so terrified that they temporarily forget about Patroclus, and the Greeks manage to bring his body to safety. 

But Hector remains convinced that Zeus is on their side and urges his men to continue the attack in the morning. Back in the Greek camp, Patroclus’s body is washed, anointed, and clothed for the funeral ceremony. Achilles laments his friend's death, now also foreseeing his own. In a last-ditch effort to protect her son, Thetis goes to blacksmith-god Hephaestus to fetch new armor for her son.

The fourth day of combat begins with Thetis delivering Achilles’s shiny new armor. But Achilles is still too depressed over his friend’s death to be excited about it. He doesn’t even care when Agamemnon returns Briseis to him. He also doesn’t care when one of his horses, Xanthus, prophesizes his death — as horses are wont to do in Greek mythology.

Achilles has his eye on the prize: he wants to return to battle immediately. But Odysseus insists that the men need to eat a proper meal first. Achilles refuses to eat, but Athena secretly feeds him ambrosia and nectar, giving him some extra strength for the upcoming bloodbath. 

Finally, Achilles leads the men back into battle – with flashing armor and newfound confidence. Zeus lifts his ban on divine intervention – he assembles the gods and tells them that they can now start to meddle. And meddle they will.

Apollo persuades Trojan heir Aeneas to face Achilles in a one-on-one battle. Achilles beats him. But Poseidon takes pity on Aeneas – now switching to the Trojan side – and rescues him at the last minute. Achilles is furious, and begins a brutal rampage against the Trojans, conducting himself like an “inhuman fire raging.” Apollo advises Hector not to engage with the raging Achilles, whose chariot is now tinted red with blood. But he still ends up having to rescue Hector.

Achilles slaughters many, many Trojans. The remaining soldiers run back to Troy. Some of them try to flee by crossing the river Scamander, but Achilles pursues them into the water. He kills even more of them – including one of Priam’s lesser sons – turning the water blood-red. The river – because rivers can be gods, too – tells Achilles to stop killing Trojans, but Achilles won’t make promises. Angrily, the river pursues him with a massive flood. But the goddess Hera convinces Hephaestos to counter with a big fire, and the river finally has to give up. 

The gods are now fighting each other, too. Ares lunges at Athena, but she hits him with a stone. She then attacks Aphrodite, forcing her to retreat. Poseidon challenges Apollo, but the latter refuses to fight over mere mortals. Goddess Artemis calls Apollo a coward, and Hera hits her. Artemis runs to Zeus, crying. Exhausted, the gods return to Olympus, except for Apollo. In disguise, Apollo leads a hell-bent Achilles away from the city of Troy, while king Priam opens the gates for his battered soldiers to swarm back in.  

The Trojan soldiers recover within the walls of their city, but Hector is still out on the plains. Despite the pleas of his parents, he decides he has to face Achilles, who has become wise to Apollo’s trickery and is now racing back to Troy. 

But when Achilles charges him, Hector runs. They complete three circles around the city walls, before Athena tricks Hector into stopping and Achilles kills him.

As he dies, Hector reminds Achilles of his own imminent death. Achilles takes back his armor. Against Greek custom, he then abuses Hector’s dead body, dragging him back to camp behind his chariot. The Greeks have withdrawn to their ships, and are still mourning Patroclus. 

Patroclus’s funeral games commence, including a chariot race, boxing, wrestling, and armed combat. But they hardly lift Achilles’s spirit. He cannot sleep over all the guilt and pain, and resorts to dragging Hector's body around Patroclus’s tomb. 

Achilles has been mistreating Hector’s body for eleven days now, and the god Apollo has had enough. He pleads with Zeus to intervene, and Zeus tells Thetis to tell Achilles to return the body. Achilles agrees. So the god Hermes helps Hector’s father Priam to enter the Greek camp to retrieve his dead son’s body in exchange for gifts.

The encounter between Achilles and the Trojan king is more respectful than you’d imagine – they even have dinner together. Back in Troy, Hector’s body is cremated, and a funeral feast is held in Priam's palace. This is where The Iliad ends. 

The Iliad is an epic poem about the final days of the Greek-Trojan war. It centers around Greek hero Achilles, the greatest of all the Greek warriors. Over a disagreement with Greek leader Agamemnon, Achilles decides to back out of the fighting. Despite the heroic efforts of other warriors like Diomedes, Odysseus, and Ajax, and the help of powerful gods like Poseidon, Athena, and Hera, the Greeks are forced to retreat. 

Hector, son of Trojan king Priam, becomes confident of victory, and the Trojans charge the Greek ships. This leads Achilles’s friend Patroclus to join the battle in Achilles’s stead. Patroclus manages to fight back the Trojans – but ends up being killed by Hector. Riddled with guilt, Achilles returns to battle and goes on a bloody rampage against the Trojans. He manages to chase down and kill Hector. He then abuses Hector’s body – until he’s told off by his goddess mother in the name of the other gods. Hector’s body is brought back to Troy, and the Greeks seal their victory.