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Cover of The Iliad
The Iliad
Homer
Read: 2022
My Rating: 8/10
The Iliad, by Homer, is an epic poem considered one of the foundational works of Western literature. It doesn't tell the entire prelude, story, and aftermath of the Trojan War (which is a lot; see Troy by Stephen Fry for more), but focuses solely on a crucial two-week period (!) near the end of the ten-year conflict. Still, a lot of the events are covered through flashbacks and dialogues.

3 min read

The Iliad

Overview

The Iliad, attributed to Homer, is the foundational epic of Western literature. It does not tell the full story of the Trojan War but focuses on a crucial two-week period near the end of the ten-year conflict, centered on the rage of Achilles. Through flashbacks, dialogues, and extended battle sequences, the poem explores the interplay between divine will and human agency, the cost of honor-driven violence, and the grief that war inflicts on all sides.

Key Concepts

The Rage of Achilles

  • The inciting conflict: Agamemnon, leader of the Greek coalition, seizes Briseis (a war prize) from Achilles, the Greeks’ greatest warrior. Achilles perceives this as a violation of timē (honor/status) and withdraws from battle entirely.
  • Consequences of withdrawal: Without Achilles, the Greeks suffer devastating losses. The Trojans, led by Hector, push the fighting to the Greek ships. Achilles’ refusal to fight demonstrates how individual honor and collective obligation can catastrophically collide.
  • Return and vengeance: When Achilles’ companion Patroclus is killed by Hector while wearing Achilles’ armor, rage transforms from political grievance into personal grief. Achilles returns to battle, kills Hector, and desecrates his body — only finding resolution when he returns Hector’s corpse to Priam in a scene of shared mourning.

Gods and Mortals

  • Divine partisanship: The Olympian gods are active participants — Athena and Hera favor the Greeks; Apollo and Aphrodite favor Troy. Divine intervention shapes individual duels, shifts momentum, and overrides human plans.
  • Fate (moira): Even the gods are constrained by fate. Zeus knows Troy will fall and Hector will die, but cannot alter the outcome without unraveling cosmic order. Human characters struggle against their prescribed destinies while the poem implies those destinies are inescapable.
  • The shield of Achilles: Hephaestus forges a new shield for Achilles depicting the entire scope of human life — cities at peace and war, marriage, harvest, litigation — framing the war within the full tapestry of civilization.

Themes of War and Mortality

  • Kleos (glory) vs. nostos (homecoming): The central tension for Achilles is the choice between a short, glorious life and a long, obscure one. The Iliad is unflinching about the cost of choosing kleos.
  • Empathy across enemy lines: Despite its violence, the poem humanizes both sides. Hector’s farewell to Andromache and his infant son is one of the most poignant scenes in literature, and the final meeting between Achilles and Priam transcends enmity entirely.
  • No triumphalism: The poem ends not with Greek victory but with Hector’s funeral — a deliberate choice that refuses to celebrate conquest and instead closes with mourning.

Personal Reflection

[To be added]

  • The Odyssey - Homer’s sequel; Odysseus’s journey home from the war
  • Troy - Fry provides the complete arc — prelude and aftermath Homer omits
  • Heroes - Achilles, Ajax, and Hector profiled within Fry’s broader survey of Greek heroism

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