Book 1
The quarrel of Agamemnon and Achilles
The poem's first day. Apollo's plague, Agamemnon's refusal, Achilles's withdrawal. The chain of bad decisions that the rest of the poem walks out.
The Iliad — chapter by chapter
All 24 books summarized — fifty days that decide a war.
The Iliad does not cover the whole war. It covers about fifty days near the end of the tenth year. Books 1–9 are the wrath and its first costs; Books 10–17 are the reversal, with Patroclus's death at the heart; Books 18–24 are the reckoning, with Achilles back on the field, Hector dead, and the war's grief finally faced. The wooden horse and the death of Achilles happen offstage, after the poem ends.
Books 1–9 · Wrath
Achilles's anger and what it costs.
Book 2
The dream and the catalogue of ships
Zeus's deceitful dream rouses the Greek army; Agamemnon's botched test nearly breaks it; Odysseus rallies the men. The book ends with the Catalogue of Ships — a long, deliberate roll-call of the Greek expedition.
Book 3
Paris versus Menelaus, Helen on the wall
The duel that should have ended the war. Paris and Menelaus fight; Aphrodite saves Paris just before he is killed. Helen, on the wall with Priam, names the Greek champions below. The truce will not hold.
Book 4
The truce broken; full battle resumes
The gods on Olympus argue. Athena tricks a Trojan archer into shooting Menelaus and breaking the truce. The first full day of fighting begins, and the poem's signature method emerges — each man named with a small story before he dies.
Book 5
Diomedes's day
Diomedes's day of glory. Athena fills him with battle-fury and lets him see the gods on the field. He wounds Aphrodite, then Ares. The only mortal in the poem who draws divine blood and survives.
Book 6
Hector and Andromache
The poem's most famous domestic scene. Hector returns to Troy and finds his wife Andromache on the wall with their infant son. She begs him not to fight; he refuses; he kisses the baby and goes back out.
Book 7
Hector versus Ajax; the Greeks build a wall
Hector and Ajax fight to a draw and exchange gifts. The Greeks, that night, build a defensive wall around their camp. Poseidon complains the wall was built without proper sacrifice; Zeus promises he can wash it away later.
Book 8
The Trojans push to the wall
Zeus forbids the gods from interfering and weighs the day on golden scales. The Greeks lose. Hector pushes the army to the Greek wall and camps on the plain that night. The disaster Achilles asked for has begun.
Book 9
The embassy to Achilles
Agamemnon's great offer. Three captains — Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax — go to Achilles's tent with restitution beyond anyone's memory. Achilles refuses all three. The doors that were still open at dawn are now closed.
Books 10–17 · Reversal
The Greeks pushed to the ships; Patroclus killed.
Book 10
The night raid (Doloneia)
Sometimes called a later interpolation. A nighttime raid: Diomedes and Odysseus catch a Trojan spy, kill him, then go behind the lines, kill twelve sleeping men plus a Thracian king, and steal his white horses. The rest of the poem never mentions it.
Book 11
Agamemnon's day
Agamemnon's day of glory. He kills men until midday, then is wounded in the arm. Diomedes wounded by Paris; Odysseus wounded; the captains fall one by one. Achilles sees a wounded man pass and sends Patroclus to investigate — the chain that kills Patroclus is now set in motion.
Book 12
The Trojan attack on the wall
The Trojans reach the Greek wall and attack on foot. An omen warns them off; Hector dismisses it ("the only good omen is to fight for your country") and breaks the gate with a single stone. The army pours through. The ships are next.
Book 13
Battle at the ships
The fight is inside the Greek camp now. Zeus looks away; Poseidon, in disguise, walks the line and rallies the Greeks. Idomeneus and Meriones have their day. The book is one of the densest in the poem — many small named deaths, many feet of ground.
Book 14
Hera deceives Zeus
The most flagrant scene in the poem. Hera dresses up, borrows Aphrodite's magic belt under false pretenses, and seduces Zeus to sleep on a cloud. Poseidon takes the opportunity to push the Greeks forward; Hector is knocked out by Ajax. Then Zeus wakes up.
Book 15
The Trojans return to the ships
Zeus, awake and furious, sends Apollo to restore Hector. The line breaks. Apollo himself kicks down the Greek wall. Hector reaches the ships with torches. Ajax holds them off, alone, on the prow of one ship — and the first ship begins to burn.
Book 16
Patroclus borrows the armor; Patroclus dies
The middle of the poem. Patroclus puts on Achilles's armor, leads the Myrmidons out, drives the Trojans back from the ships, then — against Achilles's explicit order — pursues them across the plain. Apollo stuns him at the walls of Troy. Hector finishes him. The poem will never recover from this.
Book 17
The fight over Patroclus's body
The whole afternoon spent fighting over the corpse. Hector strips Achilles's armor and dons it. The Greek captains, one by one, come up to hold the body. Antilochus is sent to tell Achilles. The book closes on the body in Greek hands, and the runner crossing the plain.
Books 18–24 · Reckoning
Achilles returns, kills Hector, and finally faces grief.
Book 18
Achilles's grief; the new shield
Achilles hears and collapses. Thetis rises from the sea. Hephaestus, on Olympus, forges him new armor — including the great shield, which Homer describes at extraordinary length. An entire world is engraved on it: cities at peace and at war, fields, weddings, lawsuits, dance.
Book 19
The reconciliation
Achilles formally renounces the wrath in front of the assembled army. Agamemnon makes his own speech of restitution. The men eat; Achilles will not. He arms in the new armor. His horse, given speech for one line by Hera, warns him he is going to die today. Achilles says he knows.
Book 20
The gods on the field; Achilles meets Aeneas
Zeus releases the Olympians to choose sides openly. The gods pour onto the field. Achilles meets Aeneas in single combat; Poseidon, though pro-Greek, lifts Aeneas to safety because his fate is to survive Troy. Achilles continues, looking for Hector.
Book 21
Achilles in the river
The most surreal book in the poem. Achilles kills so many men in the river Scamander that the river-god himself rises to fight him. The river nearly drowns Achilles; Hephaestus boils the river dry to save him. Meanwhile, on the plain, the Olympians have a small comic war.
Book 22
Hector dies
Hector waits outside the walls. He sees Achilles coming and runs. They run three times around the city before Athena, in disguise, tricks him into stopping. Achilles kills him through the one gap in the armor he himself once wore. Then he ties the body to the chariot and drags it.
Book 23
The funeral games for Patroclus
Patroclus is given his funeral. The pyre burns through the night. In the morning Achilles holds funeral games — chariot race, boxing, wrestling, foot-race, archery, spear. The mood is uncharacteristically festive after twenty-two books of war. Hector's body still lies in the dust outside the camp.
Book 24
Priam in the tent
Twelve days after Hector's death. Priam goes alone, with Hermes guiding him, through the Greek camp to Achilles's tent. He kneels and kisses the hand that killed his son. The two enemies weep together, share a meal, and admire each other. The body is returned. The poem ends with Hector's funeral.