Iliad

Epic card · No. 6856

The Iliad ( ILL-ee-əd; Ancient Greek: Ἰλιάς, romanized: Iliás [iːliás]; lit. '[a poem] about Ilion (Troy)') is one of two major surviving ancient Greek epic poems, along with the Odyssey, attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern readers. Like the Odyssey, the poem is divided into 24 books and was written in dactylic hexameter. It contains 15,693 lines in its standard edition. The Iliad is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature and is central to the study of classical philology. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a 10-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the war's final weeks. It focuses primarily on Achilles, a celebrated warrior, whose wrath (mēnis) is the driving force of the narrative, from his fierce quarrel with the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon, to his killing of the Trojan prince Hector. The narrative moves between wide...

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