The Iliad
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Chapter 1
Apollo afflicts the Achaeans after Agamemnon dishonours Chryses, and the demand to return Chryseis leads Agamemnon to seize Briseis and drive the enraged Achilles from the fighting. Achilles asks Thetis to secure his honour, while the Achaeans return Chryseis and appease Apollo. Jove promises Thetis to favour the Trojans until the Achaeans honour Achilles, and Vulcan calms the resulting discord among the gods.
54 passages
164 claims
41 observations · 11 observed placesChapter 2
Jove sends Agamemnon a deceptive dream promising Troy's immediate fall, after which Agamemnon's test nearly sends the Achaeans home before Minerva and Ulysses restore the assembly and Nestor helps turn them toward battle. The Achaeans marshal under their leaders in a catalogue of ships and contingents, while Iris warns the Trojans and a corresponding catalogue names the forces gathering under Hector and his allies.
84 passages
208 claims
28 observations · 16 observed placesChapter 3
As Trojans and Achaeans approach battle, Paris retreats before Menelaus, accepts Hector's rebuke, and proposes a duel for Helen under sworn peace terms. Helen identifies Achaean leaders for Priam, the armies swear oaths, and Menelaus overcomes Paris until Venus rescues him, coerces Helen to his bed, and leaves Agamemnon to declare Menelaus victorious and demand Helen, her wealth, and an agreed fine.
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41 observations · 8 observed placesChapter 4
At Juno’s urging, Jove sends Minerva to make the Trojans break their oaths, and Minerva, disguised as Laodocus, persuades Pandarus to shoot Menelaus, though she turns the arrow so that it only wounds him. As Machaon treats Menelaus, the Trojans renew the attack and Agamemnon moves through the Achaean ranks, praising or rebuking their leaders to prepare them for battle. The armies clash amid divine encouragement, and a sequence of killings leaves Trojans and Achaeans lying together on the field.
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123 claims
8 observations · 5 observed placesChapter 5
Minerva empowers Diomed, who devastates the Trojans and, with divine aid, wounds Venus and Mars, while Apollo rescues and heals Aeneas, the gods alternately rally both armies, and fierce mortal combat continues.
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227 claims
38 observations · 11 observed placesChapter 6
As Trojans and Achaeans trade battlefield losses, Hector rallies the Trojans and goes into Ilius to arrange prayers against Diomed, while Diomed and Glaucus discover inherited guest-friendship and exchange armour instead of fighting. The Trojan women supplicate Minerva, but she refuses their prayer, and Hector rebukes Paris before sharing a tender, fearful farewell with Andromache and their infant son. Paris then arms himself and rejoins Hector as the brothers return toward battle.
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170 claims
57 observations · 20 observed placesChapter 7
After Hector and Alexandrus return to battle, Minerva and Apollo arrange a pause in which Hector challenges the Achaeans and fights Ajax until nightfall, when the two exchange gifts and part. The armies agree to burn their dead, the Achaeans build a common barrow and defenses around their ships, and Jove's ominous thunder frightens both sides during their evening feasts.
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21 observations · 5 observed placesChapter 8
Jove forbids the gods to intervene, weighs the battle against the Achaeans, and repeatedly strengthens Hector's advance despite brief Achaean resistance after Agamemnon's prayer and Jove's eagle omen. Juno and Minerva set out to aid the Achaeans but turn back under Jove's threat, after which he foretells further Achaean losses and Hector's continued fighting until the son of Peleus is roused amid the struggle over Patroclus. Night checks the Trojan assault, and Hector orders watchfires and preparations to prevent an Achaean escape and renew the attack at dawn.
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156 claims
38 observations · 11 observed placesChapter 9
With the Trojans encamped near the ships, the distressed Achaean leaders reject retreat and send Ulysses, Ajax, Phoenix, and two heralds to offer Achilles rich amends for Agamemnon’s wrong. Achilles refuses the gifts and plans to leave, resists Phoenix’s personal appeal and cautionary tale of Meleager, and tells the returning envoys that he will not fight until Hector reaches his own ships, leaving the council to prepare for battle without him.
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156 claims
35 observations · 8 observed placesChapter 10
Agamemnon's fear of the nearby Trojans prompts the Achaean leaders to inspect their watch and send Diomed and Ulysses to reconnoitre the enemy camp. The pair capture and question Hector's scout Dolon, kill him, then raid the sleeping Thracians, where Diomed kills Rhesus and twelve companions while Ulysses takes the king's horses. Guided and warned by Minerva, they return safely to the ships, report their actions, and honor the goddess.
50 passages
142 claims
22 observations · 7 observed placesChapter 11
Discord rouses the Achaeans, and Agamemnon drives the Trojans toward their city until Coon wounds him, fulfilling Jove’s condition for Hector to receive strength and force the Achaeans back while Diomed, Ulysses, Machaon, Eurypylus, and Ajax are wounded or hard-pressed. Achilles sends Patroclus to identify the wounded man with Nestor, and Nestor recounts his own youthful prowess and urges Patroclus to persuade Achilles or enter battle in Achilles’ armour, after which Patroclus stops to tend Eurypylus.
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209 claims
38 observations · 14 observed placesChapter 12
As the son of Menoetius tends Eurypylus, the Trojans assault the Achaean wall on foot, disregard an ominous eagle and snake, and fight the defenders until Jove aids Hector in smashing the gates and driving the Danaans toward their ships, while the narrator foretells the wall’s eventual destruction by Neptune and Apollo.
21 passages
110 claims
44 observations · 2 observed placesChapter 13
As Jove looks away from Troy, Neptune secretly aids the hard-pressed Achaeans, repeatedly taking mortal form to rally their defenders against Hector's assault on the ships. The strengthened Achaean ranks halt Hector while Idomeneus and other warriors wage a deadly struggle on the left, and Polydamas persuades Hector to gather the scattered Trojan leaders for counsel. After Hector learns which comrades are dead or wounded, he and Paris return to the fiercest fighting, where the Trojans and Argives meet one another's renewed onslaught with defiant shouts.
54 passages
187 claims
15 observations · 7 observed placesChapter 14
As the wounded Achaean leaders reject Agamemnon’s proposal to launch the ships, Juno deceives Jove into sleeping so that Neptune can rally the Achaeans, Ajax strikes down Hector, and the reinvigorated Argives drive the frightened Trojans back with heavy losses.
40 passages
166 claims
28 observations · 12 observed placesChapter 15
Jove wakes to the Achaean advance, compels Neptune to withdraw, and sends Apollo to restore Hector and panic the Achaeans, after which the Trojans cross the trench and ruined wall, drive the defenders among their ships, and fight to bring fire while Ajax desperately holds them back.
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190 claims
28 observations · 12 observed placesChapter 16
Patroclus persuades Achilles to let him lead the Myrmidons in Achilles’ armour, drives the Trojans from the burning ships, and kills Sarpedon despite Achilles’ order to return once the fleet is safe. After Patroclus presses toward Troy, Apollo repels and disarms him, Euphorbus wounds him, and Hector delivers the mortal blow, whereupon the dying Patroclus foretells Hector’s death at Achilles’ hand.
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215 claims
24 observations · 9 observed placesChapter 17
Menelaus and the Ajaxes lead a desperate Achaean defense of Patroclus' body while Hector takes Achilles' armour, rallies the Trojans, and receives temporary strength and success from Jove, though Jove foretells his doom. Amid divine interventions, darkness, heavy losses, and repeated struggles for control of the corpse and Achilles' horses, Antilochus runs to inform the still-unaware Achilles while Menelaus and Meriones carry Patroclus toward the ships under the Ajaxes' protection.
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3 observations · 2 observed placesChapter 18
Antilochus tells Achilles that Patroclus has fallen, and Achilles mourns, vows to kill Hector despite Thetis's warning that his own death will soon follow, and appears at the trench without joining battle so the Achaeans can recover the body. The Trojans reject Polydamas's counsel to retreat, while Achilles leads the mourning and orders Patroclus's body prepared. At Thetis's request, Vulcan fashions new armour for Achilles, including a shield filled with scenes of the heavens, cities, conflict, labour, herding, dancing, and Oceanus.
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128 claims
69 observations · 10 observed placesChapter 19
Thetis brings Achilles divine armour and preserves Patroclus’s body, while Achilles renounces his anger and Agamemnon explains his folly, swears that Briseis remains inviolate, and delivers the promised amends. Achilles yields to Ulysses’ insistence that the army eat but refuses food himself in his grief, so Minerva secretly sustains him as the Achaeans arm. Achilles dons his new armour and drives out to battle despite Xanthus’s prophecy that a man and a god will soon bring about his death.
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22 observations · 11 observed placesChapter 20
Jove convenes the gods and permits them to aid either army because he fears that Achilles, raging over his comrade, will overwhelm the Trojans and override fate, so the divided immortals descend but initially watch the mortals fight. Apollo, disguised as Lycaon, urges Aeneas against Achilles, but Neptune rescues Aeneas from imminent death because he is fated to survive and reign over the Trojans. After Minerva turns Hector’s spear aside and Apollo hides Hector from Achilles, Achilles cuts through the Trojan ranks in a bloody succession of killings.
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128 claims
43 observations · 16 observed placesChapter 21
Achilles drives the Trojans into and along the Xanthus, kills Lycaon, Asteropaeus, and many others, and provokes the river into attacking him until divine aid and Vulcan's fire force it to submit; the divided gods then fight among themselves, while Apollo rescues Agenor and decoys Achilles so the routed Trojans can enter Ilius.
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85 observations · 12 observed placesChapter 22
Achilles returns from Apollo's decoy as Priam and Hecuba vainly beg Hector to enter Troy; Hector weighs retreat, negotiation, and combat, but flees when Achilles approaches. After Jove permits Minerva to act, Hector's doom sinks in Jove's scales, Apollo abandons him, and Minerva deceives him in Deiphobus's form into standing to fight. Achilles rejects Hector's proposed covenant, strikes him down, refuses his dying plea for the return of his body, and hears his prophecy before he dies; the Achaeans then wound, strip, and drag Hector's corpse toward their ships. Priam, Hecuba, and Hector's wife lament, while Hector's wife foresees hardship for their infant son.
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54 observations · 12 observed placesChapter 23
Achilles and the Achaeans mourn Patroclus, fulfill his apparition's funeral requests through sacrifices, cremation, and burial, and hold contests in which competitors dispute, concede, judge, and receive prizes.
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177 claims
28 observations · 12 observed placesChapter 24
Achilles repeatedly drags Hector’s corpse as he grieves for Patroclus, but the gods preserve the body and Jove commands that it be ransomed. Guided and protected by divine messengers, Priam brings ransom to Achilles, supplicates him by invoking his father, and shares bitter mourning with him before Achilles accepts the ransom, returns Hector, and promises a pause in the fighting for the funeral rites. Mercury leads Priam safely home, where the Trojans lament Hector and burn, bury, and feast in honor of him.
56 passages
118 claims
145 observations · 18 observed places