The Iliad (/ˈɪliəd/;[1] Ancient Greek: Ἰλιάς Iliás, pronounced [iː.li.

ás] in Classical Attic;

sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an ancient Greek epic poem in
dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year
siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events
during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or
alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege; the earlier events, such as the gathering
of warriors for the siege, the cause of the war, and related concerns tend to appear near the
beginning. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles'
imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take
place. However, as these events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly, when it
reaches an end the poem has told a more or less complete tale of the Trojan War.

The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, also attributed to Homer. Along
with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its
written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC.[2] In the modern vulgate (the
standard accepted version), the Iliad contains 15,693 lines; it is written in Homeric Greek, a
literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. According to Michael N. Nagler, the Iliad
is a more complicated epic poem than the Odyssey.[3]

Trojans

 The Trojan men

o Hector – son of King Priam, and the foremost Trojan warrior.
o Aeneas – son of Anchises and Aphrodite.
o Deiphobus – brother of Hector and Paris.
o Paris – son of King Priam, and Helen's lover/abductor.
o Priam – the aged King of Troy.
o Polydamas – a prudent commander whose advice is ignored; he is Hector's
foil.
o Agenor – son of Antenor, a Trojan warrior who attempts to fight Achilles
(Book XXI).
o Sarpedon, son of Zeus – killed by Patroclus. Was friend of Glaucus and co-
leader of the Lycians (fought for the Trojans).
o Glaucus, son of Hippolochus – friend of Sarpedon and co-leader of the Lycians
(fought for the Trojans).
o Euphorbus – first Trojan warrior to wound Patroclus.
o Dolon – a spy upon the Greek camp (Book X).
o Antenor – King Priam's advisor, who argues for returning Helen to end the
war.
o Polydorus – son of Priam and Laothoe.
o Pandarus – famous archer and son of Lycaon.
 The Trojan women
o Hecuba (Ἑκάβη, Hekábe) – Priam's wife, mother of Hector, Cassandra, Paris,
and others.
o Helen (Ἑλένη) – daughter of Zeus; Menelaus's wife; espoused first to Paris,
then to Deiphobus; her abduction by Paris precipitated the war.
o Andromache – Hector's wife, mother of Astyanax.
o Cassandra – Priam's daughter.
 o Briseis – a Trojan woman captured by Achilles from a previous siege, over
whom Achilles's quarrel with Agamemnon began.

Gods

In the literary Trojan War of the Iliad, the Olympian gods, goddesses, and minor deities fight
among themselves and participate in human warfare, often by interfering with humans to
counter other gods. Unlike their portrayals in Greek religion, Homer's portrayal of gods suited
his narrative purpose. The gods in traditional thought of fourth-century Athenians were not
spoken of in terms familiar to us from Homer.[8] The Classical-era historian Herodotus says
that Homer and Hesiod, his contemporary, were the first writers to name and describe the
gods' appearance and character.[9]

In Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn From Myths, Mary Lefkowitz discusses
the relevance of divine action in the Iliad, attempting to answer the question of whether or not
divine intervention is a discrete occurrence (for its own sake), or if such godly behaviors are
mere human character metaphors. The intellectual interest of Classic-era authors, such as
Thucydides and Plato, was limited to their utility as "a way of talking about human life rather
than a description or a truth", because, if the gods remain religious figures, rather than human
metaphors, their "existence"—without the foundation of either dogma or a bible of faiths—
then allowed Greek culture the intellectual breadth and freedom to conjure gods fitting any
religious function they required as a people.[10][11] The religion had no founder and was not the
creation of an inspired teacher which were popular origins of existing religions in the
world.[12] The individuals were free to believe what they wanted, as the Greek religion was
created out of a consensus of the people. These beliefs coincide to the thoughts about the gods
in polytheistic Greek religion. In the article "Greek Religion" A.W.H. Adkins, agrees with
this by saying, “The early Greeks personalized every aspect of their world, natural and
cultural, and their experiences in it. The earth, the sea, the mountains, the rivers, custom-law
(themis), and one’s share in society and its goods were all seen in personal as well as
naturalistic terms.”[13] As a result of this thinking, each god or goddess in Polytheistic Greek
religion is attributed to an aspect of the human world. For example, Poseidon is the god of the
sea, Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty, Ares is the god of war, and so on and so forth for
many other gods. This is how Greek culture was defined as many Athenians felt the presence
of their gods through divine intervention in significant events in their lives. Oftentimes they
found these events to be mysterious and inexplicable.[8]

In The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, psychologist Julian
Jaynes uses the Iliad as a major piece of evidence for his theory of Bicameralism, which
posits that until about the time described in the Iliad, humans had a far different mentality
from present day humans. He says that humans during that time were lacking what we today
call consciousness. He suggests that humans heard and obeyed commands from what they
identified as gods, until the change in human mentality that incorporated the motivating force
into the conscious self. He points out that almost every action in the Iliad is directed, caused,
or influenced by a god, and that earlier translations show an astonishing lack of words
suggesting thought, planning, or introspection. Those that do appear, he argues, are
misinterpretations made by translators imposing a modern mentality on the characters.[14]