Summary of the Iliad

• Book 1
  • Time: 9th year of war, book 1 spans 21 days:
  • 1st day=quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon,
  • Chryses appeals to Agamemnon,
  • Agememnon tells Chryses no, Chryses appeals to Apollo,
  • Apollo sends a plague on the Achaians
  • 9 days of plague
  • Council of the Achaians, Calchas says the plague is Agamemnon's fault for not returning Chryseis, Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel, Athena holds back Achilles,
  • Achilles asks Thetis to ask Zeus to honor him
  • Odysseus takes Chryseis back to Chryses,
  • Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles, Achilles is angry.
  • 11days while gods are in Ethiopia
  • Thetis asks Zeus to honor Achilles, Zeus says yes.
• Book 2
  • Time: night before and first day of battle
  • Zeus sends Agamemnon the false dream,
  • Agememnon calls assembly in the morning and suggests going home, they start to get ready to go home, Odysseus regathers Achaians and persuades them to fight
  • Thersites gets whacked by Odysseus,
  • sacrifice and breakfast,
  • Catalog of ships
  • Zeus sends Iris to Trojans
  • catalog of Trojans
• Book 3
  • Time: still first day of battle
  • Teichoskopia (Helen points out the Achaians to Priam from the wall)
  • Paris and Menelaus fight in single combat
  • Paris rescued by Aphrodite, Paris and Helen sleep together.
• Book 4
  • Time: still first day of fighting
  • Pandaros breaks the truce, because Athena gets him to do it,
  • Big battle
• Book 5
  • Time: still first day of fighting
  • Achaians with Athena's help have the upper hand, Apollo helps the Trojans
  • Aristeia of Diomedes, Diomedes beats Aineias, Aphrodite rescues Aineias, Diomedes wounds Aphrodite!, Apollo rescues Aineias
  • More Battle
  • Diomedes wounds Ares!
• Book 6
  • Time: still first day of battle (22nd day of the Iliad)
  • Individual combats
  • Helenos tells Hector to go to Troy,
  • Glaukos and Diomedes exchange armor
  • Hector goes backt ot Troy, finds his mother Hekabe, finds his brother Paris and Helen, finds Andromache, returns with Paris to battle
• Book 7
  • Time: 22nd day PM, 23rd day, 24th day
  • Hector and Aias fight in single combat, inconclusive, exchange of gifts
  • Truce and burial of the dead--23rd day
  • Achaians build wall--24th day
• Book 8
  • Time: 25th day
  • Zeus forbids gods from battlefield
  • Battle
  • Trojans advance
  • Trojans sleep for the first time in the war outside their walls
• Book 9
  • Time: Evening of the 25th day
  • Embassy to Achilles (Phoinix tells stories), Achilles rejects embassy
• Book 10
  • Time: 26th day, 3rd day of combat (26th day of Iliad)
  • Spying expedition (Doloneia)
  • Dolon meets Diomedes and Odysseus, tells them the layout of the camp
  • Diomedes and Odysseus kill Trojan allies
  • Return to camp
• Book 11
  • Time: 26th day, 3rd day of combat
  • Aristeia of Agamemnon
  • Hector advances
  • Diomedes, Odysseus, Agamemnon, Machaon all Achaians wounded
  • Nestor has lunch with Patroclus
• Book 12
  • Time: 3rd day of combat
  • Teichomachia (battle for the walls)
  • Battle for the wall
  • Hector smashes the gate
• Book 13
  • Time: 3rd day of fighting
  • Poseidon helps the Achaians
  • Aristeia of Idomeneus
• Book 14
  • Time: 3rd day of combat
  • Wounded Achaians reenter battle even though they are wounded
  • Hera seduces Zeus
  • Aias and Hector fight: Hector stunned by a rock
  • Trojans flee
• Book 15
  • Time: 3rd day of battle
  • Zeus wakes up, gets mad, lets the Trojans fight their way back to the ships (Apollo heals Hector), Hector and Aias fight again, Aias retreats slowly
• Book 16
  • Time: 3rd day of fighting
  • Patroklos asks Achilles to let him fight, Achilles agrees
  • Aristeia of Patroklos, Sarpedon killed
  • Death of Patroklos (Euphorbos, Apollo and Hector kill him)
• Book 17
  • Time: 3rd day of fighting (26th day of the epic)
  • Fighting over Patroklos' body
  • Achaians get the body
• Book 18
  • Time: Evening of the 26th day
  • Achilles grieves for his friend
  • Achilles saves the Achaians merely by appearing on the walls
  • Hector decides against poulydamas' advice to camp outside the walls again
  • Thetis asks Hephaistus to make Achilles new weapons
• Book 19
  • Time: 27th day, fourth day of fighting
  • Thetis gives Achilles his weapons
  • Reconciliation between Agamemnon and Achilles
  • Xanthos, the horse, tells Achilles he will die
• Book 20
  • Time: 27th day
  • Aineias and Achilles fight, Aineias rescued by Poseidon
  • Trojans flee
• Book 21
  • Time: 27th day
  • Achilles fights the river Scamandros
  • Battles of gods: Ares v. Athena, Athenav. Aphrodite, Apollo v. Poseidon, Artemis v. Hera, Hermes v. Leto
  • Trojans flee
• Book 22
  • Time: 27th day
  • Hector fights Achilles, Hector dies, Achilles mistreats Hector
  • Priam and Hekabe and Andromache lament Hector
• Book 23
  • Time: Night before the 28th day, 28th day, and 29th day
  • Funeral of Patroklos
  • Funeral games--28th day
• Book 24
  • Time: 11 days of mistreatment of Hector, 1 day of council of gods, 9 days to build Hector's funeral pyre
  • Zeus decides Achilles really ought to give back the body of Hector
  • Priam goes to Achilles' tent guided by Hermes, Achilles agrees to take the ransom and give back the body
  • 11 day truce for burial of Hector
  • 51st day: Hector's corpse is buried