Iliad (World Classics Library)

Author: Homer
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-06-01
Features: It is said that Paris, the prince of Troy, helped by the goddess of love, Aphrodite, abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus of Sparta, which led to the Trojan War. The Greek army was led by Agamemnon of Mycenae. In the tenth year of the war, Agamemnon clashed with Achilles, the most powerful hero in the Greek army, over the issue of a female captive. Enraged and humiliated, Achilles refused to continue fighting and demanded his mother, the goddess Thetis, to ask Zeus, the supreme god, to punish the Greek army. The Trojans launched an attack on the Greek army and, under Zeus's protection, won repeatedly, driving the Greek army into their ships at the seaside camp. Achilles's friend Patroclus died in battle to save the Greek army from danger. Regretting his stubbornness, Achilles reconciled with Agamemnon and fought again, decisively defeating the Trojans and killing Hector, the Trojan commander. King Priam painfully bribed Achilles to retrieve the body of his son for burial.