The Iliad (Wisehouse Classics Edition)

HOMER

• Publisher: Wisehouse Classics
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9789176372654
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The Iliad (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' looming death and the sack 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 an almost 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. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC. 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Introduction by The Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley, M.A., F.S.A.
• Pope’s Preface to The Iliad of Homer
• Book I: The Contention of Achilles and Agamemnon.
• Book II: The Trial of the Army, and Catalogue of the Forces.
• Book III: The Duel of Menelaus and Paris.
• Book IV: The Breach of the Truce, and the First Battle.
• Book V: The Acts of Diomed.
• Book VI: The Episodes of Glaucus and Diomed, and of Hector and Andromache.
• Book VII: The Single Combat of Hector and Ajax.
• Book VIII: The Second Battle, and the Distress of the Greeks.
• Book IX: The Embassy to Achilles.
• Book X: The Night-Adventure of Diomed and Ulysses.
• Book XI: The Third Battle, and the Acts of Agamemnon.
• Book XII: The Battle at the Grecian Wall.
• Book XIII: The Fourth Battle Continued, in which Neptune Assists the Greeks: The Acts of Idomeneus.
• Book XIV: Juno Deceives Jupiter by the Girdle of Venus.
• Book XV: Argument.
• Book XVI: The Sixth Battle, the Acts and Death of Patroclus
• Book XVII: The Seventh Battle, for the Body of Patroclus. — The Acts of Menelaus.
• Book XVIII: The Grief of Achilles, and New Armour Made Him by Vulcan.
• Book XIX: The Reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon.
• Book XX: The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles.
• Book XXI: The Battle in the River Scamander. 1
• Book XXII: The Death of Hector.
• Book XXIII: Funeral Games in Honour of Patroclus. 1
• Book XXIV: The Redemption of the Body of Hector.
• Concluding Note.