The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Troy (Ilium) by an alliance of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the famed 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. Along with The Odyssey, also attributed to Homer, The Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the eighth century BC. The epic poem contains over 15,000 lines and is often considered to be the beginning of classic literature.

To aid reading The Iliad, a list of the principle characters is provided here. It may be useful to create a bookmark of this page if it is your first time reading this complex work.

Achaeans (also called Greeks, Danaans and Argives)

Agamemnon – King of Mycenae and Overlord of the Greeks.

Achilles – Leader of the Myrmidons, half-divine war hero.

Odysseus – King of Ithaca, the wiliest Greek commander and hero of the Odyssey.

Aias (Ajax the Greater) – son of Telamon, with Diomedes, he is second to Achilles in martial prowess.

Menelaus – King of Sparta, husband of Helen and brother of Agamemnon.

Diomedes – son of Tydeus, King of Argos.

Aias (Ajax the Lesser) – son of Oileus, often partner of Ajax the Greater.

Patroclus – Achilles’ closest companion.

Nestor – King of Pylos.

Trojans

Hector – son of King Priam and the foremost Trojan warrior.

Aeneas – son of Anchises and Aphrodite.

Deiphobus – brother of Hector and Paris.

Paris – Helen’s lover-abductor.

Priam – the aged King of Troy.

Polydamas – a prudent commander whose advice is ignored; he is Hector’s foil.

Agenor – a Trojan warrior who attempts to fight Achilles (Book XXI).

Sarpedon, son of Zeus – killed by Patroclus. Was friend of Glaucus amp; co-leader of the Lycians (fought for the Trojans).

Glaucus, son of Hippolochus – friend of Sarpedon and co-leader of the Lycians (fought for the Trojans).

Euphorbus – first Trojan warrior to wound Patroclus.

Dolon (Δόλων) – a spy upon the Greek camp (Book X).

Antenor – King Priam’s advisor, who argues for returning Helen to end the war. Paris refuses.

Polydorus – son of Priam and Laothoe.

Pandarus – famous archer and son of Lycaon.

The Trojan Women

Hecuba (Ἑκάβη) – Priam’s wife, mother of Hector, Cassandra, Paris, and others.

Helen (Ἑλένη) – Menelaus’s wife; espoused first to Paris, then to Deiphobus; her abduction by Paris precipitated the war.

Andromache (Ἀνδρομάχη) – Hector’s wife, mother of Astyanax (Ἀστυάναξ).

Cassandra (Κασσάνδρα) – Priam’s daughter; courted by Apollo, who bestows the gift of prophecy to her; upon her rejection, he curses her, and her warnings of Trojan doom go unheeded.

Briseis – a Trojan woman captured by the Greeks; she was Achilles’ prize of the Trojan war.

George Chapman published his translation of The Iliad in instalments in 1598. The epic poem is composed in “fourteeners”, a long-line ballad metre that “has room for all of Homer’s figures of speech and plenty of new ones, as well as explanations in parentheses. At its best, as in Achilles’ rejection of the embassy in Iliad Nine; it has great rhetorical power”. The translation quickly established itself as a classic in English poetry. In the preface to his own translation, Pope praises “the daring fiery spirit” of Chapman’s rendering, which is “something like what one might imagine Homer, himself, would have writ before he arrived at years of discretion”. John Keats praised Chapman in the sonnet On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, which is provided below:

On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He star’d at the Pacific – and all his men

Look’d at each other with a wild surmise -

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

by John Keats