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Summary Iliad Book Summaries
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Summaries of what happens in each book of the Iliad with select quotes to show off your knowledge in exams
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Iliad Book Summaries:Book 1: Agamemnon has a fight with Achilles, Chryseis is given back after a plague,
Thetis supplicated Zeus to make the Greeks do badly, Hephaestus is a goofball.
‘Anger-sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that accursed anger’ ‘and Zeus’
purpose was fulfilled.’ (proem)
‘She will grow old in Argos (…) sharing my bed.’
Achilles: ‘It was no quarrel with Trojan warriors that brought me here to fight. They have
never done me any harm’
‘Athene stood behind Achilles and seized him by the auburn hair’ (to stop Agamemnon and
Achilles fighting)
‘the girl went unwillingly with them’ (Briseis)
‘My child, why these tears? Why this sorrow? Tell me, don’t keep it to yourself. We must
share it.’
‘keep your anger against the Greeks and take no part in the fighting’
‘You have never been willing to confide in me.’
‘helpless laughed seized the blessed gods as the watched him busting up and down the hall’
‘Then he went up and slept with Hera of the golden throne beside him.’
Book 3: Menelaus and Paris go one of one, Helen talks to Priam, Aphrodite saves Paris
and makes Helen sleep with him
‘Trojans advanced with shrieks and cries like cranes’ vs ‘but the Greeks moved forward in
silence, breathing courage.’
‘Paris, you parody, with your wonderful looks, you sex-crazed seducer, you should never
have been born or married.’ (after Paris retreats from Menelaus)
‘make the rest of the Trojan and all the Greeks sit down and let me and warlike Menelaus
meet in the middle to fight’ (Paris is brave)
‘so he spoke, and the Greeks and Trojans were delighted’
‘she was weaving some of the many trails that the Trojans and Greeks had suffered for her
sake’
‘I have never set eyes on a man so handsome and imposing. He looks every inch the leader.’
Priam about Agamemnon.
‘I cannot bear to look on while my own dear son fights warlike Menelaus.’
‘Aphrodite hid Paris in a dense mist and whisked him away’ ‘Menelaus has clearly won’ (a
Greek guy said that)
‘No, go and sit with him yourself.’
, ‘Obstinate wretch! Don’t get on the wrong side of me, or I may desert you in my anger and
detest you as vehemently as I have loved you’ (Aphrodite to Helen)
Book 4: The gods bicker about if the war should continue, the oath is broken,
Agamemnon surveys his troops and is mean to Odysseus
‘Zeus son of Cronus now tried to irritate Hera by needling her, though he did not really mean
what he said (…) shall we make peace between the two sides?’
‘Do what you like, then: but not all the rest of us gods will approve.’
‘The three towns I love best are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae.’
‘You would cover yourself in glory and put every Trojan in your dept’ (Athene to Pandarus)
‘like a mother brushing away a fly away from her gently sleeping child’ (Athene stopping
Menelaus from getting shot)
‘Agamemnon lord of men shuddered when he saw the dark blood streaming from the wound’
‘Odysseus, master or sharp practice, always looking out for number one, why are you
hanging back like this and leaving others to advance?’ vs ‘I’ll make up for it later if I have
said anything offensive.’
‘I am not going to quarrel with Agamemnon shepherd of the people’ (Diomedes)
‘Terror and Panic accompanied her (Athene), and so did implacable determined Strife’
‘Trojans and Greeks that day lay there (…) stretched out alongside each other, face down in
the dust.’
Book 6: Greeks are winning, Glaucus and Diomedes meet, Hector goes to Ilium and the
women go to prey, he talks to Helen and Paris, talks to his son and Andromache, and he
meets up with Paris
‘Menelaus, my soft-hearted brother (…) we are not going to leave a single one of them alive,
(…) The whole population must be wiped out of existence, with none to shed a tear for
them.’
‘Let us kill Trojans. Afterwards, at your leisure, you can strip the dead on the battlefield’
(Nestor)
‘We were never so terrified even of Achilles, leader of men, and said to be a goddess’ son.
But Diomedes here is quite uncontrollable and not a man can hold him.’ (prophet Helenus to
Hector)
‘The family of man is like the leaves of trees’
‘let us avoid each other’s spears (…) since there are plenty of other Trojans (…) and let us
exchange our armour so that every will know our grandfathers’ friendship has made friends
of us’ (Glaucus)
‘But Zeus robbed Glaucus of his wits since he exchanged his golden armour for Diomedes
bronze’
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