Resumo de The Iliad

Homer's Iliad: The Battle For Troy

In the Iliad, Homer chronicles the action of only a few months of the tenth year of the battle between the Greeks and Trojans.

Prior to the Trojan war, Paris, a son of King Priam (king of Troy)
judged a beauty contest between Hera (wife of Zeus), Athena (goddess of
wisdom) and Aphrodite (goddess of love). Each goddess promised a reward
if Paris selected her as the most beautiful among the goddesses. When
Aphrodite promises to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world
(Helen of Sparta), he immediately declares her to be the winner. The
judgment of Paris angers both Hera and Athena who bide their time to
exact revenge.

Paris travels to Sparta, seduces Helen, and abducts her from her
husband, Menelaos (king of Sparta). Menelaos is enraged at this
treatment and sends out a call to all of the Greek kingdoms to converge
upon Troy to bring Helen back home. His brother, Agamemnon, heads the
fleet of hundreds of Greek ships who set out for Troy (in modern
Turkey).

For ten years, the battle rages and neither side gains an advantage. As
the Iliad opens, Achilles is angry at Agamemnon for taking away a young
woman he had won as a prize of war. Agamemnon steals Briseis from
Achilles after he is forced to return his own war bride, Chriseis, the
daughter of a priest of Apollo. As a result of what he perceives to be
an outrageous treatment by his superior officer, Achilles refuse to
participate further in the battle to defeat Troy.

When Hector, the Trojan champion, challenges the Greeks to a one-on-one
battle, Patroclus, the armor bearer of Achilles accepts the challenge
and is killed. Achilles is distraught and challenges Hector, son of
Priam, to a similar contest. When Hector is killed by Achilles, the
aged Priam comes by night into the Greeks' camp to beg Achilles for the
body of Hector. Achilles grants the old man's wish.

What surprises some readers is that the Iliad ends before the final
destruction of Troy is accomplished. The final scene in the Iliad is
the burial of Hector and the feast that follows. The story of Troy's
destruction, from the perspective of the victorious Greeks, is told in
Homer's second masterpiece: The Odyssey. The story is also related from
the perspective of the defeated Trojans in Virgil's Aeneid.

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