The Iliad

The Iliad is one of the finest of all the great works that have been handed down to us from Classical Antiquity. Paris, a Trojan prince, having won Helen as his prize for judging a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, abducted her from her Greek husband Menelaus and transported her to Troy. The Greeks, enraged by this audacity and devastated by the loss of the most beautiful woman in the world, set sail to Troy and began the long siege of the city. The Iliad narrates the events ten years into the war, describing the anger of Achilles, which results in the death of Patroclus and Achilles's mourning of him and avenging of his murder. It has had a far-reaching impact on Western literature and culture, inspiring writers, artists and classical composers across the ages. Even though it was written more than two thousand years ago, The Iliad remains both powerful and enthralling.