The Essential Iliad recap

In the tenth year of the Trojan War, Agamemnon dishonors Achilles by taking Briseis, and Achilles withdraws from the Greek army. At his request Zeus lets the Trojans gain the advantage, while Hector leads them to the Greek ships. Agamemnon offers restitution, but Achilles initially refuses. When the ships are threatened, Patroclus enters battle in Achilles's armor, drives the Trojans back, and is killed by Hector. Grief brings Achilles back to war despite his knowledge that vengeance will hasten his own death. Wearing new armor made by Hephaestus, he slaughters Trojans and kills Hector, then abuses the body. Priam secretly comes to the Greek camp and begs for his son's return. Moved by their shared grief, Achilles accepts ransom, returns Hector, and grants time for burial. The epic closes with Hector's funeral while Troy still stands and Achilles's own foretold death remains ahead.

In the tenth year of the Greek siege of Troy, Apollo sends a plague through the Greek camp because Agamemnon refuses to return Chryseis to her priestly father. Agamemnon relents only after demanding Achilles's captive Briseis in exchange. Achilles nearly attacks the commander, then withdraws from the war and asks his mother Thetis to secure Zeus's support for the Trojans until the Greeks understand the cost of dishonoring him. The armies meet, and Paris offers to settle the war by fighting Helen's former husband Menelaus. Menelaus gains the advantage, but Aphrodite removes Paris from danger and the truce soon collapses. Athena assists Diomedes in a fierce Greek advance during which he wounds even Aphrodite and Ares. Hector returns briefly to Troy, urges Paris back into combat, and meets Andromache and their son. Though Andromache fears she will lose him, Hector chooses the duty and reputation attached to defending Troy. He returns to battle as the larger conflict continues without Achilles.

Hector and Ajax fight without a decisive result, and both armies pause to bury their dead. Zeus then prevents the other gods from intervening and gives the Trojans enough strength to force the Greeks behind their defenses. Facing disaster, Agamemnon admits his error and offers Achilles wealth, honors, and the return of Briseis. Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax carry the proposal to Achilles. He receives them courteously but refuses the settlement, arguing that no reward can restore the honor Agamemnon took and that survival may matter more than glory. Phoenix appeals to their personal bond, and Ajax condemns Achilles's refusal to help his companions, but neither changes his decision. The embassy returns unsuccessful. The Greek position remains precarious, while Achilles stays apart even after receiving everything he once demanded materially.

The Trojans break through the Greek defenses and carry fire to the ships. Unable to bear the losses, Patroclus begs Achilles to let him lead the Myrmidons while wearing Achilles's armor. Achilles agrees, instructing him to drive the Trojans from the ships but not pursue them to Troy. Patroclus turns the battle, kills the Lycian leader Sarpedon, and advances beyond the limit Achilles set. Apollo stuns and disarms him, Euphorbus wounds him, and Hector kills him and takes Achilles's armor. Greeks and Trojans struggle over the body until Menelaus and Ajax manage to carry it away. When the news reaches Achilles, his quarrel with Agamemnon is overwhelmed by grief and the need to avenge Patroclus. Achilles knows that killing Hector will bring his own death closer, but accepts that fate. Thetis goes to Hephaestus, who makes a new shield and armor so her son can return to battle.

Achilles reconciles publicly with Agamemnon, receives Briseis and the promised gifts, and arms for battle. He cuts through the Trojan forces with such violence that the river god Scamander rises against him, angered by the bodies choking the water, before divine intervention saves him. Most Trojans retreat within their walls, but Hector remains outside to face Achilles. He initially runs, then is deceived by Athena into making a stand. Achilles kills him, refuses his dying request that the body be returned, and drags the corpse behind his chariot to the Greek camp. He conducts funeral rites and games for Patroclus, yet his grief remains unsatisfied and he continues to mistreat Hector's body. The gods protect the corpse from lasting damage. Zeus finally directs Thetis to tell Achilles to accept ransom and sends Priam, under Hermes' protection, into the Greek camp to recover his son.

Priam enters Achilles's shelter, clasps the hands that killed Hector, and asks Achilles to think of his own elderly father. The appeal moves both men beyond the roles of enemies, and they weep together for Hector, Patroclus, and the losses awaiting Achilles's family. Achilles accepts Priam's ransom and orders Hector's body washed and prepared away from the father's sight. He also grants the Trojans enough time to mourn and bury Hector before fighting resumes. Priam returns safely to Troy with the body. Cassandra announces his arrival, and Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen lament Hector as husband, son, defender, and protector. The Trojans gather wood, burn the body, collect the remains, and build a mound over them. The epic ends with Hector's funeral. Troy has not yet fallen and Achilles is still alive, but the deaths and destruction foretold for both sides remain unavoidable beyond the close.

After killing Hector, Achilles continues to mourn Patroclus and repeatedly drags Hector's body around his companion's tomb. The gods preserve the corpse, and Zeus orders that it be returned. Priam crosses the Greek lines with divine protection, enters Achilles's shelter, and asks him to remember his own aged father. The appeal brings both enemies into shared grief: Priam mourns Hector, while Achilles mourns Patroclus and the father he will not see again. Achilles accepts the ransom, returns Hector's body, and promises a pause in the fighting long enough for Troy to conduct the funeral. Priam brings his son home. Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen lead the lamentations, after which the Trojans burn Hector's body, gather his bones, and raise a burial mound. The poem ends with Hector honored, not with the fall of Troy or the death of Achilles; both remain anticipated beyond the narrated action.