The Iliads of Homer: Translated According to the Greek

The Iliad begins not with the launch of a thousand ships but with a single word: wrath. Achilles' anger at Agamemnon's theft of his war-prize Briseis sets in motion a chain of events that will kill the best of the Greeks and the bravest of Trojans alike. This is not a simple tale of heroes and monsters but a shattering portrait of how pride and grief tear apart men who should be allies. Homer's gods are petty, meddling, and all too human, watching their favorites die with what seems like distant amusement. Yet amid the carnage, moments of tender grief emerge: Priam pleading for his son's body, Achilles remembering his father's love, the women mourning what war will take from them. The Iliad asks an unbearable question: what is any of it worth, when death comes for everyone, hero and coward alike? It has no easy answers. It only has the terrible beauty of the fight.