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The Iliad

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Who is who, and who belongs to whom. Click a name to open the character page.

The gods those who weigh the fate of the war The Greek chiefs Agamemnon's army Achilles and Patroclus the wrath and the friend Troy the besieged city is mother of honors weighs the fate of pleads with takes the prize from leads the embassy to advises is brother of fights in place of kills kills is father of is husband of returns Hector to takes is husband of faces rebukes T Thetis the goddess mother of Achilles Z Zeus the god who decides the war O Odysseus the speaker of the embassy Ag Agamemnon the Greek chief who took Briseis M Menelaus the husband who claims Helen Ac Achilles the greatest warrior of the Greeks Pc Patroclus the friend who wears his armor H Hector the prince who defends Troy An Andromache the wife who fears losing him Pr Priam the aged king, father of Hector Pa Paris the prince who carried off Helen He Helen Menelaus's wife in Troy loves, protects, forgives condemns, attacks, betrays follows, welcomes, teaches serves, obeys, carries out decides the fate of
Achilles Achilles is the greatest warrior of the Achaean army and the hero of the wrath that opens the poem. He is the son of the mortal Peleus and the goddess Thetis, and he lives knowing that his life will be short. In the very first book King Agamemnon takes from... Hector Hector is Troy's main defender, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, husband of Andromache and father of the boy Astyanax. He is the commander of the Trojans and their allies when the Achaeans camp by the ships, and the poem has him fight less for personal... Agamemnon Agamemnon is the king who commands the Achaean expedition against Troy and the man on whom the order of the army depends. He is the son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus, the offended husband, and he carries the scepter his lineage passed down to him, the... Patroclus Patroclus is Achilles' dearest companion, son of Menoetius and raised with him in the house of Peleus. Those who know him describe him as gentle with everyone, and he is the one who serves Achilles' table, carries messages, tends the wounded with the remedies... Priam Priam is the old king of Troy, father of Hector, Paris, and many other sons. He has governed a city at war for nine years, and the poem shows him more as a watcher than an actor: from the Scaean Gates and the towers he sees the duel, the fighting, and the... Andromache Andromache is the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, who ruled in Thebe, and mother of the boy Astyanax, whom the Trojans so call because only Hector defended the city. She appears little, but in three moments that the poem chooses with care: the farewell at... Zeus Zeus is the father of gods and men, the Cronid who reigns on Olympus and, from Mount Ida, looks down on the city and the ships. He is the one who grants the request Thetis makes in the first book, to honor Achilles, and the poem says already in the proem that... Thetis Thetis is the goddess of the sea, the silver-footed one, mother of Achilles and wife of Peleus, the mortal whom Zeus forced her to marry, the only one among the Nereids to be so bound. In the first book she brings her son's request to Zeus, and the poem says... Odysseus Odysseus is the chief of the Cephallenians, coming from Ithaca, the father of Telemachus and the crafty one of the Achaean army. In the Iliad he is not the greatest warrior, but the man to whom one turns when it is necessary to restrain, persuade, or silence.... Diomedes Diomedes is the young Achaean chief, son of Tydeus and grandson of Oeneus, of Calydon, whom the poem makes shine more than anyone on a day of battle. Athena gives him strength, boldness, and a rule, and he follows the rule with precision: he wounds a goddess,... Helen Helen is the woman for whom the Trojan War is fought: wife of Menelaus, taken to Troy by Paris, leaving behind her daughter, her kin, and her companions. In the poem she does not decide the course of the war, but everyone names her, and each names her in a... Paris Paris, also called Alexander, is the son of Priam who carried Helen to Troy and, with that, gave cause to the war. He is handsome, has the gifts of Aphrodite, and, in the words of his brother Hector, more appearance than strength of spirit. The poem shows him... Menelaus Menelaus is the offended husband, brother of Agamemnon, and the man for whom, as Achilles says in the first book, the Achaeans came to Troy. He is fair-haired Menelaus, whom the poem calls Zeus-nurtured, and he struggles with the pain of one who has suffered... Nestor Nestor is the elder of the Achaean army, son of Neleus, chief of the Pylians, whose voice flowed sweeter than honey from his tongue. He has watched two generations pass and speaks with the authority of one who lived among men better than those of today. He no... Ajax Ajax, son of Telamon, of Salamis, is the best of the Achaeans in combat while Achilles is angry: the poem says so in these words at the end of the Catalogue of Ships. He carries a shield of seven oxhides and an eighth plate of bronze, which seems to him a... Hera Hera is the wife of Zeus and the goddess who, on Olympus, works against Troy and for the Achaeans. She says of herself that she is the eldest daughter of Cronus, of the same lineage as her husband, and called the wife of Zeus, and she does not accept seeing... Athena Athena is the daughter of Zeus who, on the battlefield and on Olympus, acts for the Achaeans and carries out what Hera wants. She appears in many forms: as a hand that seizes a hero by the hair, as a star that falls among the armies, as a herald, as a Trojan,... Apollo Apollo is the god of the bow, son of Leto, whom the poem places on the side of the Trojans from the first book and does not abandon until the last. The plague that opens the action is his work, in answer to a priest's prayer, and it is he who, at the end,...

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