Books I to IV
In the tenth year of the Trojan War, between the city and the Greek ships beside the Hellespont, the greatest Greek warrior, Achilles, withdraws from the fighting over an offense to his honor. It is this wrath, together with Zeus's plan to honor him at the cost of the Greeks, that drives the story.
In Book I, the priest Chryses comes to the camp to ransom his daughter, Chryseis, whom Agamemnon received as a prize. Everyone approves the ransom, but the king drives the old man away, and he prays to Apollo for vengeance, and the god spreads plague for nine days. Achilles calls an assembly; the seer Calchas says the plague will end only if Chryseis returns without ransom, and Agamemnon agrees, but takes Briseis, Achilles' prize, in exchange. Achilles draws his sword, Athena seizes him by the hair, and he throws the scepter to the ground and swears that the Greeks will feel the lack of him. He hands over Briseis, weeps at the seashore, and asks Thetis to obtain from Zeus a Trojan victory until the Greeks are penned in beside the ships, and Zeus assents with a nod that makes Olympus tremble.
In Book II, Zeus sends Agamemnon a Dream that convinces him he will take the city that very day. The king tests the army by proposing flight, the men run for the ships, and Odysseus, with Athena's help, holds them back; Thersites, who repeats from below the complaint of Achilles, is beaten with the scepter. Odysseus recalls the omen at Aulis, and the poet invokes the Muses for the Catalogue of Ships and the chiefs, where Achilles appears standing by the sea, in wrath. In Book III, Paris challenges the best of the Greeks, backs down on seeing Menelaus, and is rebuked by Hector; he then proposes to settle the war in a duel for Helen. The two sides swear the pact, Helen, summoned by Iris, points out the Achaean chiefs to Priam from the tower, Menelaus almost wins, and Aphrodite snatches Paris from the fight and puts him in Helen's bedchamber. In Book IV, on Olympus, Zeus and Hera trade Troy's fate for three cities of Hera's; Athena persuades Pandarus to wound Menelaus, the oath is broken, and Agamemnon goes along the ranks before the battle begins. The book ends with Trojans and Achaeans dead side by side.
Books V to VIII
In Book V, Athena gives strength to Diomedes, who kills Pandarus, wounds Aeneas and the goddess Aphrodite and, with Athena's help, Ares himself; Sarpedon rebukes Hector. In Book VI, Hector returns to the city at the request of Helenus to have the women pray to Athena, who shakes her head in refusal; Glaucus and Diomedes discover the bond of hospitality between their grandfathers and exchange armor; Hector rebukes Paris and, at the Scaean Gates, takes leave of Andromache and of his son Astyanax, knowing that Troy will fall. In Book VII, Hector and Ajax duel and part at nightfall with gifts; Antenor proposes returning Helen, Paris refuses, and during the truce for the dead the Achaeans raise a wall. In Book VIII, Zeus forbids the gods to intervene, weighs the death lots of the two armies on a golden scale, and makes the Greeks flee; Hector spends the night on the plain, with a thousand campfires around him.
Books IX to XII
In Book IX, Agamemnon proposes flight and is checked by Diomedes; Nestor urges him to make amends to Achilles, and Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix carry to Achilles Agamemnon's offer: gifts and Briseis back. Achilles receives them while playing the lyre, but refuses, and the refusal shrinks over the night, from sailing in the morning to fighting only when Hector reaches his ships. In Book X, by night, Diomedes and Odysseus go out to spy on the Trojans, kill Dolon and the sleeping Thracians, and carry off the horses of Rhesus. In Book XI, Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus are wounded; Achilles sends Patroclus to find out who the wounded man is, and Nestor suggests that Patroclus wear Achilles' armor. In Book XII, the Trojans, against the counsel of Polydamas, attack the wall, and Hector breaks the gate with a stone.
Books XIII to XVII
In Book XIII, Poseidon, in the form of Calchas, rouses the two Ajaxes and the Achaeans beside the ships. In Book XIV, Hera seduces Zeus with Aphrodite's girdle and puts him to sleep, Poseidon turns the battle, and Ajax knocks Hector down with a stone. In Book XV, Zeus wakes, tells Hera the chain of events still missing, the death of Patroclus, then that of Sarpedon and that of Hector, and sends Apollo to put the Achaeans to flight, and the god undoes the wall; Hector reaches the ships, and Ajax resists from deck to deck. In Book XVI, Patroclus asks for Achilles' armor, and Achilles sets him the limit of returning once the ships are saved; he pushes back the fire, kills Sarpedon, and reaches the wall of Troy, from which Apollo drives him back, and then, on the plain, Apollo disarms him, Euphorbus wounds him, and Hector kills him, and Patroclus prophesies Hector's death. In Book XVII, Menelaus and the two Ajaxes fight over the body, Hector puts on the armor of Achilles, and Antilochus runs to bring the news.
Books XVIII to XXII
In Book XVIII, Achilles learns of the death of Patroclus, covers himself with ash, and Thetis obtains new armor for him from Hephaestus, whose shield the poet describes scene by scene; Achilles shows himself to the Trojans, unarmed, before the trench, and his cry frightens them, but Hector rejects the advice of Polydamas to return to the city. In Book XIX, Achilles ends his wrath before the army, Agamemnon makes amends with gifts and swears that he never touched Briseis, and the horse Xanthus warns Achilles that his day is near. In Book XX, the gods come down to the field but sit apart; Aeneas is saved by Poseidon and Hector by Apollo. In Book XXI, Achilles kills Lycaon, fights the river Xanthus, which nearly carries him off, while the gods quarrel among themselves, and Apollo deceives him to give the Trojans time to enter the city. In Book XXII, Hector waits alone before the Scaean Gates, despite the pleas of Priam and Hecuba; the two run three laps around Troy, Zeus weighs the Keres on the scale, Athena deceives Hector in the form of Deiphobus, and Achilles kills him and drags him behind his chariot while Andromache watches from the wall as her husband is dragged along.
Books XXIII and XXIV
In Book XXIII, Achilles keeps vigil over Patroclus, sees his soul in a dream, and burns him on a pyre with horses, dogs, and twelve Trojans; the funeral games follow, with the chariot race, boxing, wrestling, the foot race, armed combat, the discus, the bow, and the spear. In Book XXIV, Achilles drags the body of Hector every day around the tomb of Patroclus, and the gods protect it; Zeus sends Thetis to persuade him to accept the ransom and Iris to Priam; guided by Hermes, the old man reaches the tent, kisses the hand that killed his sons, and the two weep, each for his own dead. Achilles returns the body and grants eleven days of truce (nine of mourning, the burial on the tenth, and the tomb on the eleventh; on the twelfth the war resumes). Troy mourns Hector with Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen, burns the body, gathers the bones into a golden urn and raises the tomb, and the people hold a feast in Priam's palace. Thus the poem ends.