Iliad Plot and Ending Explained | Year 10 of the Trojan War, from Achilles' Rage to Hector's Funeral
The greatest warrior of the Greek army sits alone by the sea, weeping. The man who came to sack Troy is actually wishing for his own side to lose.
Achilles asks his mother, the goddess Thetis, to plead with Zeus to grant victory to the Trojans instead of the Greeks for a while. He wants Agamemnon, the commander-in-chief who slighted him, to pay dearly for it. The Iliad is a story that sets out from exactly this twisted wish.
Not Ten Years of the Trojan War, but a Stretch of the Final Year
The Iliad is an epic poem in 24 books written by Homer. Yet these 24 books do not cover the entire ten-year Trojan War; they cover a stretch of the war's tenth year. It is not a tale of a day or two, but a period spanning a plague, an embassy, days of battle and mourning, and funeral preparations lasting more than ten days.
The story begins with Achilles and Agamemnon quarreling over a single war prize and ends with Hector's funeral. Neither the stratagem involving the wooden horse, nor the fall of Troy, nor Achilles' own death takes place within these 24 books. If you keep this distinction in mind first, you won't be confused about why the events that follow are clustered in the tenth year rather than the war's beginning.
One War Prize That Splits the Greek Camp
The trouble begins when Chryses, a priest of Apollo, comes to the Greek camp. Offering a ransom to Agamemnon, who had taken his daughter Chryseis as a war prize, he begs for her return.
The other commanders wanted to take the ransom and release her, but Agamemnon refuses outright. He says he will keep Chryseis at his own house in Argos until she grows old, and sends the priest away empty-handed.
When the insulted Chryses prays to Apollo, the god rains plague-bearing arrows down on the Greek camp for nine days. As soldiers die, Achilles calls an assembly, and the seer Calchas reveals that Agamemnon's mistreatment of Chryses is the cause.
Agamemnon finally agrees to return Chryseis, but declares that in exchange he will seize Briseis, Achilles' war prize. The moment an enraged Achilles draws his sword, the goddess Athena appears and stops him, promising that he will one day receive compensation many times greater.
After Briseis is actually led away, Achilles pours out this grievance to his mother Thetis by the sea. Thetis ascends to Olympus twelve days later and delivers her son's request to Zeus, and Zeus promises to grant victory to the Trojans until the Greeks properly honor Achilles. This single promise changes the course of every battle to come.
Why Hector Stopped Home in the Middle of the Battlefield
As the tide of war tilts toward Troy in keeping with Zeus's promise, Hector, Troy's guardian, briefly turns back inside the city gates. He did so to ask his mother Hecabe to go to the temple of Athena, offer the finest cloth as a dedication, and pray that the city be spared, promising twelve oxen in return.
On his way to the city, Hector meets his wife Andromache and their infant son Astyanax at the Scaean Gates. Andromache clings to him, begging him not to go into battle, saying that if he dies she will be a widow and the child will grow up fatherless.
Hector takes off his helmet to embrace the child, but Astyanax, startled by the gleaming helmet, hides in his nurse's arms. Only after setting the helmet down with a laugh can Hector take his son in his arms, comfort his wife, and head back to the battlefield.
That same day on the field, the Greek Diomedes and the Trojan ally Glaucus meet and nearly come to a duel. But as the two ask after each other's lineage, they discover their families shared a bond of guest-friendship generations back, and instead of drawing their weapons they exchange armor and return to their respective camps. It is a moment that shows such exceptional scenes could occur even in the thick of war.
A Heart Twelve Gifts Could Not Turn Back
As the Trojans keep pressing the Greeks, Agamemnon finally resolves to appease Achilles. At the suggestion of the elder Nestor, Phoenix, Ajax, and Odysseus form an embassy and go to Achilles' tent.
The terms Agamemnon offered were extraordinary: seven tripods, ten talents of gold, twenty cauldrons, twelve prize-winning horses, the return of Briseis herself, along with an oath that he had never touched her. He even promised that when the war ended he would give one of his daughters in marriage, with seven prosperous cities as a dowry.
Yet Achilles rejects every one of these offers at once. He declares he will never soften toward Agamemnon or any other Greek, and says that at daybreak he will lead his ships home to Phthia.
Phoenix, who had raised him from childhood, clings to him in tears. He argues that even the gods are swayed by prayers and offerings, so why should a man not be, and even tells the story of Meleager, who once refused to fight and lost both honor and reward.
Ajax speaks bluntly, without softening the message. He says it is far too harsh to refuse reconciliation when the entire Greek army is offering such gifts in earnest. Still, Achilles leaves only the word that he will not move until Hector drives the fighting right up to his own tent, and the embassy returns empty-handed.
The Price of Lending His Armor
As the fighting continues and the Greek ships are driven to the brink of burning, Achilles' closest companion Patroclus comes to him in tears. He begs to be allowed to fight in Achilles' armor, saying the Trojans will take fright and fall back at the sight of it.
Achilles grants permission but sets the terms firmly: drive the Trojans from the ships and return at once, and on no account engage Hector. It was a warning that pressing too deep could cost him his life.
Wearing the armor, Patroclus achieves far more than expected. He puts out the fire threatening the ships, drives the Trojans back toward the walls, and in the process fells even Sarpedon, the Lycian commander.
The trouble begins there. Carried away by success, Patroclus forgets Achilles' warning and pursues the enemy close to the walls, and at that moment Apollo strikes him from behind, knocking off his helmet and shattering his spear. Then Euphorbus stabs him in the back with a spear, and finally Hector closes in and delivers the fatal blow.
With his last breath, Patroclus leaves Hector a warning: you too will soon die at Achilles' hands. This scene, where one man's death foretells the other's, bends the whole course of the story in an entirely new direction.
Achilles Hears the News, and New Armor
The herald Antilochus comes running with the news that Patroclus is dead and Hector has taken his armor. Achilles pours dust over his head where he stands, tears at his hair, and wails.
Hearing her son's cries, Thetis rises from the sea and warns him in advance that once he kills Hector, his own death will soon follow. Even so, she promises to go to the smith god Hephaestus and have new armor made for her son.
Before the armor is finished, Achilles stands by the trench without any weapon and lets out a great shout. Athena has wreathed his head with a blazing aureole, and that shout alone sends the Trojan army fleeing in terror, with twelve of their chieftains losing their lives in the rout. Seizing the moment, the Greeks recover Patroclus' body and mourn it through the night.
A Chase Three Times Around the Walls, and Hector's Death
When Achilles takes the field in his new armor, the Trojans scatter and flee inside the walls. Priam and Hecabe beg their son Hector from the ramparts to come inside, but Hector, fearing the reproach that he had recklessly ignored Polydamas' counsel and brought things to this pass, chooses to remain alone outside the walls.
Yet when he actually faces Achilles bearing down on him like a god of war, Hector turns and flees in fear. The two chase and are chased three times around the walls of Troy, and Zeus, watching the spectacle, briefly considers saving Hector before finally leaving him to Athena's will.
Then Athena appears disguised as Hector's brother Deiphobus, urging him to stand and face Achilles together. Believing his brother has come to his aid, Hector gratefully halts and turns back.
Hector proposes a pact that neither side desecrate the other's body, but Achilles refuses, saying there are no such pacts between men and lions. In the exchange of spears, Achilles' spear pierces Hector's throat, and with his last breath Hector begs that his body be returned to his parents, but Achilles refuses even that.
Achilles strips the armor from Hector's body, ties the corpse by the ankles to his chariot, and drags it toward the Greek camp. Priam and Hecabe, watching from the walls, and his wife Andromache cry out in anguish at the sight.
Why Priam Slipped Out by Night
Afterward, Achilles drags Hector's body around Patroclus' tomb day after day. But because Apollo shrouds and protects the corpse with his golden shield, it remains uncorrupted even after many days.
The gods, unable to watch, grow displeased with the situation. Apollo denounces Achilles as merciless, likening him to a savage lion, while Hera takes Achilles' side. In the end Zeus sends Iris to summon Thetis, and Thetis conveys Zeus's will to her son Achilles: accept a ransom and return the body. To Priam's side Zeus separately sends Hermes to guide his night journey safely.
Priam loads a wagon full of gold, tripods, and fine cloth and sets out by night to seek his son's killer. Hermes appears in the guise of a young man and secretly leads him past the Greek sentries, lulling them into deep sleep and even unbolting the gates of the camp himself.
Entering Achilles' tent, Priam clasps his knees and pleads. He says that though he too had fifty sons, he has already lost many to this war, and among them Hector, who guarded the city, and he begs Achilles to remember Peleus, a father of much the same age. Achilles is moved by the words and weeps with him, and finally accepts the ransom, promising in return to hold back from battle for twelve days.
Hector's body is washed, wrapped in a shroud, and laid on Priam's wagon. Hermes returns Priam safely to Troy before daybreak, and Cassandra is the first to catch sight of his return and spread the news through the city. After Andromache, Hecabe, and Helen each finish their laments in turn, the people gather firewood for nine days. On the morning of the tenth day they weep as they lay Hector on the pyre and set it alight, and at dawn on the eleventh day they gather again, quench the still-burning flames with wine, gather the white bones, wrap them in purple cloth, and place them in a golden urn. They set the urn in the grave, cover it with great stones, and heap a burial mound on top, and the Iliad closes with the funeral feast shared at Priam's palace.
Neither the Wooden Horse Nor Achilles' Death Is in These 24 Books
That is the story the Iliad's 24 books actually contain. The wooden horse stratagem, the fall of Troy, and the scene of Achilles dying from an arrow to his heel—images that readily come to mind at the mention of the Trojan War—do not appear in this epic.
Such events belong to other traditions and later epics that follow the Iliad. If you mistake the Iliad for a record of the entire ten-year Trojan War, it becomes hard to understand why the story cuts off abruptly at Hector's funeral. The work was designed from the start to follow not the whole war, but a single thing: the rage of Achilles.
Stories to Read Next
The companion epic to the Iliad, the story of Odysseus' homecoming, can be found in the Odyssey plot summary. Who Achilles, the hero of rage, was is covered in greater detail in the Achilles myth, and the story of Hector, the guardian of Troy who faced him, in the Hector myth.
If you are curious about Achilles' companion who set out wearing borrowed armor and lost his life, see the Patroclus myth; and if you wonder about the order of events covered across the whole epic cycle, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, continue with the epic event order.