The Iliad
The wrath of Achilles, and its ruin, over some fifty days in the tenth year of the Trojan War. Agamemnon's insult, Achilles' withdrawal from battle, the deaths of Patroclus and Hector, and Priam's night journey to ransom his son's body — the oldest surviving work of Western literature, in three parallel public-domain translations spanning prose, rhymed couplets, and blank verse.
“Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing!”Book I — translated by Alexander Pope, 1720
Reading Formats
Three Parallel Translations
PROSESamuel Butler · 1898
A brisk, plain-spoken prose rendering — the most readable entry point, and the closest to reading the Iliad as a novel.
VERSEAlexander Pope · 1715–1720
The 18th century's most celebrated Homer — rhymed heroic couplets, ornate and propulsive. Samuel Johnson called it "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal."
VERSEWilliam Cowper · 1791
Blank verse, deliberately plainer than Pope — Cowper aimed to follow Milton's Miltonic register and stay closer to Homer's own directness.
24 Books
IThe Wrath of Achilles
IIAgamemnon's Dream and the Muster
IIIParis and Menelaus Duel for Helen
IVThe Truce Is Broken
VThe Valor of Diomedes
VIHector Returns to Troy
VIIHector and Ajax in Single Combat
VIIIThe Tide Turns Trojan
IXThe Embassy to Achilles
XThe Night Raid of Diomedes and Odysseus
XIAgamemnon's Great Day, and His Wound
XIIThe Trojans Storm the Wall
XIIIPoseidon Aids the Achaeans
XIVHera Deceives Zeus
XVThe Trojans Reach the Ships
XVIThe Death of Patroclus
XVIIThe Battle Over Patroclus's Body
XVIIIThe Shield of Achilles
XIXAchilles and Agamemnon Reconciled
XXThe Gods Join the Battle
XXIAchilles Fights the River Scamander
XXIIThe Death of Hector
XXIIIThe Funeral Games for Patroclus
XXIVPriam Ransoms Hector's Body
About These Texts