5. The wrath of Achilles

Abstract

‘The wrath of Achilles’ outlines the story of the Iliad. Right at the start, the reader is promised a grand poem about a very specific issue: the wrath of Achilles, which brought countless agonies upon the Achaeans. We are told the cause of this wrath—an apparently petty quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, ‘leader of men’—and are confronted with its devastating consequences. The Iliad stages a conflict between the best and the most powerful of men: it is also because of this clash between merit and might that that it resonates, at least in part, with the experiences of people of different times and places.