Plot of the Iliad

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Book 1
Apollo is angry because Agamemnon has insulted Chryses, his priest, and will not return Chryseis, even for a ransom. Apollo has sent a plague. Achilles calls a council where Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis in exchange for Briseis. Achilles is furious
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Book 2
Zeus sends a false dream of encouragement to Agamemnon, who is ready to fight, but first tests his troops. They are keen to return home. Odysseus persuades them that they should stay and fight. There follows a catalogue listing the troops.
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Book 3
The armies are advancing. Paris offers to fight in single combat and Menelaus takes up the challenge. King Priam and the Trojan council watch from the ramparts. Priam asks Helen about the Greek warriors. The duel begins; Paris is losing and so Aphrodite r
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Book 4
Zeus thinks it is time to stop the war, as Menelaus has won the single combat. The other immortals disagree. Hera wants to see Troy destroyed. Athena arranges for the Trojan Pandarus to break the truce.
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Book 5
The Greek Diomedes fights and kills many Trojans, including Pandarus. He fights with Aeneas, but is prevented from killing him by Aphrodite. Diomedes angrily attacks Aphrodite, and Apollo rescues Aeneas. The god Ares joins the battle, and Diomedes wounds
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Book 6
Hector returns to Troy to ask the Queen Hecabe to send offerings to Athena. Agamemnon makes Menelaus kill his prisoner, Adrestus. Diomedes and Glaucus are about to fight when they discover they are linked by a bond of friendship between their grandfathers
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Book 7
Hector and Paris return to the battlefield. Hector challenges any one of the Greeks to a duel. Ajax is chosen as his opponent, but the fight is ended early. A truce for the burial of the dead is arranged.
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Book 8
Zeus gives encouragement to the Trojans. After a day's fighting. the Greeks withdraw behind their fortifications.
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Book 9
The Greeks are demoralised by the Trojan victories. They realise that they need Achilles to fight. Ajax, Odysseus, and Achilles' old tutor Phoenix visit Achilles in his hut. They offer him gifts, but he refuses to return to the fighting.
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Book 10
During the night, Diomedes and Odysseus go to spy on the Trojan positions. They capture Dolon, an enemy scout, and use information they extract from him to kill the Thracian Rhesus and some of his men, and to steal his horses.
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Book 11
The fighting resumes. The Trojans push the Greeks back to their camp. Achilles, watching the retreat from his ship, sends Patroclus to find out about one of the casualties. Nestor gives Partroclus the news, and asks him to persuade Achilles to join the fi
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Book 12
Before Patroclus can return, the Trojans attack the Greek camp.
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Book 13
The two armies fight. Poseidon encourages the Greeks.
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Book 14
Hera seduces Zeus in a plan to distract his attention from the war. Poseidon urges on the Greeks, and the Trojans are driven back.
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Book 15
With Hector their head, the Trojans drive back the Greeks and try to set fire to their ships.
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Book 16
Patroclus returns to Achilles, who allows him to borrow his armour and lead out his men, but he warns him against pursuing the Trojans too far. Patroclus kills Sarpedon. Patroclus is wounded by the Trojan Euphorbus, and is then killed by Hector.
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Book 17
Menelaus tries to protect Partroclus' body, but Hector strips it of its armour. After much fighting, the Greeks finally take the naked body back to their camp.
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Book 18
Achilles hears of Patroclus' death and is devastated. Thetis asks Hephaestus to make new armour for her son, Hephaestus agrees.
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Book 19
Achilles agrees to a formal reconciliation with Agamemnon, and accepts his gifts. Odysseus says that the men need to eat before they fight. As they prepare for battle, Achilles' horse tells him that he will die when he has avenged Patroclus.
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Book 20
There is a council of the gods, and they take sides in the war. Achilles joins the battle and fights Aeneas.
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Book 21
Achilles pushes the Trojans back, killing many. The River Xanthus, upset at all the bodies in the river, sweeps Achilles away. He is saved by Hephaestus. The gods engage in battle.
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Book 22
Achilles kills Hector and takes his corpse back to his camp after dragging it around the city behind his chariot.
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Book 23
The ghost of Patroclus asks to be buried. Achilles holds funeral games.
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Book 24
Achilles drags Hector's body around Patroclus' tomb. Apollo complains to Zeus, who instructs Thetis to tell her son he should return the body. Achilles agrees to the request. After an omen from Zeus, Priam sets out for the Greek camp, accompanied by Herme
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Card 2

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Book 2

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Zeus sends a false dream of encouragement to Agamemnon, who is ready to fight, but first tests his troops. They are keen to return home. Odysseus persuades them that they should stay and fight. There follows a catalogue listing the troops.

Card 3

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Book 3

Back

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Card 4

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Book 4

Back

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Card 5

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Book 5

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