Iliad
<p>The <i><b>Iliad</b></i> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">/ˈɪliəd/</a>;<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Ancient Greek</a>: Ἰλιάς <i>Ilias</i>, <small>pronounced </small><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Greek" title="Help:IPA for Greek">[iː.li.ás]</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attic_Greek" title="Attic Greek">Classical Attic</a>; sometimes referred to as the <i>Song of Ilion</i> or <i>Song of Ilium</i>) is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">ancient Greek</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poem" class="mw-redirect" title="Epic poem">epic poem</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylic_hexameter" title="Dactylic hexameter">dactylic hexameter</a>, traditionally attributed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer" title="Homer">Homer</a>. Set during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War" title="Trojan War">Trojan War</a>, the ten-year <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege" title="Siege">siege</a> of the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy" title="Troy">Troy</a> (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agamemnon" title="Agamemnon">Agamemnon</a> and the warrior <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles" title="Achilles">Achilles</a>.
Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the <i>Iliad</i> mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege; the earlier events, such as the gathering of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warriors" class="mw-redirect" title="Warriors">warriors</a> for the siege, the cause of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War" title="War">war</a>, and related concerns tend to appear near the beginning. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles' looming death and the sack of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as these events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly, when it reaches an end the poem has told a more or less complete tale of the Trojan War.
The <i>Iliad</i> is paired with something of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequel" title="Sequel">sequel</a>, the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey" title="Odyssey">Odyssey</a></i>, also attributed to Homer. Along with the <i>Odyssey</i>, the <i>Iliad</i> is among the oldest extant works of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_literature" title="Western literature">Western literature</a>, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> In the modern vulgate (the standard accepted version), the <i>Iliad</i> contains 15,693 lines; it is written in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Greek" title="Homeric Greek">Homeric Greek</a>, a literary amalgam of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionic_Greek" title="Ionic Greek">Ionic Greek</a> and other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_dialects" title="Ancient Greek dialects">dialects</a>.</p>