Eight books down, and I’ve reached my first milestone—a January target date marking the completion of The Iliad‘s opening section: “The Quarrel & The War Begins.” The title initially puzzled me. After all, Homer drops readers into the ninth or tenth year of the Trojan War, a conflict already well underway. Why frame these opening books around conflict that appears to have begun elsewhere, years before?
The answer emerged gradually, thanks to careful companions on this journey: online resources, thoughtful podcasts, and Caroline Alexander’s The War That Killed Achilles, which sits beside me as I read. These guides helped me understand what Homer is really inviting us to witness. Three points I now consider:
Point #1 – The Cost of Pride
The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon isn’t merely about spoils of war or wounded honor—it’s a meditation on how pride corrodes from within. When Agamemnon demands Achilles’ prize, he sets in motion a cascade of consequences neither man fully grasps. Achilles withdraws, and the Greeks crumble. This isn’t ancient history; it’s a pattern we see everywhere today. How many organizations, relationships, and communities fracture because powerful people cannot yield? Homer suggests that pride isn’t strength—it’s the seed of destruction.
Point #2 – The Machinery of War
Books 7 and 8 paint battle with unflinching clarity. We witness individual heroism alongside anonymous death, valor alongside futility. The duel between Ajax and Hector is magnificent, yet inconclusive. The fighting surges back and forth, gaining nothing. What struck me most is Homer’s refusal to glorify warfare as the answer. Instead, he shows us the actual cost: good men falling, families shattered, civilizations grinding toward collapse. In our age of perpetual conflict—whether literal or cultural—this honesty feels vital.
Point #3 – The Powerlessness of Mortals
Divine intervention threads through these books in ways both consoling and unsettling. Zeus tips the scales. Athena guides warriors. Yet even as gods orchestrate events, mortals march toward their fate, often unaware of larger forces at work. This tension—between agency and destiny, between our desires and what actually unfolds—resonates deeply. We rarely see the full picture of why things happen as they do. Homer teaches us that wisdom sometimes means accepting what we cannot control while acting honorably within our reach.
Having reached this turning point, I want to invite you to join me. You don’t need to be a scholar of ancient Greek or a lifelong student of classical literature. You don’t need to have read the beginning or feared you’d started too late. Homer’s Iliad speaks to anyone willing to slow down, listen, and ask what it means to live well in a complicated world.
The epic doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it invites us to grapple with timeless questions: How do we handle conflict? What is worth fighting for? What does honor actually mean? What are we willing to sacrifice, and for what? These questions shaped ancient Greece, but they shape us too.
It’s never too late to start. Whether you pick up a translation today or join me further along the journey, there’s space at the table. Wander through these pages with me. Engage your senses, trust your instincts, and let Homer’s words awaken something in you. Perhaps in his ancient struggles, we’ll find a mirror for our own—and maybe, just maybe, wisdom that helps us choose differently than the heroes of Troy.
The journey continues. Will you come along?