Ilíada

The Iliad is the oldest poem in Western literature and is considered one of the great works of our tradition. This Greek epic, which, like the Odyssey, has been attributed to Homer, is a hymn to the glorious and tragic outcome of the Trojan War. In antiquity, this poem was believed to be based on real history, and its characters were seen as models of behavior and heroism. The events it narrates take place during the last fifty-one days of a conflict that lasted ten long years and revolve around the figure of the Hellenic hero Achilles, "swift-footed." Throughout the more than fifteen thousand lines of the work, Homer evokes concepts so central to ancient Greek culture as homecoming, glory, respect, anger, and destiny.