The Iliad Coloring Pages
The Iliad is Homer's poem about the Trojan War. It's about 15,000 lines long and divided into 24 parts called "books," which makes it even longer than the Odyssey.
Here's the surprising part: the Iliad doesn't tell the whole war. It covers just a few weeks in the tenth and final year, and it ends before Troy falls. The real subject is one man's anger. The very first word of the poem in Greek means "rage," and it belongs to Achilles, the greatest warrior the Greeks had.
Jump to: Retellings | Before the Iliad | The Quarrel | The War Rages | Patroclus | Achilles Returns | Priam and Achilles
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Retellings of the Iliad
The Iliad was the most famous story in ancient Greece, and people have been retelling it ever since. The Roman poet Virgil picked up where it left off in the Aeneid, following a Trojan prince who escapes the burning city. Even Shakespeare wrote a play set during the war.
Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy is a favorite retelling for young readers. Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles tells the story through the eyes of Achilles' closest friend, Patroclus, and the 2004 movie Troy brought the war to the big screen. In 2025, Jorge Rivera-Herrans, the creator of Epic: The Musical, announced he's working on a new musical based on the Iliad.
Homer's story of the Trojan war has even left its mark on everyday English. We still call a weak spot an "Achilles' heel," and a sneaky trick a "Trojan horse".
Before the Iliad Begins
Homer expected his listeners to already know how the war started, so he barely mentions it. Here's the story everyone in ancient Greece would have known.
The goddess Eris wasn't invited to a wedding, so she rolled a golden apple marked "for the fairest" into the party. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all claimed it, and a Trojan prince named Paris was asked to choose. Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, so he picked her. The trouble was, that woman was Helen, and she was already married to the Greek king Menelaus.
When Paris took Helen to Troy, the Greek kings sailed after her with more than a thousand ships. Among them were clever Odysseus and the young warrior Achilles, son of the sea nymph Thetis. Nine years later, they were still camped on the beach outside Troy's walls.
The Quarrel (Book 1)
The poem opens with a plague. Agamemnon, leader of the Greek army, has captured the daughter of a priest of Apollo and refuses to give her back. Apollo, the god of the silver bow, comes down from Mount Olympus and fires arrows of sickness into the Greek camp for nine days.
Achilles calls a meeting and tells Agamemnon to return the girl. Agamemnon agrees, but to make up for it, he takes Achilles' own prize, a young woman named Briseis. Achilles is so furious he starts to draw his sword. Athena appears behind him, visible only to Achilles, and grabs him by his golden hair to stop him.
Achilles puts his sword away, but he refuses to fight for Agamemnon ever again. He asks his mother, Thetis, to beg Zeus to let the Trojans win until the Greeks realize how much they need him. Zeus nods his head, and all of Olympus shakes.
Apollo coloring pages Athena coloring pages
The War Rages (Books 2 to 15)
With Achilles sitting in his tent, the fighting goes on without him. This long middle part of the poem is full of duels, daring raids, and gods who can't stay out of the battle.
Duels on the Battlefield
Paris and Menelaus agree to settle the whole war with a single fight, winner takes Helen. Menelaus is about to win when Aphrodite wraps Paris in a mist and whisks him safely back to his bedroom in Troy. Meanwhile, Helen stands on the city walls pointing out the Greek heroes to King Priam.
Later, Hector challenges any Greek to single combat, and the giant warrior Ajax steps forward. They fight until dark, then end the duel with respect, trading gifts before they part.
Hector Says Goodbye
One of the gentlest moments in the poem happens right in the middle of the war. Hector, Troy's greatest defender, goes home to see his wife, Andromache, and their baby son. When Hector reaches for the baby, the little boy screams and hides, scared of the horsehair plume on his father's helmet. Hector and Andromache both laugh. Hector takes off the helmet, sets it on the ground, and kisses his son before heading back to the fight.
Gods on the Battlefield
The gods pick sides and jump right in. With Athena's help, the Greek hero Diomedes wounds Aphrodite on the wrist, and she flees to Olympus in tears. He even wounds Ares, god of war, who bellows as loud as ten thousand soldiers and runs to complain to Zeus.
When the Trojans push the Greeks all the way back to their ships, Hera comes up with a sneaky plan. She borrows a magic sash from Aphrodite and gets the god of Sleep to make Zeus doze off, so Poseidon can help the Greeks while he isn't looking. When Zeus wakes up, he is not pleased.
Ares coloring pages Hera coloring pages
Achilles Says No
Things get so bad that Agamemnon sends Odysseus, Ajax, and Achilles' old teacher Phoenix to beg him to come back. They find Achilles in his tent, singing and playing a lyre. Agamemnon has offered him treasure, horses, and Briseis back, but Achilles still refuses.
Patroclus (Books 16 and 17)
When the Trojans start setting the Greek ships on fire, Achilles' best friend, Patroclus, can't stand by any longer. He borrows Achilles' armor so the Trojans will think Achilles is back. It works. The Trojans run, and Patroclus drives them all the way to the walls of Troy, even though Achilles warned him not to go that far.
There, Apollo strikes Patroclus from behind and knocks his helmet away, and Hector finishes the fight. Hector takes Achilles' armor and puts it on himself. The Greeks fight hard to bring Patroclus' body back to camp, and even Achilles' immortal horses stand still on the battlefield and weep for him.
Achilles Returns (Books 18 to 22)
The Shield of Achilles
Achilles' grief is so loud that his mother hears it at the bottom of the sea. Thetis goes to Hephaestus, who works all night forging Achilles new armor. The shield is the most famous object in the poem. Homer describes it in detail: the earth, sky and sea, the sun, moon and stars, a city at peace with a wedding and a city at war, farmers plowing, a harvest, a vineyard, cattle, dancers, and the great river Ocean running around the edge.
The Gods Go to War
Achilles makes peace with Agamemnon and charges back into battle, and this time Zeus lets all the gods join in. The river god gets so angry at Achilles that he floods his banks and chases him across the plain, until Hephaestus fights back with fire and boils the river. Athena knocks Ares flat with a boulder, and Hera boxes Artemis' ears and sends her running.
Hector and Achilles
The Trojans flee inside their walls, all except Hector. His mother and father beg him from the walls to come in, but he stays to face Achilles. When Achilles comes at him in his blazing new armor, Hector's courage fails, and Achilles chases him three times around the walls of Troy.
Athena tricks Hector by appearing as his brother and promising to fight beside him. When Hector turns to face Achilles, his "brother" vanishes, and Hector knows he's alone. He fights bravely and falls. With his last words, he warns Achilles that he'll die at the gates of Troy too. In his anger, Achilles drags Hector's body back to camp behind his chariot.
Priam and Achilles (Books 23 and 24)
The Greeks honor Patroclus with a funeral and athletic games, including a chariot race, boxing, wrestling and a footrace. Odysseus wins the footrace when Athena makes Ajax slip in a pile of cow dung, and the whole army laughs.
The gods aren't happy with how Achilles is treating Hector's body. Zeus sends Thetis to tell her son to give it back, and Hermes secretly guides Hector's old father, King Priam, through the Greek camp at night. Priam kneels before Achilles and kisses the hands that killed his son.
Achilles thinks of his own father, far away, and the two enemies weep together, one for his son and one for his father and his friend. Achilles returns Hector's body and promises eleven days of peace so Troy can hold a proper funeral. The poem ends quietly, with that funeral for Hector, tamer of horses.
Achilles' own death, and the Trojan Horse that finally ends the war, come after the Iliad. Homer tells part of that story in the Odyssey, where Odysseus even meets Achilles' ghost in the Underworld.
Trojan Horse coloring pages More of Homer's works