Homer’s Iliad opens by identifying Achilles’ wrath as its central subject.
The poem’s Greek opening word, mēnin, means “wrath” or “anger.” Homer asks the goddess to sing about the destructive anger of Achilles, son of Peleus, and explains that it caused suffering for the Achaeans and brought many warriors to death.
This wrath begins when Agamemnon takes Briseis, Achilles’ war prize, after surrendering his own captive Chryseis. Achilles withdraws from battle, allowing the Trojans to gain ground. Readers sometimes assume the Iliad tells the entire Trojan War, but it covers only a short period near the war’s end, focusing especially on Achilles’ conflict with Agamemnon and the death of Hector.
Achilles eventually returns to combat after Patroclus dies. His anger then shifts from Agamemnon toward Hector and the Trojans, giving the epic its defining emotional arc.