The first word of the Iliad in its original ancient Greek is μῆνιν. The word means “wrath,” “rage,” or “anger,” and it introduces the poem’s central subject: the destructive anger of Achilles. The opening line asks the Muse to sing of Achilles’ wrath and its consequences for the Achaeans.
That opening is more than a dramatic flourish. Achilles’ anger begins when Agamemnon takes Briseis, a captive woman awarded to Achilles, after surrendering his own captive Chryseis. Feeling publicly dishonored, Achilles withdraws from battle. His absence allows the Trojans to gain ground and sets the poem’s chain of suffering in motion.
Readers sometimes confuse μῆνιν with Μοῦσα, the Greek word for “Muse,” because the poem immediately addresses the Muse in its opening invocation. Others remember ἄνδρα, “man,” which begins the Odyssey’s famous opening. The Iliad’s first word is specifically μῆνιν, and its placement makes Achilles’ anger the poem’s defining theme. Greek editions may capitalize the initial letter as Μῆνιν, but the word itself is the same.