Homer, Iliad · Ἰλιάς

“μῆνιν ἄειδε θεά.” In the tenth year of the war at Troy, Achilles quarrels with Agamemnon and refuses to fight. It is the oldest surviving work of Greek literature, usually dated to the 700s or 600s BC.

❓ How the reader works

Pick a plan, then work through it a day at a time with ‹ ›, or pick a day from the list. Go to jumps to the day where a book starts.
Read the Greek aloud once, then translate it. The numbers are line numbers in each book, so 1.33 is Book 1, line 33; every fifth is in bold.
Tap any word for links to the dictionaries: the Perseus Word Study Tool (which lists the possible forms and opens Liddell and Scott) and Logeion.
Write your translation in the box. It saves in this browser as you type (one box for each day). Print the day, or save all your translations as a text file.
Check your translation shows a public-domain English translation of the same lines. It is one translator’s choice of words, not the only right answer.
Done marks the day; the count at the top shows how many you have finished. A Life Planner session opens the reader at exactly its lines.

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Word help

Tap a word in the passage for dictionary links.

Things to watch for

Homer’s Greek is older than Attic and mixes dialects, mostly Ionic. Many forms differ from the grammar books.
-οιο is an old genitive ending, the same as Attic -ου; datives in -εσσι(ν) and -οισι(ν) are the same as -σι and -οις.
Past tenses often drop the augment: τεῦχε (1.4) is ἔτευχε, “made.”
ὁ, ἡ, τό is often a pronoun, “he, she, it, that one,” not “the”: ὃ γὰρ βασιλῆϊ χολωθείς, “for he, angered at the king” (1.9).
The mark ’ shows a vowel dropped before the next word (μυρί’ = μυρία). Names and whole lines repeat; learning them pays off.

Grammar help

Greek AlphabetSix short lessons, with breathings and accents
New Testament Greek for Beginners (Machen)A first course in Koine Greek
Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges (1920)The standard reference, with notes on Homer’s forms

About the Iliad

The Iliad covers a few weeks near the end of the Trojan War, from Achilles’ anger in Book I to the funeral of Hector in Book XXIV. Harvard asked new students for the first three books, leaving out the Catalogue of Ships in Book II (the old Harvard list). Book I alone, 611 lines, is a good first goal.

Read each line aloud: the poem was made to be heard. The numbers are line numbers in each book, so 1.33 is Book 1, line 33. More about the poem: Grokipedia, Iliad.