General Knowledge: The Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem that tells the story of the last year of the Trojan War. Troy and Greece were at war many thousand years ago, and a poet known as Homer wrote the poem describing what happened during the last year of this war, which lasted for at least ten years. The poem specially describes many characters, heroes from both Troy and Greece. The most famous character from the Iliad is Achilles, but we can also find Hector, Paris, Aeneas or Priamus from Troy, and Agamemnon, Menelaus, Ulysses (also known as Odysseus) from Greece. Another known character is Helen of Troy.

The walls of Troy, as seen in the movie "Troy"

The war began when Paris stole Helen, Menelaus' wife, and took her to Troy. All of Greece, under the king Agamemnon (Menelaus' brother) went to war to defend the honor of the greeks. But Troy had very large walls, so they resisted the attack for ten years, until Ulysses planned for the Greeks to enter the city of Troy inside a giant horse, which was supposed to be a gift from Greece to Troy, because they were no longer at war. However, when the Trojans entered the horse into the city, Greeks attacked Troy until the city lost the war.
The episode with the giant horse, which is the end of the Trojan War, however, is not found on the Iliad! The Iliad centers on the part Achilles plays in the war, and how his anger almost made Greece lose the war. He fights with (and kills) the Trojan hero Hector.

Brad Pitt plays Achilles in "Troy"

Another poem by Homer is the Odyssey, which tells the story of how Ulysses, also known as Odysseus, returns to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan war. It took him another ten years to return to his house, because Poseidon, the God of the Sea, was angry with him!
The movie Troy, released in the year 2004, tells the story of this war.