The age old story of the siege of Troy. The Iliad takes place before The Odyssey, which is Odysseus's journey home from the battle.

Some observations about the Iliad in no particular order

• It doesn't explicitly discuss the Trojan horse, as I had expected
• you learn a lot about Greek values, which makes sense, as these stories were intended as carriers of culture as they were passed on by word of mouth
• Greeks were very competitive, there is a friendly chariot race between the Greeks at one point and winning seems to be a matter of life and death to the competitors
• lineage was clearly important, even the names and lineage of the Trojans was well known
• There is a very long (like 10 pages or something) list of every district of Greece that provided men and ships and who and how many they provided
• Agamemnon is surprisingly childish in his exchange with Achilles in the beginning; despite this, he is still respected and maintains order -- the whole story hinges on this disagreement in which Agamemnon takes a women from Achilles (one they had abducted from a previous raid). Achilles absence is a major setback in battle for the Greeks. Not until he returns to the tides turn in favor of the Greeks. It is interesting that this plot is about the theft of a woman, where the macro-plot is also about the Trojan theft of a Greek woman in the first place. I'm not sure of the reason for this parallel
• After Patroclus is killed by Hector, Achilles succeeds in killing Hector and drags and disrespects his body for days
• It is very interesting how the ebb and flow of advantage is described and how individuals are able to go on these epic killing streaks and sway the momentum of the battle