Quote Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios View Post
The Illiad is the story of some 50 odd days in the last year of the war, focussing around the conflict between the warrior Achilleus and his king & general Agamemnon.

The prooimion of the Illiad (quoted by cmacq) actually has a subtly different meanings on a few counts:

"Godess, sing/tell (me) of [aeide] the accursed [oulomenhn] resentment [mhnin] of Achilleus son of Peleus, which [h] posed [eqhken] many [muri] toils [alge'] for the Achaioi [Axaioij]."

As for good translations: you can give Perseus a try.
I'm not sure how accurate, but I always liked the translation that led off with, "Sing, muse, of the rage of Achilles."

The reason I like this translation, whether exact or not, is the use of the word rage: it perfectly sums up the entire Iliad in one word. It's not about Helen and Paris (much as modern moviemakes would like us to believe), nor is it about Menelaos regaining his wife; no, it is about Achilles, and the absolute blind wrath that causes so much pain for the Achaioi. Not to say that Achilles doesn't have a legitimate beef with Agamemnon, but here he is almost losing the war for his own side all over a slave girl/battle prize.

This is in addition to the fact that the only reason he came to Troy was to earn everlasting glory. As we know, he had the choice put to him: stay home and live a long life, but be unremembered, or go to Troy, win glory and be known through the ages, but die as a young man. Of course, he chose Option B, but now, sitting out due to Agamemnon's claming Briseis, he's going to die young, but still without glory. What a dilemma for him. It can only be violent and uncontrolled anger ("rage") that brings him to this point: the precipice of losing everything while gaining nothing.

I read Iliad roughly once every year to year and a half. It is truly a masterpiece, and there is lots going on underneath the lyrics of the poem itself.