How much of the 'Iliad' is relevant to the overall story?

The story covered by “The Iliad” begins nearly ten years into the seige of Troy by the Greek forces, led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. The Greeks are quarrelling about whether or not to return Chryseis, a Trojan captive of King Agamemnon, to her father, Chryses, a priest of Apollo. read more

The Iliad is so powerful because, despite the poem being 2,700 years old, and the events it is based on (to what extent they occurred) are older still, the story’s tale of human glory and folly is timelessly true, and Homer’s magnifying glass can as easily be fixated on our own time as it was on the Bronze Age. read more