The Iliad (Hardcover)

Rendered into English prose by Samuel Butler, the Iliad remains one of the world's most read classics of all time. This edition is NOT a "mass market printing" but a high-quality edition printed on white paper. Set in the time of the last weeks of the ten-year Trojan War between the city of Troy and the Achaean armies made up of soldiers from many Greek kingdoms under the overall command of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. The gods have different plans to mankind, and force the Achaeans into conflict with one another, with a particular hatred developing between their hero Achilles, and Agamemnon . . . Meanwhile, the Trojan King Priam meets the Achaean army on the plain before the city walls. But before the armies join battle, the Trojan Prince Paris and the Spartan King Menelaus-the two protagonists who started the war in an argument over the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen-agree to a man-to-man duel . . . The war continues, with the gods picking sides and attempting to influence the outcome. Finally, Zeus intervened and prohibits the gods from further intervention. . . .