Epic poems describe the famous deeds of men (klea andrōn). But The Iliad is a strange kind of action story, in which feelings—fear, joy, lust, aggression, love, rage, sorrow—often seem to matter more than external behaviors. The first word in the Greek original, mēnin (from mēnis, “wrath”) denotes Achilles’ deadly and superhuman rage; the term is usually applied to the anger of gods. The Iliad ends with a different and fully human emotion: the desperate grief of mortal women over the death of Hector, the imminent fall of Troy, and the end of their freedom.
