As the gods and goddesses of Olympus scheme, the ancient world is thrown into turmoil when Helen, the most beautiful woman in all of Greece, is stolen away by her Trojan love. Inflamed by jealousy, the Greek king seeks lethal vengeance and sends his black war ships to descend on the city of Troy.

In the siege that follows, history's greatest heroes, from Ajax to Achilles to Odysseus, are forged in combat, and the brutal costs of passion, pride, and revenge must be paid. In the end, the whims of the gods, the cunning of the warriors, and a great wooden horse will decide who emerges victorious.

Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time and Rosemary Sutcliff's retelling of the classic saga embodies all of the astonishing drama, romance, and intrigue of ancient Greece.

Review from my 13 year old:

“Tells the story of the Iliad, an epic poen by Homer and the prequel to The Odyssey. Starts with the origin of Trojan War and ends with the destruction of Troy. I liked it. Incredibly informative. I didn’t know that much about the Trojan War before I read this.” ( )

Like all the other Rosemary Sutcliff books; has a bit of a Celtic feel. The illustrations by Alan Lee have that fantasy tinge. Odysseus wears a boar's tooth helmet, one learns to look for him, even though his features are insipid. ( )

Excellent Iliad 101
Review of the paperback of Rosemary Sutcliff's (1920-1992) posthumous 1993 text-only original.

Newcomers to Homer's Iliad will likely be surprised to read that it begins with Achilles' quarrelling with Agamemnon and ends with Hector's funeral i.e. all sorts of iconic mythological fiction tropes such as the Achilles Heel and the Trojan Horse do not appear in it at all.

Rosemary Sutcliff combines all of the major sources from Greek Myths and the Aeniad with Homer's story to provide an excellent complete distillation of the Iliad story in a very readable young adult fiction edition here. It will hopefully be an excellent introduction that will encourage interested readers to further explore the original sources of a timeless epic of love and war. ( )

A poetic, accessible retelling of a brutal story. ( )