Agamemnon raised an army and set sail for Troy. To get his wife back, Menelaos turned to his brother, Agamemnon.And she was married to Menelaos, the King of Sparta, who didn't take too kindly to her running off with your standard-issue Trojan heartthrob. As for the Girl, whose name was Helen, she just happened to be the most beautiful woman in the world. First of all, the Boy was none other than Paris, Prince of Troy.(There are always complications.) Here's how it all went down: Sort of, except in this case there were complications.You know: Boy meets Girl, Boy falls in love with Girl, Boy and Girl run off together. Like many a Backstory, this one has to do with a Boy and a Girl.To understand what this war is all about, you'll have to get filled in on-are you ready for this?- The Backstory.(More detailed information can be found in our section on ' Characters.') Both of them are part of the Achaian army that is making war against Troy, a city in modern Turkey. For the moment, all you really need to know is that Agamemnon is the most powerful king of the Achaians, and Achilleus is his best warrior.Right now, though, you're probably still wondering about those other names heard earlier-Achilleus and Agamemnon. Misty enough for you? Don't worry, it'll get clearer.With these three names, all you have to remember is that they all mean Greeks. To keep things simple, in these summaries we're going to stick to the name Achaians, but the others will turn up in your reading. The most general of these names are Achaians, Danaans, and Argives. Way back in the Bronze Age, when the Iliad takes place, people went by the names of dominant tribes or regions. That's because, even though the Iliad is over 2,000 years old, the story it tells is even older.

But you're not going to hear it all that often. In other words, we hope you brought your rain jacket-because we're about to take a Journey Through The Mists Of Time!

Still, to be fair, Homer's Ancient Greek audience would have known a lot of background info that you might not, so let's take a moment to bring you up to speed.

You can learn more about it and Homer's other poetic stylings in ' Writing Style.') What you've just experienced is one of every epic poet's favorite tricks: beginning the story in medias res or 'in the middle of things.' ( In medias res is known to cause dizziness and loss of appetite for stories with less awesome openers. He asks her to begin with the fight between Achilleus and Agamemnon.

He wants her to tell him about the rage of Achilleus, and how it hurt the Achaians.

The poet prays to the Muse, the goddess of poetic inspiration.

The illiad