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60 free Iliad trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Iliad trivia for anyone who read Homer at school, discovered him through The Song of Achilles or Emily Wilson's translation, or just wants to know how much of the Troy story is actually in the poem. (Less than you think: no Trojan Horse, no fall of the city, no heel.) The quiz walks through the plot as Homer tells it - the plague, the quarrel over Briseis, Thersites getting thrashed with a sceptre, the duel of Paris and Menelaus, Diomedes wounding two gods, Glaucus's terrible armour swap, the embassy Achilles refuses, Patroclus in borrowed armour, the shield, the river that fights back, the death of Hector and Priam's midnight visit. Then it steps back to the poem itself: 24 books, 15,693 lines, dactylic hexameter, the first word 'menis', the Catalogue of Ships and its Bronze Age geography, the 10th-century Venetus A manuscript, Milman Parry's oral-formulaic theory, and the English translators from George Chapman (and Keats's sonnet about him) through Pope, Lattimore and Fagles to the recent versions by women. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Troy, Achilles, Trojan Horse and Greek mythology quizzes.
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Q 01The Iliad is traditionally attributed to which poet?
Homer
Herodotus reckoned he lived about 400 years before his own day, roughly 850 BC.
Q 02Into how many books is the Iliad divided?
24
The Odyssey has the same number, and both are in the same six-foot metre.
Q 03What is the poem's opening word, which sets its main theme?
Menis (wrath)
The whole epic follows the anger of Achilles from his quarrel with Agamemnon to the death of Hector.
Q 04Contrary to popular belief, which of these does the Iliad NOT include?
The Trojan Horse
The poem ends with Hector's burial; the horse and the sack of Troy come from later sources.
Q 05Which god sends a plague on the Greek camp at the start of the poem?
Apollo
Agamemnon had insulted the god's priest Chryses by refusing to ransom his daughter, and the plague arrows fell for nine days.
Q 06Whose daughter does Agamemnon refuse to return, triggering the plague?
Chryses, a priest
Odysseus eventually sails her home, and the plague ends.
Q 07Which captive woman does Agamemnon seize from Achilles as compensation, provoking his withdrawal?
Briseis
Achilles then asks his mother Thetis to persuade Zeus to let the Trojans win until the Greeks realise how badly they need him.
Q 08Which common soldier is beaten with a sceptre by Odysseus after railing against Agamemnon in Book 2?
Thersites
Homer calls him the ugliest man who came to Troy - bow-legged, lame and pointy-headed - and his deformity even became a medical eponym.
Q 09The long list of Greek contingents in Book 2 is known as what?
The Catalogue of Ships
Its geography reflects Greece before the Dorian invasion rather than Homer's own Iron Age world.
Q 10In Book 3, Paris agrees to settle the war by duelling whom?
Menelaus
When he loses, Aphrodite whisks him off the field and into bed with Helen.
Q 11Which Trojan archer breaks the truce by shooting Helen's husband at Athena's prompting?
Pandarus
He is later killed by Diomedes during that hero's rampage.
Q 12In Book 5, Diomedes wounds Aphrodite and which other god?
Ares
Emboldened by Athena, he ignores a divine warning against fighting gods.
Q 13Diomedes and the Lycian Glaucus stop fighting after discovering what?
Their grandfathers were guest-friends
Glaucus then swaps his golden armour, worth 100 oxen, for Diomedes' bronze, worth nine - a byword for a bad deal ever since.
Q 21Which Trojan wounds the stunned Patroclus at Troy's gates just before Hector's killing blow?
Euphorbos
Patroclus had ignored Achilles' order not to chase the Trojans to the walls.
Q 22Who brings Achilles the news of Patroclus's death?
Antilochus
Achilles' cry of grief is heard by Thetis at the bottom of the sea.
Q 23Homer's description of Achilles' shield is the earliest Greek example of which device?
Ekphrasis
The device - a detailed description of a work of art - was copied by Virgil for the shield of Aeneas and reimagined by W. H. Auden in 1952.
Q 14In Book 6, Hector bids farewell to his wife and baby son. What is the boy's name?
Astyanax
The child cries at his father's crested helmet, so Hector takes it off to kiss him.
Q 15Which Greek hero duels Hector to a draw in Book 7 until nightfall separates them?
Ajax
The two exchange gifts afterwards - Hector's sword and Ajax's belt - both later linked to their deaths.
Q 16Which three men make up the embassy sent to persuade Achilles to return in Book 9?
Odysseus, Ajax and Phoenix
Achilles refuses, telling them he faces a choice between a long obscure life and a short one with imperishable glory.
Q 17In the night raid of Book 10, Odysseus and Diomedes kill which Trojan scout?
Dolon
They go on to slaughter the Thracian allies and steal their king's horses.
Q 18Which god disobeys Zeus and secretly rallies the Greeks in Book 13?
Poseidon
Hera then seduces Zeus and lulls him to sleep to give the sea god more time.
Q 19Which Trojan seer twice urges Hector to withdraw and is ignored both times?
Polydamas
His warnings come first at the wall and again after Achilles' terrifying reappearance.
Q 20Whose son, a leading Trojan ally, is killed by Patroclus in Book 16?
Zeus's son Sarpedon
Zeus considers saving him but bows to fate after Hera objects.
Q 24Which of these is NOT shown on the shield of Achilles as Homer describes it?
The walls of Troy
The design moves outward in circles from the earth, sky, sea and stars, and it has been called the first cosmological map in Greek history.
Q 25In Book 19, what does Achilles' horse Xanthos do that is unusual?
Speaks, prophesying his death
Achilles shrugs off the warning and rides out with Automedon driving.
Q 26Which river god fights Achilles after he chokes the water with Trojan corpses?
Scamander
Hephaestus's firestorm beats the river back.
Q 27Athena tricks Hector into stopping his flight around the walls by taking the form of whom?
His brother Deiphobus
When Hector turns to ask him for a spear, the 'brother' has vanished.
Q 28How does Achilles dishonour Hector's body?
Drags it behind his chariot
The Trojan watches from the walls; Andromache faints when she sees it.
Q 29Which god guides Priam unseen through the Greek camp to Achilles' tent?
Hermes
The old king clasps Achilles' knees and begs for his son's body; both men weep.
Q 30How many days' truce does Achilles grant the Trojans to mourn and bury Hector?
Twelve
The poem ends with the funeral, not with the fall of the city.