The Iliad (sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege, the earlier events, such as the gathering of warriors for the siege, the cause of the war and similar, tending to appear near the beginning, and the events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles' looming death and the sack of Troy, prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly approaching the end of the poem, making the poem tell a more or less complete tale of the Trojan War.Along with the Odyssey, also attributed to Homer, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the eighth century BC. The Iliad contains over 15,000 lines, and is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek with other dialects.The twenty-four books of this edition of "The Illiad" have been translated into English blank verse by the renowned poet, William Cowper.Sample Text: (Book 6)Ye dauntless Trojans and confederate powersCall'd from afar! now be ye men, my friends, 135Now summon all the fury of your might!I go to charge our senators and wivesThat they address the Gods with prayers and vowsFor our success, and hecatombs devote.So saying the Hero went, and as he strode 140The sable hide that lined his bossy shieldSmote on his neck and on his ancle-bone.And now into the middle space betweenBoth hosts, the son of Tydeus and the sonMoved of Hippolochus, intent alike 145On furious combat; face to face they stood,And thus heroic Diomede began.N.B. This edition also includes notes and a brief biography of Homer.