The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles—Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans—Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus
Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his army—In the end they march to fight—Catalogue of the Achæan and Trojan forces
Alexandrus, also called Paris, challenges Menelaus—Helen and Priam view the Achæans from the wall—The covenant—Paris and Menelaus fight, and Paris is worsted—Venus carries him off to save him—Scene between him and Helen
A quarrel in Olympus—Minerva goes down and persuades Pandarus to violate the oaths by wounding Menelaus with an arrow—Agamemnon makes a speech and sends for Machaon—He then goes about among his captains and upbraids Ulysses and Sthenelus, who each of them retort fiercely—Diomed checks Sthenelus, and the two hosts then engage, with great slaughter on either side
The exploits of Diomed, who, though wounded by Pandarus, continues fighting—He kills Pandarus and wounds Æneas—Venus rescues Æneas, but being wounded by Diomed, commits him to the care of Apollo and goes to Olympus,
where she is tended by her mother Dione—Mars encourages the Trojans, and Æneas returns to the fight cured of his wound—Minerva and Juno help the Achæans, and by the advice of the former Diomed wounds Mars, who returns to Olympus to get cured
Hector and Ajax fight—Hector is getting worsted when night comes on and parts them—They exchange presents—The burial of the dead, and the building of a wall round their ships by the Achæans—The Achæans buy their wine of Agamemnon and Menelaus
Jove forbids the gods to interfere further—There is an even fight till midday, but then Jove inclines the scales of victory in favour of the Trojans, who eventually chase the Achæans within their wall—Juno and Minerva set out to help the Trojans: Jove sends Iris to turn them back, but later on he promises Juno that she shall have her way in the end—Hector's triumph is stayed by nightfall—The Trojans bivouac on the plain
Ulysses and Diomed go out as spies, and meet Dolon, who gives them information: they then kill him, and profiting by what he had told them, kill Rhesus king of the Thracians and take his horses
In the forenoon the fight is equal, but Agamemnon turns the fortune of the day towards the Achæans until he gets wounded and leaves the field—Hector then drives everything before him till he is wounded by Diomed—Paris wounds Diomed—Ulysses, Nestor, and Idomeneus perform prodigies of valour—Machaon is wounded—Nestor drives him off in his chariot—Achilles sees the pair driving towards the camp and sends Patroclus to ask who it is that is wounded—This is the beginning
of evil for Patroclus—Nestor makes a long speech
Fire being now thrown on the ship of Protesilaus, Patroclus
fights in the armour of Achilles—He drives the Trojans back, but is in the end killed by Euphorbus and Hector
The gods hold a council and determine to watch the fight from the hill Callicolone, and the barrow of Hercules—A fight between Achilles and Æneas is interrupted by Neptune, who saves Æneas—Achilles kills many Trojans