Homer's poetry is the starting point of European spirit, it is the oldest literary testimony, the originator of poetic function at European and global level, composed in a way that gives it eternal youth. Its beginning is made with the Iliad. There are two thematic cores of the Iliad. The first is what is highlighted at the beginning of the epic, in its "proem": the "wrath", the anger of Achilles against Agamemnon, the leader of the mythical campaign of a pan-Hellenic coalition against the Anatolian Troy, with all the painful consequences that it causes. The second is the theme of Achilles' friendship with Patroclus, which will culminate in the revenge that the former will take for the latter's murder, killing his murderer, the Trojan Hector, the most worthy of all the "heroes" of this ten-year mythical war. The Iliad (as well as the Odyssey) is one of the few widely read books in the world.

The volume contains an introduction to Homer, a comprehensive summary of the epic, translation, comments, analysis, and educational processing by rhapsodies.