Use this table while reading. Name spellings vary between translations — Achilles may appear as Akhilleus (Lattimore), Aias as Ajax, Patroklos as Patroclus. They are the same people.

Name	Who They Are	Fate
Achilles	Greatest Greek warrior. Son of the sea-nymph Thetis and mortal Peleus. His rage at Agamemnon drives the entire poem. Knows he will die young at Troy but chooses glory over a long life.	Dies after the Iliad ends — killed by Paris's arrow, guided by Apollo. This occurs in the Aethiopis, part of the Epic Cycle, not in the Iliad itself.
Agamemnon	Commander-in-chief of the Greek forces. King of Mycenae. Arrogant, politically necessary, and fatally shortsighted. His seizure of Briseis from Achilles in Book 1 is the act that unravels everything.	Returns home after Troy to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
Patroclus	Achilles' closest companion — gentle, beloved, and reckless. His death in Book 16 is the poem's great turning point, the event that returns Achilles to the war with catastrophic force.	Killed by Hector in Book 16, having been stopped at Troy's walls by Apollo and pushed too far past his limits.
Odysseus	King of Ithaca. The cleverest Greek — diplomat, strategist, and pragmatist. He leads the embassy to Achilles in Book 9 and the night raid in Book 10. Hero of his own epic, the Odyssey.	Survives Troy; wanders for ten years before reaching home.
Ajax (Great)	Massive, implacable warrior — the second-best fighter after Achilles, and the one with no divine patron to protect him. He holds the line when others falter.	Dies after the Iliad — by suicide, after losing the contest for Achilles' armor to Odysseus.
Diomedes	King of Argos. Ferocious fighter and the standout hero of Books 5–6. The only mortal in the poem to wound gods in battle — he wounds both Aphrodite and Ares in Book 5.	Returns home safely — one of the few Greek commanders to do so without disaster.
Nestor	Aged king of Pylos. The Greeks' wise counselor, known for long and tactful reminiscences of his own past glories. His advice is usually sound; his timing is sometimes exasperating.	Survives; returns home to Pylos.
Menelaus	King of Sparta, Helen's husband, and the wronged party whose stolen wife is the war's nominal cause. Decent, brave, and consistently outclassed by the warriors around him.	Survives; reunites with Helen and returns to Sparta.
Phoenix	Achilles' old tutor and father-figure. Part of the embassy to Achilles in Book 9. His long speech about the power of prayer and the danger of stubbornness falls on deaf ears.	Remains with Achilles throughout the poem.
Teucer	Ajax's half-brother. The best archer among the Greeks, who fights from behind Ajax's enormous shield.	Survives Troy.

Name	Who They Are	Fate
Hector	Troy's greatest defender. Son of Priam, husband of Andromache, father of Astyanax. He fights not for glory but for his city and family. The most fully human figure in the poem.	Killed by Achilles in Book 22. His body is dragged behind Achilles' chariot and ransomed back to Priam in Book 24.
Priam	Aged king of Troy. Father of fifty sons, including Hector and Paris. Dignified in catastrophe. His journey to Achilles' tent in Book 24 is one of the great moments in all literature.	Survives the Iliad; killed by Achilles' son Neoptolemus when Troy falls.
Paris	Trojan prince whose theft of Helen from Menelaus's household caused the war — a violation of xenia that obligates the gods. Handsome, cowardly, and protected by Aphrodite.	Kills Achilles with an arrow after the Iliad ends, guided by Apollo. This occurs in the Aethiopis, not the Iliad.
Andromache	Hector's wife. Her farewell scene with Hector in Book 6 — she begs him to stay; he cannot — is among the most affecting passages in the poem.	Enslaved when Troy falls. Her infant son Astyanax is thrown from the walls.
Aeneas	Trojan warrior, son of Aphrodite and a mortal prince. Repeatedly rescued from certain death by gods. Destined to survive Troy and found the lineage that will lead to Rome — a fate the gods protect.	Escapes Troy. Becomes the hero of Virgil's Aeneid.
Hecuba	Queen of Troy, Priam's wife, mother of Hector and Paris. Watches everything — her husband's journey to Achilles, her son's death, the fall of her city.	Enslaved when Troy falls.
Helen	The cause and captive of the war. In the Iliad she is melancholy and self-aware, not triumphant. She watches the battle from Troy's walls in Book 3 with Priam, naming the Greek warriors below.	Returns to Sparta with Menelaus after Troy falls.
Sarpedon	King of Lycia and ally of Troy. Son of Zeus himself. One of the poem's finest warriors and its clearest spokesman for the heroic code — his speech to Glaucus in Book 12 is the poem's great statement of why heroes fight.	Killed by Patroclus in Book 16. Zeus cannot save him; it is his fated hour.
Glaucus	Lycian ally and companion of Sarpedon. Famous for Book 6's xenia scene, where he and Diomedes discover their grandfathers were guest-friends and exchange armor instead of fighting.	Survives most of the Iliad; dies after the poem ends.
Polydamas	Trojan nobleman and Hector's closest advisor. Born the same night as Hector. His counsel is consistently wise; Hector consistently ignores it. The voice of reason in an army that cannot afford reason.	Survives the Iliad.