Reading Homer's Iliad

We are only dipping our toe in The Iliad and reading just enough of it to understand its key character, Achilles, and its central theme: his character development.

We read all of Book 1, which clearly delineates both the plot and central themes, and then we skip ahead.  Here's what we miss in that leap:

Achilles continues in his refusal to fight, despite Agamemnon's capitulation and the entreaty of the Achaean's key leaders, including Odysseus.

Because of this the Trojans make great headway in forcing back the Achaeans and nearly win the entire war.

Patroclus dons Achilles armor and, fooling the rest of the Achaeans into believing he is actually Achilles returning to war, rallies a defense that beats the Trojans back.

But he is not chosen by the gods for this glory and is killed by Hector, son of Priam, the Trojan king, and greatest of the Trojan heroes.

This sends Achilles into grief, which quickly turns to rage directed mainly toward Hector.  In the pinnacle battle between the two primary heroes, Achilles kills Hector, but rather than returning the fallen Hector's body to the Trojans for proper burial, as is right an customary on both sides, he defiles the body, towing it behind his chariot and then leaving it to rot in his own camp.

We pick up where Priam begs Achilles for his son's body's return, in what is perhaps one of the most moving moments in the history of all of literature.

Achilles capitulates, returns the body, and the epic ends with Hector's burial -- a lengthy ceremony that will later be used by the Greeks, along with other passages in both the Iliad and Odyssey, as a model for the Olympics.

The Trojan horse does not appear in Homer's Iliad, and that portion of the story will be retold by Odysseus in The Odyssey. 

There is no mention of Achilles' "heel" in either of the Homeric epics.

The story's plot and theme primarily concerns Achilles' wrestling with his mortality and his hubris.