Iliad

[ il-ee-uhd ]

noun

1. (italics) a Greek epic poem describing the siege of Troy, ascribed to Homer.
2. (sometimes lowercase) any similar poem; a long narrative.
3. (often lowercase) a long series of woes, trials, etc.

Iliad

/ ˈɪlɪəd; ˌɪlɪˈædɪk /

noun

1. a Greek epic poem describing the siege of Troy, attributed to Homer and probably composed before 700 bc

Derived Forms

• Iliadic, adjective

Other Words From

• Il·i·ad·ic [il-ee-, ad, -ik], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Iliad¹

< Latin Iliad- (stem of Ilias ) < Greek, equivalent to Ili ( on ) Troy + -ad- -ad ¹

Example Sentences

The scientists tracked the words in the "Iliad" the way they would track genes in a genome.

From The Daily Beast

They looked for Swadesh words in the "Iliad" and found 173 of them.

From The Daily Beast

In the Iliad, a Chimera is a grotesque animal jumble, “lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle.”

From The Daily Beast

Waiting for the Barbarians By Daniel Mendelsohn A master classicist takes on subjects from the ‘Iliad’ to ‘Avatar.’

From The Daily Beast

Men have been punching each other in the head since the beginning of time, and you will find references to boxing in The Iliad.

From The Daily Beast

So Eric left the field, and wandered home, like Calchas in the Iliad, “sorrowful by the side of the sounding sea.”

From Project Gutenberg

A long passage in the Iliad gives an account of her toilet when arraying herself for a special occasion.

From Project Gutenberg

In the second room, human passion, power, and tyranny were illustrated in scenes of Greek heroic life from the Iliad.

From Project Gutenberg

Here, then, is another difficulty in the path of the theory that the Iliad is the work of four centuries.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet poets of the eighth to seventh centuries were, by the theory, busily adding to and altering the ancient lays of the Iliad.

From Project Gutenberg