I haven't thought much about the Greek epic poem, The Iliad since I was an undergraduate literature major.

In fact,the closest I have come has been to watch a trailer for the movie Troy with Brad Pitt as Achilles. That film seems to combine elements from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.

Briefly,Iliad is the story of the Trojan war which started when Paris stole Helen, the the wife of Menelus who is also the brother of King Agamemnon. Agamemnon launches a fleet of a thousand ships to go get Helen back from the Trojans. The story picks up in the tenth year since the siege of Troy began. The troops are getting pretty tired of the whole affair and would like to go home. Helen finds that Paris isn't much of a prize and regrets leaving her husband. Through some maneuvering on the part of Odysseus and Nestor, the soldiers gain the resolve to defeat the Trojans once and for all. Lots of “no quarter given” fighting begins. The story ends with the battle between the two champions, Hector from Troy and Achilles the Greek. Achilles wins.

The description of Alessandro Baricco's An Iliad peaked my interest and I wanted to see how he approached this story. Baricco chose to structure the Iliad as if it is being told from the viewpoint of individuals from both sides while following the sequence of events set down by Homer.

One major difference between Baricco's retelling and the original is where Baricco removes nearly every reference to the gods. This focuses our attention on the people and their motivations. On the other hand, in Homer's telling, the gods are an interfering lot and frequently insert themselves into the action and changing outcomes. In once scene Teucer, one of the Achaens, is about to kill Hector, the champion of Troy, with an arrow until Zeus causes the bow string to break. You lose the aspect of the story that the men are only playthings of the gods. On the other hand, you can concentrate on the people and action without getting bogged down with the story padding when the gods argue among themselves.

When I got my copy of An Iliad I also got a translation of Homer's Iliad from the library. As I read Baricco's book, I would skim the same passages in The Iliad, sometimes pausing to read carefully when I wanted to contrast the two stories. I recommend this approach.

Baricco's book would be an excellent introduction to classical literature for a teenager. They would get the main elements of the story and might be inspired to read the original work.

An Iliad is interesting and well written and is an excellent version in its own right as well as an introduction to Homer for those who only know the story from movies.