the poem starts with the god apollo sending a plague to the greeks, because they captured the daughter of one of his trojan priests. agamemnon is forced to give the daughter back. so that he has a girl of his own, agamemnon takes the captured trojan girl briseis from her owner achilles. achilles is angry and refuses to fight in the war. when achilles' lover patroclus is killed by hector, achilles starts to fight again and kills hector in a duel. later, hector's father priam comes in secret to achilles to take back his favorite son's body to give it a proper funeral, which achilles allows him to do. the poem ends with the funeral of hector.