What the Illiad is about

Thanks to Richmond Lattimore's new translation of Homer's Illiad, I am starting to understand the history. I have read several Spanish and English versions, and never got the sense of the action and never enjoyed the reading. Now I get it: the Achaians alias Danaans are a bunch of sea pirates, they raid seaside villages to take slaves and valuables. They have put their eyes on Troy, the richest city in Eastern Mediterranean. 

Although they have an "ethical" alibi, the seduction and running off of the young wife of Mykenos's old king with beautiful Paris, they know that this is just another pirate operation.  The objective is to carry off the wives of the Troyans and sell their children as slaves. They want their treasures of golden tripods, shining cauldrons, fine textiles, all the fine things they possess.

The story: The hard core of the pirate band is Agamemnon and his followers of Mykenos, and the Mirmidons (the Ant people), the shock troop of professional killers lead by Achilleus. At a certain point, Agamemnon who is the entrepreneur financing (and personally leading) the expedition, breaks down under the insolence of young Achilleus, and to put him in its place, takes by force his war-prize, the fair-colored girl Briseis. Achilleus, humiliated and bitter, retires from the fight. The Troyans take advantage of this internal dissent, attack in force and press the invaders back into the sea, and start burning the ships. Desperate, the king returns Briseis to Achilleus and adds seven other girls and many presents to pacify the Ant people. Back in the fight, the Troyans are pushed back to their fortified city and in a mano-a-mano, Achilleus kills their leader Hector (illustration). 

In summary, it is the story of an ugly discord within a gang of criminals, and how it is resolved, bringing death and destruction to the peaceful city of Troy. The second part of the saga, the Odyssey, tells the travails of the returning slavers. More suffering and more wretched misery. Agamemnon finds that her family has happily adapted to his absence and kills him, and Ulysses arrives home naked and penniless, and is forced to fight to recover his wife and position.