I might actually wait until I can get a better translation of the Iliad, because having finished 2 chapters I have still have no idea what's going on.
First thing to know...it starts
in medias res... literally '"in the middle of things" , meaning, in the middle of the story.
That is, you, the observer (reader) has just come upon the Greeks in their encampment.
They have already been fighting the Trojans for about 10 years.
They plunder small towns on the coast of Asia Minor for
food, livestock , and per normal for the times, women.
On one of these raids, their "Commander in Chief" (Agamemnon) carried off the daughter of a priest of Apollo.
The priest tried to buy her back, but A. refused to give her up, so the priest prayed to Apollo, who heard him and sent a plague among the Greek
armies.
To end the plague the Greek chieftains (maybe a dozen or so) persuaded Agamemnon to give the girl back., which he grudgingly does.
But she was a prize ( a"spoil" of war) and so as not to lose face (he being the C-in-C and a king in his own country), Agamemnon demanded, and got, Achilles' "prize", Briseis.
So now Achilles is dishonored. And he is by far and away the best warrior among all the Greeks, and his army of Myrmidons the best fighters.
So he vows that until Agamemnon returns his "prize" he will no longer fight.
All the chieftains know that there is no way they can win this war without Achilles and his warriors.
So that is the situation as the story opens, and the opening lines are (in the Lattimore edition):
Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians.
I don't know if a better translation will help you understand the story going forward, but it can't hurt.
Go
here for a brief synopsis of each chapter.
Also it might help to read a synopsis of the Iliad , just so you recognize all the main players,
men and gods both.
The gods take sides... and "you can't tell the players without a program". So find thee a brief write-up on the story.
(And if someone here says, " Well then why not just read the synopsis and forget reading the whole
Iliad? It would be faster."
Would anyone here suggest that someone just read a synopsis of
LOTR or the
Silmarillion or the
HoME and just forgo reading the actual works themselves? ...Nope... didn't think so. )