The Iliad by Homer is one of many great works of epic poetry. Homer takes on a way of realism and virtue when presenting masterwork of Greek Mythology. He begins his journey by making use of formulaic structures such as epic convention/in medias res/invocation of the muse/epic question/, epic similes, type scenes, and set pieces. In terms of epic conventions, the Iliad is an example itself of IN MEDIAS RES, meaning the ninth year in war. This pertains to the verity that the Iliad began its quest during the ninth year of the Trojan War out of an ending of ten years. Homer also uses a text formula called a dactylic hexameter, which in definition is any line that is composed in dactyls. Meaning the dactylic hexameter refers to a line of poetry in which there are six (hence suffix "hex") dactyls. Within the syllables, the first is spoken louder than the second and third and is stressed, while the others are unstressed. ( / _ _ ) An example from the Iliad of this textural structure is (3. 67-72): "Now though, if you wish me to fight it out and do battle,/ make the rest of the Trojans sit down, and all the Achaians,/ and set me in the middle with Menelaos the warlike/ to fight together for the sake of Helen and all her possessions./ That one of us who wins and is proved stronger, let him/ take the possessions fairly and the woman, and lead her homeward.".
Another example of an epic convention is an epic question. An epic question is an interrogative of general curiosity to a god of why a conflict is occurring. There are many epic questions that Homer penetrated throughout the Iliad, however, one example of this formulaic style is (1. 8) "What god was it then set them together in bitter collision?" As it shows, a question of general purpose is asked to discover the reason for the god's particular placement of persons in conflict. Homer seems to uses these rhetorical questions to further his readers" minds and climb deeper into the epic's climax.
