Book II is divided into two large segments: Agamemnon's dream and the rallying of the men after they try to return to the ships, and the great catalogue of the Greek kings, heroes, and ships that have come to Troy.
The catalogue is a significant break in the action of the epic, serving as a list of all the characters involved in the rest of the poem as well as a reminder that eight years of fighting have preceded the opening of this story. The catalogue is also of interest to historians and other scholars who use its descriptions of over 150 places and characters as a source for piecing together information about Bronze Age Greece.
Analysis of the information found in these two catalogues of opposing armies has been of great value to historians, linguists, and archaeologists in reconstructing an important and little-known period of early Greek history. The presence of these catalogues in the Iliad is a good example of the way Homer composed his poems on a foundation of historical and literary tradition.
The first part of Book II involves the false dream that Zeus sends to Agamemnon. In this instance, the god does not advise or aid the human, but actually deceives him in an effort to inflict injury on the Greeks. There is more than a hint in Zeus' use of this false dream that he thinks he can overcome fate and be able to prevent the victory of the Greeks over the Trojans. More obviously, Zeus' intervention shows that the gods are not always concerned with the consequences their actions may have on the humans. The false dream causes death and destruction for both Greeks and Trojans, but that fact does not enter into of Zeus' thinking. That humans are mortal is of little importance to the immortal gods.
