The wrath of Achilles is finally assuaged in Book XXIV. Many people have noted connections between the last Book and the first because both involve a father seeking the return of a child. Agamemnon's rejection of Chryses in Book I leads to all of the events of the Iliad. Achilles' kindness to Priam in Book XXIV ends the warrior's wrath and brings the work full circle — the war situation is not essentially different from the way it was at the start. With Hektor's burial accomplished and Achilles' death imminent, the great antagonists of the Iliad have been dealt with.
The events here are the final resolution of the dramatic story of the wrath, or the anger, of Achilles and its aftermath. Until now, Achilles has undergone no real change of heart and has learned no moral lesson from his experiences. His meeting with Hektor's father, Priam, however, is a crucial stage in his moral development. In their conversation, Achilles reveals the full depth of his affection for Patroklos and demonstrates his ability to understand another man's sorrow; the more humane and nobler side of his character begins to regain influence as he learns to accept reality and to have compassion for others. By finally relenting and restoring Hektor's body to Priam, Achilles obeys the will of the gods and experiences a partial moral rehabilitation. He is changed and chastened. But his brief flash of temper, when Priam exhibits a small degree of caution and suspicion, reveals that he still has many of his irrational traits.
The final scene of the Iliad is one of the most impressive contributions Homer made to the saga of Troy and Achilles. By concluding his poem with the rehabilitation of Achilles, rather than with the death of Achilles or the fall of Troy, he wrote the Iliad as a poetic composition with a high level of artistic balance and symbolic meaning. It begins with a wrong deed done by Agamemnon to a suppliant father (Chryses) and ends with a right deed done by Achilles, another victim of Agamemnon, to another suppliant father (Priam). The opening and closing episodes of the poem thus focus the reader's attention directly on its central theme — the personal development of Achilles.
