Named for the greatest of the Greek epics, the Iliad of Homer {see planet  (5700)}. This work was later divided, more or less arbitrarily, by Alexandrian scientists into 24 books of some 500–800 verses each. Although the Trojan War raged for ten years, Homer reviewed but a small episode of it. King Agamemnon {see planet  (911)} was to render the captured Chryseis {see planet  (202)} to her father, and he demanded Briseis {see planet  (655)}, then mistress of Achilles {see planet  (588)}, for himself. Thereupon Achilles withdrew himself and all his men from the battle. However, after his friend Patroclus {see planet  (617)} was killed by Hektor {see planet  (624)}, Achilles resumed fighting and killed Hektor. The epic ends with the funeral of Patroclus. The name also honors Ilias, born 1995 Oct. 28, the first grandson of the discoverer and son of Sigyn and Philip de Jager-Elst. (M 26425) _ _.