After the funeral of Hector the war begins again. Odysseus and Achilles quarrel because Odysseus wants to use tricks to conquer Troy. He is overruled by Achilles. Now the Amazon Penthesileia, the daughter of Ares and of Thracian race, comes to aid the Trojans, and after showing great prowess in battle, is killed by Achilles and buried by the Trojans. Achilles then slays Thersites for abusing and reviling him for his supposed love for Penthesileia. Then Prince Memnon of Ethiopia, the son of Eos [the goddess of the dawn], wearing armor made by Hephaistus, comes to help the Trojans, and Thetis tells her son about Memnon. A battle takes place in which Antilochus, son of Nestor is slain by Memnon and Memnon by Achilles. Achilles then routs the Trojans, and, rushing into the city with them, is killed by Paris and Apollo, for Paris shoots him in his heel with an arrow. A great struggle for the body of Achilles then follows, Aias taking up the body and carrying it to the ships, while Odysseus drives off the Trojans behind.

The Achaeans then bury Antilochus and lay out the body of Achilles, while Thetis, arriving with the Muses and her sisters, bewails her son, whom she afterwards catches away from the pyre and transports to the White Island, to be immortal. After this, the Achaeans pile him a mound and hold magnificent games in his honor. Lastly a dispute arises between Odysseus and Aias over the arms of Achilles. Aias claims he should get them because he is the cousin of Achilles and the greatest warrior. The judging of the arms of Achilles takes place. Odysseus brings in Trojan captives, who declare that they fear Odysseus more than Aias. Thus Odysseus wins the arms of Achilles. Aias, enraged, intends to kill the Greek leaders in their sleep, but Athena makes him insane and instead Aias tortures and kills the sheep of the Greeks. When he comes to his senses and realizes what he has done, Ajax and kills himself by leaping on the sword that Hector gave him.

Next Odysseus captures the Trojan prophet Helenus, who prophesies that Philoctetes and the bow of Heracles are needed to take Troy. Diomedes and Odysseus accordingly bring Philoctetes from Lemnos. Philoctetes is healed by Machaon, a son of Apollo, and fights in single combat with Paris and kills him: the dead body is outraged by Menelaus, but the Trojans recover and bury it. After this the Trojan Deiphobus marries Helen, Odysseus brings Neoptolemus from Scyros and gives him his father's arms. Eurypylus the son of Telephus arrives to aid the Trojans, shows his prowess and is killed by Neoptolemus.

The Trojans are now closely beseiged, and Epeius, by Athena's instructions delivered through the crafty Odysseus, builds the wooden horse. Odysseus disfigures himself and goes in to Troy as a spy, and there being recognized by Helen, plots with her for the taking of the city; after killing certain of the Trojans, he returns to the ships. Next Odysseus sneaks back into Troy and carries the Palladium out of Troy with help of Diomedes. The Palladium is an ancient olive-wood statue of Pallas Athene. Then after putting their best men in the wooden horse and burning their huts, the main body of the Greeks sail to the island of Tenedos. According to Vergil, they leave a Greek named Sinon behind, who tells the Trojans that the Trojan horse was built by the Greeks because Athene was angry with them, and he was going to be sacrificed to Athena, but he escaped. Further, according to Sinon, if the Trojans bring the horse into their city, it will protect them. The Trojans were suspicious of the wooden horse and standing round it debated what they ought to do. Some thought they ought to hurl it down from the rocks, others to burn it up, while others said they ought to dedicate it to Athena. The priest Laocoon claimed that it was filled with Greeks and even threw a spear at the horse. Kassandra, daughter of Priam, also prophesied that the Greeks inside would destroy Troy, but Apollo had cursed Kassandra that she would know the truth but never be believed. According to Homer, Helen walked around the horse imitating the wives of the men inside it, trying to get them to reveal themselves. But at this very time two serpents appeared, sent by Athena and they destroyed Laocoon and his two sons, a portent which so alarmed the followers of Aeneas that they withdrew to Ida. The Trojans now feel secure that Athena was on their side and take the Horse inside their city, perhaps even breaking down part of the wall. Then they begin to feast and drink as if the war as over and they had won. Sinon then raised the fire- signal to the Achaeans, having previously got into the city by pretence. The Greeks then sailed in from Tenedos, and those in the wooden horse came out, kills the guards and opened the gates. The Greeks fell upon their dazed enemies, storming the city. Neoptolemus kills Priam who had fled to the altar of Zeus Herceius; Menelaus finds Helen and nearly kills her, but eventually takes her to the ships, after killing Deiphobus; and Aias the son of Ileus, is said to have raped Kassandra on the altar of Athena. At this the Greeks are so enraged that they determine to stone Aias, who only escapes the danger by taking refuge at the altar of Athena.

The Greeks, after burning the city, When the Greek victors, after burning Troy, were boarding their ships for home, the voice of Achilles, from the grave, is said to have demanded part of the spoils, And so the Greeks sacrificed Polyxena, daughter of Priam at the tomb of Achilles: Odysseus tosses Astyanax from a high tower; Neoptolemus takes Andromache as his prize, and the remaining spoils are divided. Aeneas, whose followers have left the city (with Aeneas having been warned by the gods) build a fleet from the wood on sacred Mt. Ida and, that spring, sail to find their new home eventually in Italy near Rome.

Athena causes a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus about the voyage from Troy. Agamemnon then stays on to appease the anger of Athena. Diomedes and Nestor put out to sea and get safely home. After them Menelaus sets out and reaches Egypt with five ships, the rest having been destroyed on the high seas. Those with Calchas, Leontes, and Polypoetes go by land to Colophon and bury Teiresias who died there. When Agamemnon and his followers were sailing away, the ghost of Achilles appeared and tried to prevent them by foretelling what should befall them. There is storm at the rocks called Capherides. Locrian Aias, who had raped Kassandra is killed by Poseidon. Agamemnon arriving home is killed Clytemnestra. Finally, after seven years of wandering, Menelaus returns home, while Odysseus still wanders, as told by the Odyssey.