The action of the Iliad plays out in the city of Ilium and the Greek camp arrayed before it, but most of all on the battlefield that lies between, which constitutes the focus of this study. But before viewing the Iliad's combat zone, we may find it worthwhile to turn our gaze briefly to both the city and the encampment to understand how these spaces are constructed and how their organization contributes to the unfolding narrative. As will emerge, both the techniques used to describe these locations and their roles in the plot differ markedly from each other; nevertheless, both are presented dynamically, as inhabited space, whose form is revealed not through static description, but through the movement of characters as they make their way through the city or within the camp.

The most prominent feature of the architecture and urban layout of Ilium is the walls that define the city and differentiate its space from the world outside. These ramparts constitute the borderline between the warriors on the plain and the non-combatants, above all the women, within. Gates, surmounted by towers, pierce the wall; two are named: the Dardanian, which seems to be a back door or sallyport, turned away from the plain, and the Scaean Gate from which the Trojan army deploys on the plain and into which it retreats.