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[Ajax]

My vote is for  Telemonian Ajax.

He was the only warrior to not get injured in battle, and that was without the help of a god.

Hektor, Diomedes, Menelaus, Patroklus, Achilles, Paris, Agenor, Aeneas, Sarpedon...etc were all helped at some point by a diety.

Ajax did everything out of pure skill and brute strength. He defended the ships by himself. He fought at the front lines. He was surrounded at one point and fought his way out. He stood his ground while the rest of the Achaeans retreated; he fought, then took steps back, then fought again.

He was quite simply a monster. What a waste it was that the gods favored Odysseus and Achilles so much. 

[diomedes]

My copy of the Illiad states clearly in no uncertain terms. Apollo killed Achilles. It is found in the Chapter, the Death of Achilles, starting with the second paragraph, reading through the 4th.

Every time Paris fires his bow at a major hero in the Illiad, he either misses or wounds them, which in turn just pisses them off even more. I find it very funny Paris is even consider a Hero, the Illiad has him as a lust stuck, ---- up.

What translation are you reading? to the best of my knowledge, the death of achilles is not in the iliad. not trying to call you out, im just interested.
my vote goes to Diomedes as well.

[King of Ba Shu]

Helen is the most influential, but Achilles would be my pick for the Greatest Hero.

Hector wasn't half bad from what I remember. I'm going to have to brush up on my history of the era before the game is released.

[Homers lament]

What translation are you reading? to the best of my knowledge, the death of achilles is not in the iliad. not trying to call you out, im just interested.
my vote goes to Diomedes as well.

My copy includes all the other tales surrounding Troy and the War. Which includes the Trojan Horse. Thus when I state Illiad, I mean't all the stories surrounding it. Great book to read is Gods and Goddesses. It has all the ancient tales of Hercules, and other great greek myth, and combines the tales of the war against Troy in a easy to read chapter with plenty of footnotes.

[Sima Yan]

Hector has got to be the best hero of the Trojan War. Achilles comes in a close second, but he always seemed like an a-hole to me.

[Diomedes90]

I can't believe you forgot Diomedes. How could you do such a horrid thing? Well, anyways my choice is Diomedes, for a number of reasons.

1) He was the youngest of all the Achaeans and yet had the most battle experience.
2) He was a great warrior, rivaling that of Achilles.
3) He helped Odysseus steal the Palladium from Troy.
4) He wounded 2 gods and did not feel any of their wrath, other than not being able to go back to his wife (who most likely found someone else before Aphrodite influenced her).
5) Despite wounding 2 Olympians, he survived the aftermath of Troy.
6) Founded many cities in Italy after the Trojan war, and they are described in the Aeneid as prosperous and beautiful.
 
So yeah, Diomedes was the greatest hero in my opinion.

I no this might be a shock but i compleatly agree with this  
but seeing as he was left out of the named list (how could you do such a thing) i will have to say Achilles followd by Odysseus.
its a shame this topic has died down but thought id throw in my vote any way

[Sacrilege83]

Isn't Odysseus influential just by repertoire?  He has my vote.  Achilles is just Dynaty Warriors' Lu Bu.

[Homers lament]

Isn't Odysseus influential just by repertoire?  He has my vote.  Achilles is just Dynaty Warriors' Lu Bu.

Odysseus plays a role throughout the Illiad, but his real tale is told in the Odessey. Odysseus character in the Illiad is one of a not really nice guy.  He would do cheat, steal, screw over friends and leave them for dead, anything to further his own desire. The book calls him clever, and sly. He had plenty of charisma, and today, I would thing he would most likely be called a socipathy.

Koei did a decent job picking out the 4 main heroes for the Greeks. My only beef was thier choice of Patroklus. He dies in the middle of the tale, and really doesn't have much of a story beyond the tale of his death, which is the reason for Achilles re-entering the war. A much better pick would have been Diomedes. He is the youngest of the great heroes, was there from the beginning of the siege to the destruction of troy. The noblest of all the Greeks.

[Sacrilege83]

Is Diomedes even in the game?  He seems to get left out a lot, even in this poll.

[Homers lament]

Is Diomedes even in the game?  He seems to get left out a lot, even in this poll.

No, he is not in the game.

[Ajax]

Diomedes was a huge help in the war. He turned the tide almost single-handedly (Athena helped him) in one of the chapters.

Odysseus was very influential also having combined efforts with Diomedes to kill King Rhesus and steal the Palladium from Athena's temple. The Trojan horse was the workings of someone else even though he gets the credit.

Little Ajax played an important role as well. He was ruthless on the battlefield, and because of that he struck terror in the Trojans. Combine him with Telemonian Ajax and they cut through ranks of soldiers.

Antilochus, Idomeneus, Teucer, and Meriones were consistently huge support officers while Menelaus and Agamemnon had their brief moments to shine.

Ajax the Great still gets my vote as the most influential. Without him, the Greek wall would have been overrun easily in one chapter. In the very next chapter, he alone kept them from torching the fleet. He and Achilles wiped out the Amazon warriors when they were wreaking havoc on the Greek forces. He fought Hektor in a duel and walked away unscathed while the gods had to keep Hektor from getting injured. All in all, he was the best warrior the Greeks had.

As far as the Trojans, that obviously goes to Hektor. He was helped by the gods a LOT, but he was the one that stopped Troy's ruin for so long.

Aeneas is a close second. He could more than hold his own in battle and led a successful counter-offensive against the Greeks when Troy was being burned.

Sarpedon and Glaukus were not easily dealt with by Greeks. Sarpedon being the son of Zeus and Glaukus being the grandson of Zeus, both were monsters on the battlefield. Sarpedon tore a hole into the Greek ramparts with his bare hands. 

Troy also had its cast of consistently great officers in Agenor, Deiphobus, Helenus, and Polites (huge role after the death of Hektor). They also had interesting characters like Memnon who was said to be bigger than Ajax and Achilles, but as fast as Antilochus; he was the son of Olympians, and his showdown with Achilles is epic. The character Asteripaeous (spelling might be off) was ambidextrous and fought with 2 spears with a silver axe as back-up; the Iliad makes special note of him which isn't common.

Take the gods out of the fight and Troy would have massacred the Greek army. Achilles, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Hektor would have all been dead if the gods hadn't rescued them. Sarpedon, Glaukus, Agenor, Aeneas, Patroklus, Memnon, and Great Ajax wouldn't have been injured or killed if the gods hadn't helped the person they were up against. The loss of 4 main Greek commanders would've been catastrophic compared to the loss of Hektor even though he was the greatest in Troy; Aeneas and Sarpedon would've cleaned up the rest. 

[Yue Fei]

Achilles, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Hektor would have all been dead if the gods hadn't rescued them.

Achilles was never rescued by the gods. But he was killed by a god (I dislike you very much Apollo!). Sure he had the armour of Hephaestus, but even before that he had relatively normal armour.

[Ajax]

Achilles was never rescued by the gods. But he was killed by a god (I dislike you very much Apollo!). Sure he had the armour of Hephaestus, but even before that he had relatively normal armour.

He would've been killed at the very beginning of the Iliad had Athena not held him back. He would've killed Agamemnon and then been put to death as the other kings couldn't allow the murder of the commander over a girl.

He would've been killed by the god of the river Scamander as well. I know that's a god intervening, but I felt the need to point it out. 

I think Apollo was one of the better gods. He knew the limits he could go to. Protected Aeneas when Athena was helping Diomedes. Helped in the killing of Patroklus so that the necessary events could take place, and helped in the killing of Achilles for the same reason. He had no stake in the war like some of the other gods had because of insults or children in battle.

Thought this a good place to mention that I am finishing the Troy series by David Gemmell and it is absolutely terrific! The gods were not involved at all though the characters still prayed to them. With the exception of quite a few characters being different, I prefer it's story over the original. Achilles wasn't the whiny baby he was in the Iliad, Hektor wasn't second best to anyone, Paris wasn't anyone important, Odysseus was so much more likeable, and Aeneas was absolutely cool and sometimes utterly ruthless. There were new characters introduced such as guys named Argurios, Banokles, Kalliades, Gershom (interesting character from a very famous Book), and, of course, Helikoan  I can't think of a character i disliked from the whole book.

If you guys liked the Iliad you should definitely check this 3 book series out. It is amazing. It is definitely a older teen/adult book though.

Oh, and Agamemnon is still a complete  :-Xhole

[Yue Fei]

He would've been killed at the very beginning of the Iliad had Athena not held him back. He would've killed Agamemnon and then been put to death as the other kings couldn't allow the murder of the commander over a girl.

Achilles would've ended up killing everyone.

Thought this a good place to mention that I am finishing the Troy series by David Gemmell and it is absolutely terrific! The gods were not involved at all though the characters still prayed to them. With the exception of quite a few characters being different, I prefer it's story over the original. Achilles wasn't the whiny baby he was in the Iliad, Hektor wasn't second best to anyone, Paris wasn't anyone important, Odysseus was so much more likeable, and Aeneas was absolutely cool and sometimes utterly ruthless. There were new characters introduced such as guys named Argurios, Banokles, Kalliades, Gershom (interesting character from a very famous Book), and, of course, Helikoan  I can't think of a character i disliked from the whole book.

If you guys liked the Iliad you should definitely check this 3 book series out. It is amazing. It is definitely a older teen/adult book though.

Oh, and Agamemnon is still a complete  :-Xhole

It is a good book series. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but David Gemmell died before completing it, so his wife finished the last book. Some of the fights are a lot different in tone, but otherwise it's very much the same.

He also has two stories about the rise of Macedon and Philip I and Alexander the Great.