A) Iliad 18.497-508: Meanwhile the people were gathered in assembly, for there was a quarrel [neikos], and two men were wrangling about the blood-price [poinê] for a man who had died, the one saying to the dêmos that he had paid damages in full, and the other refusing to accept anything. Each was trying to make his own case good, and the people took sides, each man backing the side that he had taken; but the heralds kept them back, and the elders sat on their seats of stone in a solemn circle, holding the scepters which the heralds had put into their hands. Then they rose and each in his turn gave judgement, and there were two talents of gold laid down, to be given to him whose judgement [dikê] should be deemed the straightest.

B) Iliad 9.628-639: (Ajax says to Odysseus) "Achilles is savage and remorseless; he is cruel and cares nothing for the affection [philotês] that his comrades lavished upon him more than all the others. He is implacable--and yet if a man's brother or son has been slain he [=that man] will accept a fine [poinê] by way of amends from him that killed him and the wrong-doer having paid in full remains in peace in his own district [dêmos], but as for you, Achilles, the gods have put a wicked unforgiving spirit [thumos] in your breast, and this, all about one single girl, whereas we now offer you the seven best we have, and much more into the bargain."

C) Iliad 9.550ff.: So long as Meleager was in the field things went badly with the Curetes, and for all their numbers they could not hold their ground under the city walls; but in the course of time anger [kholos] entered Meleager in his thinking [noos], as will happen sometimes even to a sensible man. [555] He was incensed with his mother Althaea, and therefore stayed at home with his wife, whom he had courted as a youth, fair Kleopatra who was daughter of Marpessa daughter of Euenus, and of Idês a man then living. He it was who took his bow and faced King Apollo himself for fair Marpessa's sake; her father and mother then named her Alcyone, because her mother had lamented with the plaintive strains of the halcyon-bird when Phoebus Apollo had carried her off. Meleager, then, stayed at home with wife, nursing the anger which he felt by reason of his mother's curses. His mother, grieving for the death of her brother, prayed the gods, and beat the earth with her hands, calling upon Hades and on awful Persephone as she went down upon her knees, and her bosom was wet with tears as she prayed that they should kill her son -- and an Erinys that roams in darkness and knows no mercy heard her, from below in Erebus. [573] Then was heard the din of battle about the gates of Calydon, and the dull thump of the battering against their walls. Thereon the elders of the Aetolians besought Meleager; they sent the chief of their priests, and begged him to come out and help them, promising him a great reward. They bade him choose fifty acres, the most fertile in the plain of Calydon, the one-half vineyard and the other open plough-land. The old warrior Oeneus implored him, standing at the threshold of his room and beating the doors in supplication. His sisters and his mother herself besought him sore, but he the more refused them; those of his comrades who were nearest and dearest to him also prayed him, but they could not move him till the foe was battering at the very doors of his chamber, and the Curetes had scaled the walls and were setting fire to the city. Then at last his sorrowing wife detailed the horrors that befall those whose city is taken; she reminded him how the men are slain, and the city is given over to the flames, while the women and children are carried into captivity; [595] when he heard all this, his heart was touched, and he donned his armor to go forth. Thus of his own inward motion he saved the city of the Aetolians; but they now gave him nothing of those rich rewards that they had offered earlier, and though he saved the city he took nothing by it. Be not then, my son, thus minded; let not heaven lure you into any such course. When the ships are burning it will be a harder matter to save them.

Homer's Poetic Justice: This series of five video dialogues examines the major themes of the Iliad through the lens of a litigation scene depicted on the shield of Achilles. As these dialogues will show, the shield can be seen as a microcosm, exploring in compressed form the big issues of the Iliad. The biggest issue of them all is the one that the dispute on the shield most directly concerns: What is the price of a human life?