A city of ships
The camp is the Achaeans’ home for ten years. The ships are drawn up on the beach, and behind them are the huts of the kings and men, the streets between them, and the open ground where assemblies are held. It has a religious life as well: altars, sacrifices, and the tombs of the dead.
The Iliad moves constantly between the camp, the plain, and Troy. The camp is where the army argues, feasts, nurses its wounded, and receives embassies, and it is also where the poem’s domestic scenes—Achilles with Patroclus, Nestor with his guests—take place.
The wall and the breach
In Book VII the Achaeans build a wall and ditch to protect the ships, without proper sacrifice to the gods. Poseidon resents the wall because it rivals the walls of Troy, and Zeus allows the Trojans to break through it in Book XV. The breach turns the camp into a battlefield and brings the war to the ships.
The wall is a symbol of the Achaeans’ attempt to make their temporary camp permanent. Its fall shows how precarious the siege is, and it prepares for the defence of the ships in Books XV–XVI, where Patroclus enters the battle and dies.