Pope uses Greek epics such as the Iliad as a frame for The Rape of the Lock. The Rape of the Lock centers on the "outrage" of the Baron cutting off a lock of Belinda's hair. It is meant to poke fun at a real life feud caused by the overreaction of the Fermor family when Lord Petre clipped off a piece of Arabella Fermor’s hair without her permission.
By using very serious epics about warfare, death, rape, and tragedy as a backdrop, Pope highlights how silly and decadent a quarrel about a lock of hair really is. After all, who cares about a little bit of hair? Hair grows, and nobody has died. Pope mocks the quarrel by turning the gods of the epics into smaller, fluttering little sylphs, appropriate for the petty concerns of his characters. Pope has one Arabella's "miseries" be that she ever learned to play the card game Ochre! This is quite a contrast to the death and destruction, for example, wrought on Troy. Further, while Achilles in the Iliad has to have a new shield made, which is described in detail to show the good life the soldiers are defending, because of the death of his best friend in battle, a parallel incident in The Rape of the Lock is the long and ridiculous description of Belinda's petticoat.
Pope is asking everyone involved in the real life quarrel to get a grip by putting their petty problems within the context of the real problems ancient peoples faced.
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