Hector

Who He Is

Hector is Troy's main defender, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, husband of Andromache and father of the boy Astyanax. He is the commander of the Trojans and their allies when the Achaeans camp by the ships, and the poem has him fight less for personal glory than for the city, his wife, and his son. Shame before the Trojan men and women drives him, and he knows, from Book VI on, that the city will fall. He depends on Zeus to win and trusts him, even when Polydamas warns him and when Patroclus, dying, prophesies his end. His opponent is Achilles, and the poem treats the two as mirrors: one fights for an honor that was taken from him, the other for a city that was entrusted to him. The last verse of the poem belongs to his funeral.

Trajectory

In Book II, after the Catalogue of Ships, Iris, in the form of the lookout Polites, tells Hector to marshal the allies of many tongues, each group under its chief. Hector recognizes the divine counsel, dismisses the assembly, and the Trojans pour out through the gates in arms. He is also the target of Agamemnon's prayer, which asks that the sun not set before the bronze tears the tunic on his chest.

In Book III, Hector rebukes his brother Paris, who drew back when he saw Menelaus advancing. He would rather Paris had never been born than see him become a laughingstock to the Achaeans. What moves him is the city, not the woman, and the public shame he wants to correct. He welcomes Paris's proposal to settle the war in a duel, holds his spear at the middle to restrain the Trojan line, and announces the proposal to both armies. With Odysseus he measures out the ground and shakes the lots in the helmet.

In Book V, when Diomedes tears through the ranks, his ally Sarpedon rebukes Hector for letting the allies fight while the Trojans cower. The word stings him: he leaps from the chariot, runs through the ranks, and kindles the battle. Diomedes trembles at the sight and orders his men to fall back rather than fight head-on against the gods, because a god is always with Hector, now Ares. When Sarpedon, wounded, begs him for protection, Hector passes on, and the text gives only haste as the reason.

In Book VI, Hector goes to the city at the request of his brother Helenus, to have Hecuba take the finest robe to Athena. He refuses his mother's wine, because his hands are stained with blood and he may not pour an offering to Zeus, and he rebukes Paris in his room. He declines the seat Helen offers him: his heart already urges him to aid the Trojans who miss him. He looks for Andromache at home, does not find her, and catches her at the Scaean Gates, where she tells him that his own fury will destroy him. He answers that he is ashamed before the Trojan men and women and has learned to fight among the foremost, and soon he says what he knows of the end.

What hurts him most is not the grief of Hecuba, of Priam, or of his brothers, but that of Andromache, led away in tears by some Achaean. The boy shrinks back crying against his nurse's breast at the sight of his father, frightened by the bronze and the horsehair crest that nods terribly from the top of the helmet. Hector takes off the helmet, kisses the child, and prays to Zeus that he become king of Ilion and better than his father. He comforts Andromache, saying that no one will send him to Hades before his time, and he sends her back to the loom: war is the business of men, and most of all his.

In Book VII, Hector returns to the fight with Paris, and Helenus assures him that his fate is not yet to die. He challenges the best of the Achaeans to a duel, with the rule that the winner takes the armor and returns the body. The army falls silent. When Ajax steps forward, Hector's heart pounds in his chest, and he can no longer draw back, because he has issued the challenge. The duel ends without a winner: Apollo lifts him after Ajax's stone, the heralds set their scepters between them, and night falls. The two exchange gifts, a sword for a belt, so that people will say they fought and parted in friendship.

In Book VIII, Zeus weighs the fates of the two armies and gives the day to the Trojans. Hector pursues Nestor and Diomedes, taunts the latter from afar, and takes the thunder as a promise: he announces that he will set the ships on fire, speaks to his horses about the gratitude of Andromache, and wants Nestor's golden shield and Diomedes' breastplate. At the end of the day, in the assembly, he orders many fires lit so the Greeks cannot flee by sea, and he says he wishes to be immortal like Athena and Apollo, as surely as that day brings disaster to the Argives.

In Book IX, Odysseus tells Achilles that Hector, trusting in Zeus, promises to burn the ships at dawn, and Achilles answers that he will think of war only when Hector reaches the tents of the Myrmidons. In Book X, Hector promises a chariot and horses to whoever spies on the Achaean ships, and the spy Dolon demands the oath that he will have Achilles' horses. Hector swears, and the narrator says he swore falsely.

In Book XI, Zeus sends word to Hector to withdraw while Agamemnon is in the front line, and says he will receive strength to kill until sunset once the king is wounded. Hector obeys, steps down from the chariot, and reorganizes the lines. When the king withdraws, he calls the Trojans and the Lycians to the attack and says that Zeus has given him the glory. A blow from Diomedes to his helmet knocks him to his knees, and Diomedes shouts that Apollo has saved him once again. Farther on, Hector avoids fighting Ajax, and Zeus puts fear into Ajax.

In Book XII, Hector crosses the trench on foot, on Polydamas' advice. An eagle drops a serpent among the Trojans, and Polydamas reads the sign: if they break through the wall, they will not return in order. Hector rebukes him and threatens him with death, because Zeus has promised and nodded his head, and the best omen is to defend the homeland. Zeus sends a dust storm against the ships and gives him greater glory. Hector lifts the stone that two men of the people could not raise, which Zeus makes light for him, breaks the gate, and leaps inside like swift night, his eyes blazing.

In Book XIII, Hector comes on like a rock and stands before the phalanxes of the two Ajaxes. The head of Imbrius, Priam's son-in-law, is hurled rolling to his feet. Polydamas tells him that no one has all the gifts, that to the gift of war is joined the gift of counsel, and that he fears the man insatiable for war who is by the ships. Hector accepts the need to regroup, looks for the wounded chiefs, insults Paris when he finds him, and answers Ajax with a wish he cannot fulfill: to be a son of Zeus and of Hera, honored as Athena and Apollo are.

In Book XIV, Hector throws at Ajax and strikes the point where the straps cross, which protect him, and Ajax, with a stone that was propping up a ship, hits him in the chest above the rim of the shield. Hector spins like a top and falls like an oak struck by lightning. The best Trojans surround him and carry him to the ford of the Xanthus, where he vomits dark blood and collapses again.

In Book XV, Zeus wakes, sees Hector gasping, and takes pity on him, but tells Hera that he will kill Patroclus and be killed by Achilles. Apollo descends, restores his strength, and tells him that Zeus sends him as protector. Hector runs like a horse that breaks its tether. He orders the Trojans to leave the spoils and rush to the ships, and says that dying for the homeland is no dishonor, since wife, children, and home are kept safe. He grasps the stern of Protesilaus' ship and calls for fire. The narrator explains that Zeus honors him above so many men because he will have a short life.

In Book XVI, on seeing Patroclus in Achilles' armor, Hector flees in his chariot and leaves the army, and after the death of Sarpedon he flees again, because he recognizes the sacred scales of Zeus. Apollo, in the form of Asius, urges him to go against Patroclus. When Apollo knocks Patroclus' armor from him and Euphorbus wounds him from behind, Hector comes near and strikes him in the lower belly. He boasts that he defends the city and that vultures will eat the enemy. Dying, Patroclus denies Hector the victory, who only strips him third, after Moira, Apollo, and Euphorbus, and he prophesies that Achilles will kill him. Hector answers with a question: who knows whether Achilles will not be the first to lose his life?

In Book XVII, Apollo, in the form of Mentes, chief of the Cicones, urges him back to the body of Patroclus, and Hector strips it and wants to behead it to give the corpse to the Trojan dogs. Glaucus, chief of the Lycians, demands that he account for abandoning Sarpedon. Hector answers that the mind of Zeus is always stronger, that he makes even the brave man flee, and he goes to fetch the armor. He hands his own to the Trojans, who carry it to the city, and puts on the immortal armor of Achilles. Zeus sees him and calls him ill-fated, because death is already near, and gives him great strength in compensation: Andromache will not receive his armor from him. Ares enters him, and the allies see Achilles in him. He promises half the spoils to whoever drags Patroclus' body, and he wants Achilles' horses.

In Book XVIII, Hector reaches the body of Patroclus and grabs it by the feet three times, and three times the two Ajaxes drive him back. When Achilles shouts, the Trojans are thrown into confusion and the sun sets. In the assembly, Polydamas advises returning to the city, because Achilles is on his feet and will fight for the women. Hector answers in anger that they have been shut up behind the walls long enough, that the city has lost its treasures, and that Zeus has given him glory by the ships. No one contradicts him, because, the narrator says, Athena had taken the wits of the Trojans.

In Book XIX, Achilles says that only Hector and the Trojans profited from the quarrel among the Achaeans.

In Book XX, Hector rallies the Trojans and says he will go to meet Achilles even if his hands are like fire, but when he hears Apollo tell him to wait in the middle of the crowd, he draws back. When he sees his brother Polydorus wounded in the back, a mist covers his eyes and he charges Achilles with his spear raised. He says he knows Achilles is the better man, but that this rests in the knees of the gods. Athena deflects his spear with a breath, and Apollo hides him in a mist before Achilles can reach him.

In Book XXI, Hector does not appear, but Achilles tells the river that he will not stop until he has penned the Trojans in the city and tested Hector face to face.

In Book XXII, Hector is the only one who stays outside the Scaean Gates. Priam, from the wall, begs him to come in, and Hecuba bares her breast to show him. Hector does not give way. Alone, he weighs the shame of entering after losing the people through his own folly, and for a moment he considers laying down his arms and offering Helen and half the city, but he discards the idea: he would be killed unarmed, like a woman.

When Achilles arrives, a trembling seizes Hector, and he flees: three circuits of the city, a race for his life, until Zeus lifts the scales and his day goes down. Apollo leaves him. Athena takes the form of Deiphobus and proposes that they fight together, and Hector thanks his brother for having come out from the wall. He proposes to Achilles a pact, that the winner return the body, and hears that there is no agreement between lions and men. He throws his spear, misses, calls Deiphobus, and understands that Athena has deceived him.

He decides to die with the sword in his hand, doing something great that those to come will know of. Achilles wounds him in the throat, without cutting the windpipe. Hector begs for the body and for the fire of the Trojans and their wives, hears that no ransom would buy it, and warns Achilles that the day Paris and Apollo destroy him will come at the Scaean Gates.

Achilles pierces the tendons of his feet and drags him away. His parents watch the scene from the wall, and Andromache, who was weaving and heating water for the bath, falls backward when she sees her husband being dragged.

In Book XXIII, Hector's body lies face down beside the bier of Patroclus. Achilles promises it to the dogs, but the dogs do not come near: Aphrodite keeps them away and anoints the body with rose oil, and Apollo brings a dark cloud so that the sun will not dry the skin.

In Book XXIV, Achilles drags him every day around the tomb of Patroclus, and Apollo, moved to pity, protects the body from all disfigurement. Before the gods, Zeus says that Hector was the dearest to the gods of all the mortals of Ilion. Hermes describes the intact body to Priam, and Achilles orders it washed and lifted onto the bier with his own hands. In Troy, Andromache begins the lament, Hecuba notes that Hector is fresh as if Apollo had killed him with gentle arrows, and Helen says he was the dearest of her brothers-in-law and that in twenty years he never spoke a harsh word to her. The funeral lasts nine days of gathering wood, the pyre is lit on the tenth, the bones are placed in a golden urn the next morning, and then the tomb.

Themes Embodied

Hector embodies Honor and reputation as seen from inside a city: he fights because he is ashamed before the Trojan men and women, and he dies outside the gates so that his reputation survives the defeat. He embodies War as defense, at the point where the cause is the home, and not as conquest. Fate and free will are in each of his choices: he trusts Zeus's promise, hears Polydamas and does not obey him, knows that Troy will fall and returns to the fight, and in Book XXII he stays outside the wall while the scales have already decided. Death reaches him in the gap of the armor that was Achilles' and that he himself put on, and Loss and mourning close the poem with the laments of Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen.

The text gives Hector two reasons for staying outside the wall, and neither cancels the other. In his own words the reason is shame: if he enters, Polydamas and the Trojans will rebuke him for losing the people. In the words of the gods the reason is Moira, weighed on the scales of Zeus. Hector chooses to stay, and the scales had already given the result. There are also two readings of the certainty that moves him. It may be trust in the sign Zeus gave him, and then Polydamas's refusal is consistent. It may be the kind of certainty that only holds up while spoken aloud, as when he says he wishes to be immortal and honored as Athena and Apollo. The poem gives an ending that belongs only to him: Achilles's death lies outside the text, and the last verse is Hector's funeral.

Relationships

• Priam: the father who, from the wall, begs him to come in, in Book XXII, and who, in Book XXIV, goes to the ships to fetch the body.
• Andromache: the wife who asks him to stay in the tower in Book VI, weaves the robe while he dies in Book XXII, and begins the lament in Book XXIV.
• Paris: the brother whom Hector rebukes for drawing back before Menelaus and for staying in his room, and with whom he returns to the fight in Book VII.
• Achilles: the adversary who kills him, drags him, and returns his body to his father.
• Patroclus: the enemy whom Hector kills in Achilles' armor and whose body he wants to behead.
• Zeus: the god who gives him the glory of the day, calls him ill-fated, and then weighs his fate.
• Apollo: the protector who lifts him up, hides him from Achilles, and abandons him when the scales go down.
• Athena: the goddess who, in the form of Deiphobus, deceives him and returns the spear to Achilles.
• Ajax: the opponent of the duel in Book VII, who knocks him down with a stone in Book XIV.
• Diomedes: the warrior who stuns him in Book XI and whom Hector makes flee in Book VIII.
• Polydamas: the counselor who reads the signs, and to whom Hector responds in anger.
• Sarpedon and Glaucus: the Lycian allies who demand the loyalty owed to them.