What It Is
Hector's body is the object around which the poem's ending turns. After he dies before Troy, Achilles pierces the tendons of both his feet, ties him to his chariot and drags him, and repeats the dragging around the tomb of Patroclus day after day, while the gods keep the body free of any mark. He returns to his father only in Book XXIV, and the poem ends with the funeral.
Where It Appears
The body is promised, in two directions, before it exists. In Book VII, Hector proposes the rule of the duel with Ajax: the victor keeps the armor and returns the body, so that the Trojans and the Trojan wives may give him the portion of fire.
σῶμα δὲ οἴκαδʼ ἐμὸν δόμεναι πάλιν, ὄφρα πυρός με / Τρῶες καὶ Τρώων ἄλοχοι λελάχωσι θανόντα.(7.79-80), and that he return my body home, so that the Trojans and the Trojan wives may give me, once dead, the portion of fire.
In Book XVII, Hector himself, having stripped Patroclus, wants to cut off his head and give the body to the dogs of Troy.
Ἕκτωρ μὲν Πάτροκλον ἐπεὶ κλυτὰ τεύχεʼ ἀπηύρα, / ἕλχʼ ἵνʼ ἀπʼ ὤμοιιν κεφαλὴν τάμοι ὀξέϊ χαλκῷ, / τὸν δὲ νέκυν Τρῳῇσιν ἐρυσσάμενος κυσὶ δοίη.(17.125-127), Hector, after stripping him of his glorious armor, was dragging him to cut off his head from the shoulders with sharp bronze and, pulling the corpse, to hand it to the dogs of Troy.
Achilles' promise to Patroclus, in Book XVIII, answers this: there will be no funeral rites before he brings the armor and the head of Hector, and twelve sons of the Trojans will fall before the pyre.
In Book XXII, the duel decides who carries away the body. Hector, facing Achilles, proposes that the gods be witnesses to a pact:
ἀλλʼ ἄγε δεῦρο θεοὺς ἐπιδώμεθα· τοὶ γὰρ ἄριστοι / μάρτυροι ἔσσονται καὶ ἐπίσκοποι ἁρμονιάων· / οὐ γὰρ ἐγώ σʼ ἔκπαγλον ἀεικιῶ, αἴ κεν ἐμοὶ Ζεὺς / δώῃ καμμονίην, σὴν δὲ ψυχὴν ἀφέλωμαι· / ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ ἄρ κέ σε συλήσω κλυτὰ τεύχεʼ Ἀχιλλεῦ / νεκρὸν Ἀχαιοῖσιν δώσω πάλιν· ὣς δὲ σὺ ῥέζειν.(22.254-259), But come here, let us call the gods to witness, for they will be the best witnesses and overseers of our covenant; I will not outrage you cruelly if Zeus grants me strength and I take your life; but once I have stripped your glorious armor from you, Achilles, I will return your body to the Achaeans; do the same, you too.
Achilles refuses, without discussing the terms:
Ἕκτορ μή μοι ἄλαστε συνημοσύνας ἀγόρευε· / ὡς οὐκ ἔστι λέουσι καὶ ἀνδράσιν ὅρκια πιστά, / οὐδὲ λύκοι τε καὶ ἄρνες ὁμόφρονα θυμὸν ἔχουσιν, / ἀλλὰ κακὰ φρονέουσι διαμπερὲς ἀλλήλοισιν,(22.261-264), Hector, execrable one, do not speak to me of pacts; as there are no faithful oaths between lions and men, nor do wolves and lambs have a like-minded spirit, but they plot evil against one another without ceasing.
Fallen, with his throat pierced but still able to speak, Hector asks for his body back:
λίσσομʼ ὑπὲρ ψυχῆς καὶ γούνων σῶν τε τοκήων, / μή με ἔα παρὰ νηυσὶ κύνας καταδάψαι Ἀχαιῶν, / ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν χαλκόν τε ἅλις χρυσόν τε δέδεξο, / δῶρα τά τοι δώσουσι πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ, / σῶμα δὲ οἴκαδʼ ἐμὸν δόμεναι πάλιν, ὄφρα πυρός με / Τρῶες καὶ Τρώων ἄλοχοι λελάχωσι θανόντα.(22.338-343), I beg you by your life, your knees, and your parents: do not let the dogs of the Achaeans tear me to pieces by the ships; accept bronze and gold in abundance, gifts that my father and my lady mother will give you, and give my body back home, so that the Trojans and the Trojan wives may give me, once dead, the portion of fire.
And he hears the full refusal:
οὐδʼ εἴ κεν δεκάκις τε καὶ εἰκοσινήριτʼ ἄποινα / στήσωσʼ ἐνθάδʼ ἄγοντες, ὑπόσχωνται δὲ καὶ ἄλλα, / οὐδʼ εἴ κέν σʼ αὐτὸν χρυσῷ ἐρύσασθαι ἀνώγοι / Δαρδανίδης Πρίαμος· οὐδʼ ὧς σέ γε πότνια μήτηρ / ἐνθεμένη λεχέεσσι γοήσεται ὃν τέκεν αὐτή, / ἀλλὰ κύνες τε καὶ οἰωνοὶ κατὰ πάντα δάσονται.(22.349-354), not even if ten and twenty times over a ransom were brought and weighed out here, and they promised still more; not even if Priam, son of Dardanus, ordered you to be bought back with gold; not even so will your lady mother lay you on the bier to mourn the son she herself bore, but dogs and birds will tear you apart entirely.
Achilles then does what he announced:
ἀμφοτέρων μετόπισθε ποδῶν τέτρηνε τένοντε / ἐς σφυρὸν ἐκ πτέρνης, βοέους δʼ ἐξῆπτεν ἱμάντας, / ἐκ δίφροιο δʼ ἔδησε, κάρη δʼ ἕλκεσθαι ἔασεν·(22.396-398), he pierced the tendons of both feet from behind, from heel to ankle, fastened on oxhide thongs, tied him to the chariot, and let the head drag.
From the top of the wall, Priam sees his son dragged, wants to go out through the gates, and the people hold him back. He calls each man by name and says he will go alone to the ships to beg the violent man. Inside the city, Andromache, who was still waiting for her husband to return, sees the body dragged from the top of the wall, and afterward vows to burn the garments the women have woven, because he will not lie in them.
In Book XXIII, Achilles repeats to Patroclus that he will give Hector to the dogs, and the narrator shows what happens:
τὸν δʼ οὐ κύνες ἀμφεπένοντο, / ἀλλὰ κύνας μὲν ἄλαλκε Διὸς θυγάτηρ Ἀφροδίτη / ἤματα καὶ νύκτας, ῥοδόεντι δὲ χρῖεν ἐλαίῳ / ἀμβροσίῳ, ἵνα μή μιν ἀποδρύφοι ἑλκυστάζων.(23.184-187), but the dogs did not swarm around him; the daughter of Zeus, Aphrodite, drove the dogs away day and night, and anointed him with ambrosial rose oil, so that the dragging would not flay him.
In Book XXIV, at the dawn of each day, Achilles ties him to the chariot again and drags him three times around the tomb of Patroclus, and Apollo covers him with the golden aegis. The gods divide over stealing the corpse: Hera, Poseidon, and Athena refuse, because they still hate Troy, and Zeus prevents the theft, because the mother of Achilles is always at her son's side, and he orders her summoned. On the twelfth morning, Apollo accuses:
ὣς Ἀχιλεὺς ἔλεον μὲν ἀπώλεσεν, οὐδέ οἱ αἰδὼς / γίγνεται, ἥ τʼ ἄνδρας μέγα σίνεται ἠδʼ ὀνίνησι.(24.44-45), thus Achilles has lost all pity, and no reverent shame arises in him, which greatly harms men and greatly benefits them.
On the road of Priam, Hermes, disguised as a Myrmidon, describes the state of the body:
οἷον ἐερσήεις κεῖται, περὶ δʼ αἷμα νένιπται, / οὐδέ ποθι μιαρός· σὺν δʼ ἕλκεα πάντα μέμυκεν / ὅσσʼ ἐτύπη· πολέες γὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ χαλκὸν ἔλασσαν. / ὥς τοι κήδονται μάκαρες θεοὶ υἷος ἑῆος / καὶ νέκυός περ ἐόντος, ἐπεί σφι φίλος περὶ κῆρι.(24.419-423), as he lies dew-fresh, and the blood is washed away, with no filth anywhere, and all the wounds have closed, however many were struck, for many drove bronze into him. So the blessed gods care for your son, even though he is dead, because he was dear to their hearts.
In the tent, the old man embraces Achilles' knees and says what it cost him to come:
ἔτλην δʼ οἷʼ οὔ πώ τις ἐπιχθόνιος βροτὸς ἄλλος, / ἀνδρὸς παιδοφόνοιο ποτὶ στόμα χεῖρʼ ὀρέγεσθαι.(24.505-506), I have endured what no other mortal on earth has yet endured: to raise to my lips the hand of the man who kills my sons.
And the two weep, each for his own dead:
τὼ δὲ μνησαμένω ὃ μὲν Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο / κλαῖʼ ἁδινὰ προπάροιθε ποδῶν Ἀχιλῆος ἐλυσθείς, / αὐτὰρ Ἀχιλλεὺς κλαῖεν ἑὸν πατέρʼ, ἄλλοτε δʼ αὖτε / Πάτροκλον· τῶν δὲ στοναχὴ κατὰ δώματʼ ὀρώρει.(24.509-512), and the two, remembering: one wept ceaselessly for Hector, slayer of men, rolling before the feet of Achilles; Achilles wept for his own father, and at other times for Patroclus; the moaning of them both rose through the house.
Achilles orders the body washed and anointed away from Priam's sight, for fear that the father, seeing his son, will not contain his grief and anger, and he himself will be enraged and kill him. Then he lifts the body with his own hands and places it on the bier. The end of the poem is the funeral of Hector in Troy:
ὣς οἵ γʼ ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο.(24.804), so they performed the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses.
What It Means
The body measures death by ritual. Achilles' refusal in Book XXII is not against a plea, it is against the rite: it denies Hector fire and mourning, the two gestures the poem uses to measure a human death. The parents voice the fear from the top of the wall, the son's body beside the ships, eaten by dogs, and Hector, fallen, asks only that the Trojans and the Trojan wives give him the portion of fire. When he asks that the dogs not tear him to pieces, Achilles hurls the word back, calls him a dog and says that no one will keep the dogs away from his head, and puts into words the worst that the parents had foreseen.
The gods look after the body that Achilles wants to give up to dishonor, and the poem does not say they prevent him from dragging it, only that they preserve it. Zeus explains the protection through an exchange: Hector was the dearest to the gods of all the mortals of Ilion, and never did the altar of Zeus lack feast, libation, and the smoke of fat. Whoever honors the gods is cared for by them, even dead. In Book XXIV, the gods choose the path of ransom, but it is Achilles who releases the body.
The return of the body admits two readings. Achilles tells Thetis that whoever brings the ransom may take the corpse away, and tells Priam that he had already decided to release it, because his mother brought him Zeus's message. By the first reading, it is the order of Zeus that moves him. By the second, it is the old man's supplication, for what disarms him is the desire to mourn his father. The text sustains both at once.
Hector's body answers Patroclus', and the poem sets one dispute in echo of the other. In Book XVII, the Achaeans, under the mist that Zeus casts over the fight, protect Patroclus' body from the dogs of Troy; in Book XXII and Book XXIII, it is Achilles who promises Hector's body to the dogs, and the gods preserve it. Both sides want the same for their dead, the fire, the name and the mourning, and deny the same to the other side's dead. The end of the poem does not cancel the anger, but does what Book XXII had not allowed: an old man and the killer of his son share a meal, and the funeral takes place.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Loss and grief, Compassion and charity, Death.
- Characters: Hector, Achilles, Priam, Patroclus, Andromache, Apollo, Zeus, Thetis.
- Neighboring symbols: Achilles' Armor, from which Hector is stripped before the dragging, and Zeus's Scales, which fix his day.