The Iliad by Homer

Iliad, By Homer

Hector and Achilles: Two great foils for one another in Homer's Iliad

In Homer's Iliad, the noblest, if not the most physically adept warrior of all of those who fight on both the Greek and the Trojan side, is the Trojan prince Hector. Hector, alone of all of the warriors, places the interests of morality and his city first, above personal grievances. Unlike Achilles, he does not sulk and pout when he does not get his own way. Unlike his brother Paris, Hector does not bring destruction upon others because of his own selfish, sensual desires. The fact that war takes the life of greatest of all of the warriors of the Iliad symbolizes the futility of the conflict. It is Hector's body that causes the most moving, although brief, rapprochement between Greeks and Trojans, as the Trojan king Priam goes to Achilles' tent to beg for his son's body. Although Hector may not have been bested by Achilles on the field, he is shown to be morally superior than Achilles, both in his actions towards his wife, family, and people while alive, and through the honor shown to him by his father an the gods after his untimely death.

Almost immediately in the tale, the contrast between the two warriors is evident regarding their family lives. Hector has a wife and child. It is clear that he is sacrificing all that he loves, to fight for his city. Hector's family means everything to him, but Achilles has explicitly rejected the value of a meaningful personal life. Early on, he was given the choice by his goddess-mother Thetis, to either have a long and obscure life, or a short and glorious one. Achilles obviously chose the latter, keeping with his headstrong nature. However, when Achilles' honor was wounded when Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, demanded Achilles' 'spoil of war,' the slave-girl Briseis, to replace his own lost concubine, Achilles withdrew from the fight, smarting at the lack of respect shown to him. His 'family,' consists of a maternal goddess who is a remote immortal, his friend Patroclus, and a slave-girl, along with his soldiers -- everything about Achilles' life is removed from ordinary, human experience and relates to war. Achilles does not perceive himself as of the same substance other, mortal human beings so sets his own moral rules.

In contrast to Achilles, Hector never withdraws from battle, not because he is seeking glory, but because he knows the Trojans need him. When Hector's wife begs him to stay safe from harm, Hector says: "All this weighs on my shoulders, dear woman, / but I would die of shame to face the men of Troy, / and the Trojan woman trailing their long robes/if I were to shrink from battle now, a coward." (6. 522-523). Hector knows in his heart that Troy is doomed, and he is doomed. Of course, Achilles knows that his name will be immortal if he fights, and if he withdraws he will be granted a peaceful life. But Hector is completely mortal and lacks in the additional protections and insight Achilles is given, as a demigod. Hector triumphs over human flesh and the limits of his mortal knowledge, even while he accepts his fate -- this is why the gods eventually decide protect his body even after he is dead, and Achilles drags it behind his chariot.

Hector is valiant, and can show great anger in the thick of battle when it is necessary. But behind the walls of Troy, during times of counsel, he is able to show coolness and forthrightness. He urges Paris to fight Helen's legitimate husband Menelaus alone, which would have prevented more people from dying if Paris had not acted like a coward and fought unethically in the one-on-one battle. Hector regrets that Helen ever came to Troy, rather than delights in the fact that the war may bring him glory. And most importantly of all, even though he has a right to be very angry at Paris for bringing Helen to Troy in the first place, he never moves against Paris in a rage. Achilles, in contrast, nearly kills Agamemnon, resolving to "thrust through the ranks and kill Agamemnon now" when he is slighted (1. 225). Achilles acts out of impulse, not thought, like when he loans his specially blessed armor to his friend Patroclus, which draws the ire (and the eye) of Hector on the battlefield. And his most obvious, hideous act of vengeance is when Achilles takes out his grief and guilt about the death of his friend on Hector's body, preventing Hector from having a proper burial and entering the Elysian Fields after death. Of course, Hector killed Patroclus as a soldier in war, not out of anger, just as Achilles killed many men during the war, but Achilles does not apply the same standards of justice to other men that he applies to himself.