Disclaimer: I am not an ancient Greek scholar. For the full disclaimer, read here.
“Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out all through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall and glut grim Mars with his life’s blood.”
Iliad, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
Book 22 Summary
Apollo reveals himself to Achilles as the one he was chasing and Achilles is angered by the ruse. He runs back toward the city where Hector is ushering people within the walls of Troy. Hector refuses to enter the safety of the city itself despite the pleas of his parents. He is ashamed that he didn’t listen to the advice earlier to retreat back into the city after killing Patroclus and before Achilles entered the war. When Achilles approaches the city, Hector flees and Achilles gives chase. They both run around the city multiple times, Achilles unable to catch Hector and Hector unable to get through the gates and into Troy.
At last, Athena approaches Achilles and tells him she will convince Hector to stop running and fight Achilles head on. Athena then disguises herself as one of Hector’s companions and tells him she will help him take a stand against Achilles. Hector agrees and Achilles and Hector face one another. Athena secretly helps Achilles by returning his spear, but when Hector needs another spear she vanishes, revealing to Hector that he had been tricked by the gods. Hector rushes toward Achilles with his sword but Achilles spears Hector in the throat.
While Hector dies, he pleads for Achilles to allow his parents to take his body back, but Achilles refuses. Hector prophecies Achilles’ death before dying. Achilles ties up Hector’s body to his chariot and drags it all the way back to his camp while everyone in Troy mourns Hector.
For a list of the major characters, with Greek and Latin names, go here.
The Death Of Hector
Homer makes a huge deal of Hector’s death. It’s setup as one of the most pivotal moments in the Iliad—more than Achilles removing himself from the war, more than all the times the various heroes rampaged on the battlefield, and even more than Patroclus’ death.
Hector stays just outside the gates of Troy. We, the audience, who already knows Hector is fated to be killed by Achilles, are yelling, “Go inside, you idiot!”
But Hector doesn’t because he’s conflicted. He knows this situation is his fault. He should have listened to his advisor. He should have moved the army back to Troy and prepared for the worst now that Achilles was back in action. Now, his honor, his pride, won’t allow him to get within the safety of Troy’s wall. He doesn’t want to hear his advisor say “I told you so.” He won’t be able to stomach the scorn that will be heaped upon him by the Trojan people. Sons, husbands, and fathers are dead because of him—because he got cocky and thought he could take on the murderous Achilles.
Maybe if the Trojans gave Helen back? Maybe if he somehow makes the Trojans give up half of the city’s wealth and force Paris to give back what he stole from Menelaus? Maybe he could get his people out of this? Maybe he could save his own life?
No. It’s too late for that.
It won’t stop Achilles. He doesn’t care about Helen, or Agamemnon’s and Menelaus’ pride. Achilles wants revenge. He wants Hector dead by his own hands.
Hector’s parents, within the walls, cry out to him, pleading for him to get to safety. His own mother begs him to get inside. He shuts out their voices and stands resolute.
But Achilles, that incarnation of violence, gets closer... and closer… and Hector loses his nerve.
He runs. Achilles chases. Try as he might, Hector is now unable to get within the walls of the city. Achilles has blocked his exit.
And then it happens.
“Then, at last, as they were nearing the fountains for the fourth time, the father of all balanced his golden scales and placed a doom in each of them, one for Achilles and the other for Hector. As he held the scales by the middle, the doom of Hector fell down deep into the house of Hades – and then Phoebus Apollo left him.”
Iliad, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
The last time Zeus did this, it was to fulfill Achilles’ petition (see Book 8). Now, it is to seal Hector’s fate.
Apollo leaves Hector. Zeus leaves Hector. These two gods, who had been protecting him, getting him out of life threatening situations, enabling him to perform glorious feats, are now abandoning him in the one moment he needs them most.
Abandoning him to be toyed with by the goddess who desires nothing more than to see him, his family, his friends, and his people, dead and destitute. We, the audience, still don’t know why she hates them so much.
Athena deceives him in the worst way possible. Exploits his trust toward a family member he’s fond of. And like Apollo and Zeus, abandons him while delivering him on a silver platter to the bloodthirsty Achilles.
Hector knows his time is up. He draws his sword. He lunges at Achilles. Achilles spears him through the neck.
Hector falls to the ground. He begs Achilles to allow his parents to bury his body. Achilles refuses. Hector, after all, wanted to take the body of Patroclus back, cut off his head and stick it on the walls of Troy, and then feed his body to the dogs.
Hector will get no funeral. His corpse will rot, become food for the dogs and the birds and the maggots. His parents and his wife will never see Hector again. They will never get to mourn him properly. They will never have closure. The anger of Achilles must be sated.
Thus ends the life of Troy’s greatest and noblest warrior. Thus ends Troy’s last beacon of hope against the vengeful and warmongering Achaeans.
Troy’s doom is inevitable.
Hector’s Legacy
One of the interesting things about the Iliad is that, despite it being a Greek epic poem, it focuses a lot on the Trojans. It focuses especially on Hector. More than any other character, he is the most humanized. The most sympathetic.
We see him frustrated toward his brother Paris. Hector loathes him for what he’s brought upon Troy. This idiot is putting Hector’s family in danger.
We see Hector with his wife and child. We see him with his mother. No other character in the Iliad has scenes like these.
We see Hector rally his army and fight their hardest when he knows that they’ll most likely lose.
It is Hector that Zeus, the king of the gods, honors. Zeus gives him strength to breach the gates of the Achaeans’ camp. He gives Hector the opportunity to do what no one else does before or since—burn down one of the Achaeans’ ships.
It is to Hector that Homer gives arguably the most famous line in the Iliad. “There is one omen and only one—that a man fight for his country.” A line that resonated with generations of Greeks.
Hector is leagues more honorable than Agamemnon and Achilles. Leagues more desirable as a husband than Menelaus and Paris. He doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder like Diomedes. He’s straightforward unlike Odysseus. He never fled the battlefield.
Hector’s honor, though, was a double-edged sword. It kept him on the straight and narrow. It also caused him to make bad decisions. Decisions that ultimately led to his death.
If there is any character that’s best to emulate in the Iliad, it’s Hector. He wasn’t perfect. There are many questions as to some of the decisions he made. However, he’s the closest to a role model you’ll get in the Iliad. He’s the one man in the Iliad whom the audience got a complete picture of.
Study his life, men. Learn from him—what to do, what not to do. Become better. Restore manhood to this generation.
More On The Homeric Worldview
On a bit of a lighter note, I wanted to point out some things that interested me. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m always fascinated by the worldview presented in the Iliad. I’ve talked quite a bit about omens, divine intervention, fate, the role of the gods…
However, there were little things peppered throughout that gave you glimpses into other aspects of their worldview. I mentioned one in Book 5—about the veil that Athena lifted from Diomedes’ eyes so he could see the gods operating on the battlefield (this veil is mentioned again in Book 15). It shows you that the Greeks believed there was an unseen realm at work, and the gods could lift the blinders from people’s eyes and show them that unseen realm.
Another one also appears in Book 5. When Diomedes wounds Aphrodite, this is what’s written:
… The immortal blood, or ichor, that flows in the veins of the blessed gods, came pouring from the wound; for the gods do not eat bread nor drink wine, hence they have no blood such as ours, and are immortal.
Iliad, Book 5; Samuel Butler translation
This passage seems to imply that the Greeks, at least in the time of Homer, believed it was their blood that made them mortal, that made them require food and drink to live. The gods do not have blood, but ichor, and therefore are immortal and require no sustenance.
In Book 16, we see this analogy:
As the whole dark earth bows before some tempest on an autumn day when Jove rains his hardest to punish men for giving crooked judgement in their courts, and arriving justice therefrom without heed to the decrees of heaven- all the rivers run full and the torrents tear many a new channel as they roar headlong from the mountains to the dark sea, and it fares ill with the works of men...
Iliad, Book 16; Samuel Butler translation
The Greeks believed if injustice was being served in an area, Zeus would send torrential rains and raging floods to destroy the works of mortals. Besides altering the landscape, this would probably also ruin food supplies and stop travel and trade.
The last one I want to point out happens here in Book 22:
King Priam was first to note [Achilles] as he scoured the plain, all radiant as the star which men call Orion's Hound, and whose beams blaze forth in time of harvest more brilliantly than those of any other that shines by night; brightest of them all though he be, he yet bodes ill for mortals, for he brings fire and fever in his train…
Iliad, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
I admit, I don’t know a lot about astronomy, so I had to look this up. Orion’s Hound is the constellation Canis Major. The star most associated with this constellation is Sirius. It’s appearance seems to be associated with the harvest, but also with fires and sickness (Summer heat and summer colds? Wildfires?). So, the Greeks believed this star could cause heat, fires, and sickness to fall on them?
Anyway, these little passages always stick out to me because you catch glimpses of knowledge the Greeks took for granted. Knowledge that they normally wouldn’t feel the need to explain because their audience already knows about it. It would be like if an author took time out of their story to explain that Earth is a planet or that meat has protein. Those facts are so obvious, you would likely only find them in material for toddlers. So, when I see these moments in ancient literature, they really jump out at me.
That’s all for Book 22 of the Iliad.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
The booklist I am going through can be found here.
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Thumbnail: Achilles Vents His Rage on Hector by Domenico Cunego. Created 1766. Taken from National Galleries Scotland. Image is Creative Commons.