Ariel Berkowitz 1

Professor Jones
English201
8/3/17
Hector the Heinous

In Homers Iliad, Hector is presented an intriguing character, a description that stems

from a number of sources. First and foremost, unlike other main characters in the Iliad,

including: Paris, Helen, and most of the important Achaeans, who all have histories, outside the

Iliad that Homers audience was familiar with, Hector has no history outside of this story. We,

the readers, are already familiar with Paris exploits, Achilles, Agamemnons etc. but there are

no tales of Hectors life pre-Iliad. And of course, since Hector is killed in the Iliad, there are no

tales of Hectors life post-Iliad. It follows then, that whereas other characters may have been

different in the past, and may yet change in the future, Hector in the Iliad is Hector always;

what we see here is what we get.

Many readers of the Iliad ultimately identify Hector as the Defender of Troy. It is after

all, he, who commanded the Trojan army. Some identify Hector as a figure who achieved

heroic glory, and by this I refer to the trait within the archetype ancient Greek warrior who does

not care about when he dies, but about how he dies. This heroic glory is achieved when a

warrior, in this case Hector, risks his life in order to achieve lasting fame in battle, regardless of

whether he kills or is killed. In the Iliad, Hector may have achieved this heroic glory in his

death at the hands of Achilles. For some others, Hector is identified as a foil to Achilles; Hector

is the man who retains his humanity throughout the book, even while battling. While it may seem

there is validity in all these labels, a thorough analysis of Hectors complex character, reveals

that Hector is actually the antitheses to all of these traits.

Hector is a person, and just like any other person, there are certain things that make him

tick. On a superficial level, it seems we, the readers, can easily identify two separate factors,

which together, drive and direct Hector actions, especially with regard to his warfare. One factor
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would be Hectors love for his family and city, and the other, would be Hectors yearning for

immortality. It is easy to understand how Hectors love for his family would motivate him to

certain actions, fighting etc. His yearning for immortality is seen in his constant references to

achieving glory and fame; it is this glory and fame that will allow him to live forever in peoples

memories. Many readers of the Iliad will thus understand Hectors final moments in context of

this conflict of desires, specifically, his desire to be with his family, and his desire to achieve

lasting glory. However, if we, the readers, dissect and carefully analyze all of Hectors actions

and thoughts, we will find, this is not the case. We will find that Hector never struggled with

these drives, and that while Hectors actions at the end of the novel are a dramatic conclusion to

a long conflict, it is a different conflict. In the character of Hector, Homer presents us with one

mans struggle to keep his actions lined up with his professed beliefs, a mans struggle to deal

with cognitive dissonance, the struggle is between Hectors ideal of heroic glory and his

underlying dread of death.

Hectors character develops through three stages in relation to this conflict. In the

beginning of the book, we, the readers, are introduced to Hectors professed ideals of how a man

should act, namely, Hectors goal of immortalizing himself through Heroic Glory. Then,

Homer reveals to us the conflicting subliminal desires inherent in Hectors character, which is

his fear of death. Finally, throughout the end of the book, Homer shows us the evolution of

Hector as he becomes aware of his cognitive dissonance and struggles to overcome his problem.

The first stage of Hectors development is easily identified during a couple of his early

interactions. The readers first introduction to Hector occurs as he chastises his brother, Paris,

for backing away from Menelaus challenge (3.44-68). In these lines, Hector refers numerous

times to the disgrace that his brother has caused not only himself, but also to their family, and the
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entire city of Troy, by running away from the fight. Hector relates that, from Hectors

perspective, he wishes that Would to god youd never been born(3.46-49), and tells Paris

The men of Troytheyd havestoned you to death(3.67-69). This establishes, in no

uncertain terms, that Hector purports to value honor and glory over life. Homer further

corroborates this when he relates that Sarpedons critique of Hectors inactiveness on the

battlefield cut Hector to the core(5.567) and caused Hector to go into the heat of the battle.

Hector is shown to be a person who, at least when he presents himself to other people, is more

concerned with honor than he is with death. Finally, as a conclusion to Hectors original

character, Homer shows us the driving force behind Hectors disgust with dishonor. We, the

readers, hear Hector fantasize of one day in the far future, when a someone will exclaim Theres

the mound of a man who died in the old days, one of the brave whom glorious Hector killed so

they will say, someday, and my fame will never die(7.103-05) and we realize that Hectors

disgust with shame stems from his commitment to being immortalized through heroic glory and

honor.

Now, having reached the central section of the story, Homer promotes and develops

Hectors character even further. For the first time, Hector is found expressing a fear of death

when he bemoans his mortality. Though Hector did accept the possibility of his own death

earlier or the deathless gods will strike me down at last at the hands of Argive fighters(6.436,7)

it is not until, while urging himself and his men to do battle, he exclaims If only I were as sure

of immortality, ageless all my days(8.627) that an insecurity is revealed. It may seem that the

insecurity is small an insignificant, as Hector goes on to fight in the war, but his insecurity is

much more serious than originally let on and has tremendous impact on his actions. When

Apollo confronts Hector about his retreat from the battlefield, Hector admits the war cry
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Ajax, struck me down with a boulder square across my chest-he took the fight right out of me, I

can tell you I thought for certain Id go to join the dead, descend to the House of Death this

very day- I thought Id breathed my last(15.293-301); an admission that may have been as much

as a shock to himself as it is to the reader. Hectors insecurity and fear is pronounced to the

extent that Hector finds himself hiding from the battlefield. Note that Hectors fear is only given

expression after he, literally, comes face to face with his mortality. Despite his talk of honor

and glory, when he is placed a situation parallel to Paris in the beginning of the story, Hector

chose to follow the same course of action which, he criticized and even berated when his brother

for taking. The hypocrisy is harsh and could not be more glaring. The only difference between

Pariss actions and Hectors is that Paris saw his death coming before he even started to fight

Menelaus whereas Hector did not see his until he was breaths away. Although Hector goes back

into the battle, he returns only after Apollo reassures him Ill surge on ahead clearing the whole

wayThat breathed tremendous strength in the famous captain. At the only point in his life

wherein Hector was presented with the opportunity to live (or in this case, die) by his ideals,

Hector failed himself.

Lastly, once Hector has realized the extent dissonance between his ideals and his actions,

Homer, in the ending section of the story, focuses on Hectors final struggles to redeem himself

and their effect on his character. The first opportunity for Hector to redeem himself was during

his fight with Patroclus. And in fact, upon killing Patroclus, Hector gloried over him(16.967)

and romanticizes the way in which he killed him Hectors horses were charging out to battle,

galloping, full stretch. An I with my spear, Hector(16.972-74). Hectors pride indicates that

he viewed this kill as proof to himself that he was able to live up to his ideals, and devote his life

or death to achieving glory. This however, is pure fiction (in the context of the plot), Hector
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proved nothing of the sort, and Patroclus reminds Hector of this, You came third, all you could

do was finish off my life Hector did not achieve any glory by killing Patroclus, Hector was in

the back waiting, watching(16.952). Only after Patroclus was stripped of his armor by a god

and then speared by Euphorbus did Hector, seeing him wounded there(16.954) go rushing

into him right across the lines and rammed his spear shaft home(16.954-56). It could be

argued that Patroclus critique had no effect on Hector, in which case we, the readers, would

expect Hector to express great joy for his personal achievement. What we witness instead, is a

highly emotional and bitter response from Hector; he taunts(16.1006) the corpse of Patroclus.

It seems Hector knew that he had once again failed to redeem his own honor. Following this,

whereas up until now, the only people who knew of Hectors failings were Hector and the gods

(Patroclus died), he is finally discovered and harshly criticized by a peer when he fails to redeem

himself once again. Glaucus witnesses Hector shamefully run away from Ajax, and then

scowled at Hector, lashing out at him: Hector- our prince of beauty, in battle all a

sham!(17.161,2).

Hectors last scene in the story is where he is finally able to achieve some form of

redemption. As the rest of his army is retreating to the walls of Troy, Hector remains outside

waiting to face Achilles in combat. He tells himself So now, far better for me to stand up to

Achilles, kill him, come home alive or die at his hands in glory out before the walls(22.129-31),

and with this Hector is able to partially redeem himself. Had Hector gone on and immediately

fought Achilles, he would have finally corrected the dissonance between his values and his

action, and achieved a total redemption. And yet Hector cannot follow through. Once again

when confronted in a real way with his mortality, Hector fails to live up to his standards and

die for his glory. Hector again runs, this time from Achilles, scared for his life. Though Hector
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seems eventually commit to achieving glory even in the face of death Let me die- but not

without struggle, not without glory(22.359,60), it is but a faade. At that point, Hector already

knew he was fated to die, that he had No way to escape it (death) now(22.355). Once Hector

accepts this truth, it is not difficult, or in his case, redeeming, to decide to charge at Achilles, it is

more an act of deceit to the world than an act of heroic glory.

There are certain objections some may have to this analysis of Hector. People will point

to the interactions between Hector and Paris Look, you people dying around the cityfrom this

hateful war(6.387-390) and Hector and Helen My heart races to help our Trojans(6.430),

and present the case that Hector in fact does have strong feelings towards his people. And these

claims are correct; Hector does love his people. However, looking at statements like his

response to Andromaches request that he fight the Achaeans from within the city, But I would

die of shame to face the men of Troya coward(6.523-26) and his assertion that Ive

learned to stand up bravely, always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers, winning for

my father great glory, glory for myself(6.527-29), and this despite the acknowledgement that

All this weighs on my mind too (referring to concerns about the potential death or enslavement

of his wife and son)(6.522), it is clear that Hector places his concern for his own glory on a

pedestal above his concern for his family. As such, even if Hectors comments to Paris and

Helen are taken as proof of Hectors concern for his people (it could alternatively be interpreted

as an expression of Hectors desire to achieve glory in front of the people) it is clear that this

pales in comparison to Hectors concern for his own honor. Similarly, some people may

highlight the reactions of Hectors parents before his final encounter with Achilles (22.44-89, 97-

107) in order to support the idea that Hectors inner conflict is one between his love for his

family, and his need for heroic glory. But here especially, Hector gives no indication that he
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cares at all for his family, he gives no thoughts to his parents or to his wife and child, rather, he

only considers the potential shame awaiting him. Very telling is the way that Hector ignores his

fathers plea to come back! Inside the walls, my boy! Rescue the men of Troy and the Trojan

women- dont hand the great glory to Peleus son(22.65-67) which indicates that Troy needs

Hector alive in order to survive. This is a fact that is confirmed by Andromache in her ending

lamentation The city will be sacked Because you are dead, her great guardian, you who

always defended Troy(24.857-59), Hectors decision to remain outside the walls spelled

Troys doom and sealed its fate. All this indicates that Hector had long ago made an intellectual

commitment to achieving a glorious life, and had always placed greater importance on that

commitment than on his commitment to loving and protecting his family.

So after carefully analyzing the character of Hector in the Iliad, it is clear that he is not

truly the Defender of Troy, it is he who causes the city to crumble. He does not achieve any

true type of heroic glory and he doesnt even achieve any false type of heroic glory; the

lamentations at the conclusion of the story focus on Hectors relational attributes (24.852-912).

Hectors fighting prowess is only referred to once, in Andromaches lamentation, and she says

nothing good about it (24.868-70). It is apparent that he shows, from the beginning of the story,

a horrifying disinterest and lack of care and consideration towards his family. How is it, that

despite displaying less sympathy, and less moral and intellectual integrity, than any other human

character in the entire story, our memory associates Hector with the ideas of goodness, kindness,

and heroism?
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Works Cited

Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin Books: London, England, 1998. Print.

Part of the idea for my original essay topic was sparked from an essay titled Reading the

Laments of Iliad 24. My focus has evolved dramatically since then, but I feel I have to give it

credit as I probably would not have written this without having read that.