In this book Hector faces Achilles and the gods finally allow him to meet his fate.
Achilles’ troops close in on the walls of Troy as the Trojans take shelter within the city. Hector, however, remains outside the Scaean Gates.
Apollo, who has led Achilles away from the city to allow the Trojan army to enter the city safely, now turns upon Achilles to mock him. He points out that Achilles can’t kill him and is wasting his time. He has been tricked into chasing the god. Achilles is enraged, believing that Apollo has robbed him of great glory. He turns and dashes towards the city. Priam sees Achilles heading towards them and calls down to Hector to enter the city. Priam has already lost many sons to the war and Lycaon and Polydorus are missing. He does not know they have already been killed by Achilles, too. Priam swears to pay a heavy ransom for their safe return if they are still alive. Priam is wracked by despair. He envisions a not-too-distant future in which his sons are killed, his daughters made prisoners, the wealth of Troy stolen, and after his own death at the hands of the Achaeans, his body left to be eaten by his own dogs. Priam understands that while there may be glory in death for a young warrior, an old man’s death in war is without dignity and dishonourable. Hecuba also pleads for her son to enter the city and fight from the safety of the walls.
But they cannot persuade Hector. Hector is both furious and also fearful for his reputation. He fears disgrace if he retreats within the city. He believes he will bear the weight of blame for the Trojan army’s defeat and retreat. He believes the only way to redeem himself is to face Achilles and either kill him, or be killed. Yet he is in two minds about this. He is attracted by an alternate idea, that the war could be ended by returning Helen and her wealth, and by paying further reparations to the Greek forces. But he knows that Achilles will show no mercy and will refuse to negotiate. Therefore, Hector feels there is no other option but to fight him. But as Achilles approaches, Hector loses his nerve and flees. Achilles pursues him and they end up back at the Scamander River, then they continue back around the city until they have circled it three times.
Meanwhile, the gods are watching. Zeus suggests that the fate of the men should finally be resolved. His suggestion that Hector might be saved is met by a rebuke from Athena. Zeus backs down from the suggestion.
So, the two men continue to run, one fleeing, the other chasing. In his panic, Hector actually rushes to the Dardan Gate, hoping he might be let inside the city, but Achilles’ pursuit forces him away from the gate and back across the plain. As they pass near the Achaean army Achilles shakes his head at his men to discourage any man from throwing a spear at Hector. Achilles does not want his glory snatched from him. When they reach the river a fourth time, Zeus weighs their fates in his golden scales, and Hector’s doom is sealed. On seeing this, Athena rushes to congratulate Achilles. She tells him to stop the chase while she persuades Hector to stand his ground. Then Athena appears to Hector in the likeness of his brother, Deiphobus, and tells him they will stand against Achilles together. Hector is emboldened by this, and determines to take the fight to Achilles. He asks of Achilles that they make a pact: that whoever wins, the victor will treat the other with honour and dignity. Hector says “I will never mutilate you.” But Achilles refuses to make any pact: “There are no binding oaths between men and lions.” The simile shows Achilles does not believe Hector his equal. Achilles throws his spear at Hector but Hector dodges it. Athena retrieves the spear for him without Hector seeing. Hector taunts Achilles for missing and then launches his own spear. It hits Achilles’ shield dead centre, but it is deflected. Believing his brother, Deiphobus, is nearby, Hector asks to be handed a lance, but then realises he is on his own and has been tricked by Athena. Deiphobus is really safe within the city. At this point Hector realises he is going to die, and so decides that he will die in glory. He draws his sword and charges Achilles. Achilles charges too. He knows Hector’s armour, since it was his own, taken from Patroclus, and so makes an assessment where to aim, and thrusts into Hector’s neck. He delivers a mortal blow. Achilles now swears he will dishonour Hector’s body, since he stripped Patroclus of his armour. Hector begs Achilles not to allow dogs to eat him, and says his mother and father will pay a large ransom for his body. But Achilles is not interested in a ransom. Before Hector dies, he warns Achilles that Apollo and Paris will destroy him at the Scaean Gates.
Achilles removes the armour from Hector’s body and then other Achaean soldiers gather about and stab it. Achilles’ first impulse after this is to surround the city, but then he remembers Patroclus whose body lies still unburied at the ships, and decides this is a more pressing priority. He announces they will take Hector’s body to the ships, but then he pierces Hector’s ankle tendons with strips of leather and attaches his body to his chariot. He drags Hector’s body behind the chariot with his face dragging in the dirt.
Priam, Hecuba and other Trojans see this act of disrespect and they cry in grief. Priam has to be restrained from leaving the city to intervene. He believes his age might draw some respect from Achilles, and Achilles might show some pity. Hecuba leads the wives of Troy in a chant of sorrow. But Andromache, Hector’s wife, has not heard the news and she continues about her preparations for a bath to be drawn for her husband’s return. But when she hears the groans and wails of the wives, led by Hecuba, she begins to suspect the worst. She dashes out of the royal halls and sees Hector’s body being dragged by Achilles towards the Greek ships. In despair she tears the royal regalia she wears from her body and casts it aside. She gasps, barely able to breathe, and sees the destruction of herself and her son, Astyanax, stemming from this moment. She anticipates a future in which her son, unprotected, will lose his lands and possessions, along with the respect he once might have enjoyed as the son of Hector. She thinks of the fine linens they have stored that might have shrouded Hector’s body. They will never be used for that purpose now, so she decides that she will burn them, instead, in honour of her husband.
This book of The Iliad is heavily invested in the idea of fate. The gods have forestalled the fate of Hector with their partisan support in the Trojan War until this point. Now, as Achilles bears down upon the city and Hector feels obliged to face him, the question of whether fate can be further forestalled is raised. In a terse altercation between Zeus and Athena, Athena angrily questions the notion that Hector – “a mere mortal” – might once more escape his doom. Zeus feels obliged to back down. Even so, it is not clear who will meet their fated death until Zeus weighs their fates:
That fate can be thus weighed suggests a different notion of fatalism than we currently understand. A warrior like Achilles or Hector may be fated to die in battle, but the number of reprieves granted in The Iliad and this final judgment, which seems somewhat arbitrary, suggests the exact moment and detail of that fate is not preordained. Instead, a warrior’s fate acts as much like literary foreshadowing as an actual thing.
Hector’s tortured question of whether to parley or fight suggests he may again escape his fate, although it is a personal struggle that may also be borne from desperation:
Hector’s thought is a fantasy and he soon realises “He’ll show no mercy, / no respect for me, my rights – he’ll cut me down”. Hector’s decision to flee from Achilles looks like cowardice, against the popular image of Hector as Troy’s hero, but in reality he is fleeing fate. Achilles is an agent of fate which is only kept at bay a little longer by a last intervention by Apollo:
Hector’s fate is closely associated with the fate of Troy, itself. On seeing Hector outside the gates, Priam fears for his son, and anticipates his own doom and the doom of the city should Hector be killed. He imagines a “hideous fate” in which his sons are “laid low, my daughters dragged away” while his treasure chambers are looted, and “the dogs before my doors / will eat me raw”. This last is a horror that Achilles promises Hector before he dies: “the dogs and birds will maul you.”
Andromache also understands that her own future and that of her son, Astyanax, is entirely connected with Hector’s death. Andromache expresses this in her general fears for the possible future her son will face – loss of wealth and respect – but she also understands her own life as a fated doom that has now played out with her husband’s death:
Andromache is referencing a story she told Hector in Book 6 of The Iliad. In Book 6 Andromache pleads with Hector to consider his family and not risk himself in the war:
The story Andromache tells Hector in this earlier book foreshadows the fall of Troy, thereby creating a parallel narrative between the fates of Thebes where Andromache grew up and Troy, itself:
In referencing this story after the death of her husband, Andromache reveals that she believes she has suffered a fate she could not escape. Her father has been killed by Achilles, and in book 6 Andromache states “you are my father now, my noble mother.” Hector has replaced her lost family, Troy, her lost city, and in this second war, she finds she cannot escape fate.
These two paintings by Peter Paul Rubens depict the moment Hector is dealt a mortal wound by Achilles. Both paintings were studies for a tapestry which was to be part of a series of eight tapestries based on the Trojan War. Rubens’ depiction of the scene is faithful to Homer’s description and the spirit of this book of The Iliad:
Rubens representation of the wound is accurate. Athena, who hovers above the combatants, represents the tide that has turned against Hector, since she has played a part in drawing Hector into the fight to meet his fate.
In the left of frame, background, stands a team of horses, presumably those that will be used to drag Hector’s body from the city. In the left of frame are the walls of Troy, presumably with the Trojans flocking at the gates to witness Hector’s death.
This fresco painting by Franz von Matsch appears in the upper level of the main hall of the Achilleion Palace at Corfu, Greece. It depicts the moment of Achilles triumph over Hector. It is not enough that Achilles has defeated Hector: he must also defile his corpse by dragging it in front of the walls of Troy and then back to the ships. Achilles’ act is revenge for the death of his friend (some believe lover) Patroclus, who went to battle in Achilles’ stead, wearing his armour. The Trojans stand on their ramparts in the background, a witness to this gruesome spectacle. Achilles holds his own helmet aloft in triumph, which has been taken from the corpse of Hector, who wore it after he killed Patroclus. Following Achilles’ chariot is a seething crowd of Greek fighters. Their excitement is palpable, their sense of the significance of the moment evident in their headlong flight and the raised sword of the warrior behind Achilles. Hector’s body, stripped almost naked, is left to drag ignominiously in the dirt behind Achilles’ chariot. Matsch’s depiction of the scene captures the spirit of Homer’s scene:
This mosaic represents the same scene as Matsch’s fresco painting. The central part of the mosaic is taken from a Roman mosaic pavement in ancient Rome which was a pastiche of various ancient mosaics. The scene is necessarily less detailed than Matsch’s painting, but the central element, the defilement of Hector’s body, is basically the same in detail.