Editing Hector (section)

==Mythology==
===Greatest warrior of Troy===
[[File:Hektor wirft Paris seine Weichlichkeit vor (Tischbein).jpg|thumb|250px|left|''Hector Admonishes Paris for His Softness and Exhorts Him to Go to War'' by [[Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein|J. H. W. Tischbein]] (1751–1828)]]

According to the ''[[Iliad]]'', Hector did not approve of war between the [[Greeks]] and the Trojans.

For ten years, the Achaeans besieged Troy and their allies in the east. Hector commanded the Trojan army, with a number of subordinates including [[Polydamas (Iliad)|Polydamas]], and his brothers [[Deiphobus]], [[Helenus]] and [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]]. By all accounts, Hector was the best warrior the Trojans and their allies could field, and his fighting prowess was admired by Greeks and his own people alike.

====Duel with Protesilaus====
In the ''[[Iliad]]'', Hector's exploits in the war prior to the events of the book are recapitulated. He had fought the Greek champion [[Protesilaus]] in single combat at the start of the war and killed him. A prophecy had stated that the first Greek to land on Trojan soil would die. Thus, Protesilaus, [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]], and [[Odysseus]] would not land. Finally, Odysseus threw his shield out and landed on that, and Protesilaus jumped next from his own ship. In the ensuing fight, Hector killed him, fulfilling the prophecy.

[[File:Ajax and Hector exchange gifts.jpg|250px|thumb|Ajax and Hector exchange gifts ([[woodcut]] in [[Andrea Alciato|Andreas Alciatus]], ''Emblematum libellus'', 1591).]]

====Duel with Ajax====
As described by Homer in the ''Iliad''<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 7.43–305.</ref> at the advice of Hector's brother [[Helenus]] (who also is divinely inspired) and being told by him that he is not destined to die yet, Hector manages to get both armies seated and challenges any one of the Greek warriors to [[single combat]]. The [[Argives]] are initially reluctant to accept the challenge. However, after [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]]'s chiding, nine Greek [[hero]]es step up to the challenge and draw by lot to see who is to face Hector. [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]] wins. Hector is unable to pierce Ajax's famous shield, but Ajax crushes Hector's shield with a rock and stabs through his armor with a spear, drawing blood, upon which the god Apollo intervenes, and the duel is ended, as the sun is setting. Hector gives Ajax his sword, which Ajax later uses to kill himself. Ajax gives Hector his girdle that Achilles later attaches to his chariot to drag Hector's corpse around the walls of Troy.

The Greeks and the Trojans make a truce to bury the dead. In the early dawn the next day, the Greeks take advantage of the truce to build a wall and ditch around the ships, while Zeus watches in the distance.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 7.433ff.</ref>

====Duel with Achilles====
Another mention of Hector's exploits in the early years of war is given in the ''[[Iliad]]'' in book IX. During the embassy to [[Achilles]], Odysseus, [[Phoenix (son of Amyntor)|Phoenix]] and [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]] all try to persuade Achilles to rejoin the fight. In his response, Achilles points out that while Hector is terrorizing the Greek forces now, and that while he himself had fought in their front lines, Hector had 'no wish' to take his force far beyond the walls and out from the Skaian Gate and nearby oak tree. He then claims, 'There he stood up to me alone one day, and he barely escaped my onslaught.'
Another duel takes place, although Hector receives help from [[Aeneas]] (his cousin<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=William Scovil |date=2 November 2023 |title=Aeneas &#124; Myth & Family |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aeneas |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>) and Deiphobus, when Hector rushes to try to save his brother Troilus from Achilles. He comes too late; Troilus has already perished. All Hector can do is to take the body, while Achilles escapes after he fights his way through the Trojan reinforcements.

[[File:Hector Astyanax MN Jatta.jpg|thumb|250px|Hector's last visit with his wife, [[Andromache]], and infant son [[Astyanax]], startled by his father's helmet ([[Apulian vase painting|Apulian red-figure vase]], 370–360 BC)]]

In the tenth year of the war, observing [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] avoiding combat with [[Menelaus]], Hector scolds him with having brought trouble on his whole country and now refusing to fight. Paris therefore proposes [[single combat]] between himself and Menelaus, with [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] to go to the victor, ending the war.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' Book 3.</ref> The duel, however, leads to inconclusive results due to intervention by [[Aphrodite]], who leads Paris off the field. After [[Pandarus]] wounds Menelaus with an arrow, the fight begins again.

The Greeks attack and drive the Trojans back. Hector must now go out to lead a counter-attack. According to Homer,<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 6.390–480.</ref> his wife [[Andromache]], carrying in her arms her son [[Astyanax]], intercepts Hector at the gate, pleading with him not to go out for her sake as well as his son's. Hector knows that Troy and the house of Priam are doomed to fall and that the gloomy fate of his wife and infant son will be to die or go into slavery in a foreign land. With understanding, compassion, and tenderness, he explains that he cannot personally refuse to fight, and comforts her with the idea that no one can take him until it is his time to go. The gleaming bronze helmet frightens Astyanax and makes him cry.<ref>This Trojan helmet was made famous by Denys L. Page in ''History and the Homeric Iliad'', Chapter VI, "Some Mycenaean relics in the Iliad", as the Greeks do not wear bronze helmets in the poem's [[Oral-formulaic composition|epic formulae]], but they did in the Homeric Age; therefore, scholar Denys L. Page concludes (on other evidence as well) that the bronze helmet of Hector descends in oral poetry from [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] times.</ref> Hector takes it off, embraces his wife and son, and for his sake prays aloud to [[Zeus]] that his son might be chief after him, become more glorious in battle than he, to bring home the blood of his enemies, and make his mother proud. Once he leaves for battle, those in the house begin to mourn, as they know he would not return. Hector and Paris pass through the gate and rally the Trojans, raising havoc among the Greeks.

===Trojan counter-attack===
Zeus [[Weighing of souls|weighs the fates]] of the two armies in the balance, and that of the Greeks sinks. The Trojans press the Greeks into their camp over the ditch and wall and would have laid hands on the ships, but [[Agamemnon]] personally rallies the Greeks. The Trojans are driven off, night falls, and Hector resolves to take the camp and burn the ships the next day. The Trojans [[Bivouac shelter|bivouac]] in the field.
{{blockquote|A thousand camp-fires gleamed upon the plain ....<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'', 8.542ff.</ref>}}

The next day Agamemnon rallies the Greeks and drives the Trojans
{{Blockquote|like a herd of cows maddened with fright when a lion has attacked them ...<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'', 11.171ff.</ref>}}
Hector refrains from battle until Agamemnon leaves the field, wounded in the arm by a spear. Then Hector rallies the Trojans:
{{Blockquote|... like some fierce tempest that swoops down upon the sea ...|sign=|source=}}
[[Diomedes]] and [[Odysseus]] hinder Hector and win the Greeks some time to retreat, but the Trojans sweep down upon the wall and rain blows upon it. The Greeks in the camp contest the gates to secure entrance for their fleeing warriors. The Trojans try to pull down the ramparts while the Greeks rain arrows upon them. Hector smashes open a gate with a large stone, clears the gate, and calls on the Trojans to scale the wall, which they do, and
{{blockquote|... all was uproar and confusion.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'', Book 12.</ref>}}

[[File:THAM-Battle at the ships sarcophagus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Battle at the ships, on a [[Roman Empire|Roman-era]] [[sarcophagus]], 225–250 AD]]

The battle rages inside the camp. Hector goes down, hit by a stone thrown by Ajax, but [[Apollo]] arrives from Olympus and infuses strength into "the shepherd of the people", who orders a chariot attack, with Apollo clearing the way. After much war across several books of the ''Iliad'', Hector lays hold of [[Protesilaus]]' ship and calls for fire. The Trojans cannot bring it to him, as Ajax kills everyone who tries. Eventually, Hector breaks Ajax's spear with his sword, forcing him to give ground, and he sets the ship afire.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' Book 15, end.</ref>

These events are all according to the will of the gods, who have decreed the fall of Troy, and therefore intend to tempt Achilles back into the war. [[Patroclus]], Achilles' closest companion, disguised in Achilles' armor, enters the combat leading the [[Myrmidons]] and the rest of the [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaeans]] to force a Trojan withdrawal. After Patroclus has routed the Trojan army, Hector, with the aid of [[Apollo]] and [[Euphorbus]], kills Patroclus, vaunting over him:
{{blockquote|"Wretch! Achilleus, great as he was, could do nothing to help you."<ref name="The Iliad, book XVI">Homer, ''Iliad'' Book 16.</ref>}}
The dying Patroclus foretells Hector's death:
{{blockquote|"You yourself are not one who shall live long, but now already death and powerful destiny are standing beside you, to go down under the hands of Aiakos' great son, Achilleus"<ref name="The Iliad, book XVI" />}}

===Hector's last fight===
{{blockquote|Alas! the gods have lured me on to my destruction. ... death is now indeed exceedingly near at hand and there is no way out of it – for so [[Zeus]] and his son [[Apollo]] the far-darter have willed it, though heretofore they have been ever ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me; let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.|cite=Spoken by Hector facing [[Achilles]], after a missed spear-throw; ''Iliad'', Book XXII, lines 299–305}}

Hector strips the armor of Achilles off the fallen Patroclus and gives it to his men to take back to the city. Glaucus accuses Hector of cowardice for not challenging Ajax. Stung, Hector calls for the armor, puts it on, and uses it to rally the Trojans. [[Zeus]] regards the donning of a hero's armor as an act of insolence by a fool about to die, but it makes Hector strong for now.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' Book 17.</ref>

The next day, the enraged Achilles renounces the wrath that kept him out of action and routs the Trojans, forcing them back to the city. Hector chooses to remain outside the gates of Troy to face Achilles, partly because had he listened to Polydamas and retreated with his troops the previous night, Achilles would not have killed so many Trojans. When he sees Achilles, however, Hector is seized by fear and turns to flee. Achilles chases him around the city three times before Hector masters his fear and turns to face Achilles. But Athena, in the disguise of Hector's brother [[Deiphobus]], has deluded Hector. He requests from Achilles that the victor should return the other's body after the duel (though Hector himself made it clear he planned to throw the body of Patroclus to the dogs), but Achilles refuses. Achilles hurls his spear at Hector, who dodges it, but Athena brings it back to Achilles' hands without Hector noticing. Hector then throws his own spear at Achilles; it hits his shield and does no injury. When Hector turns to face his supposed brother to retrieve another spear, he sees no one there. At that moment he realizes that he is doomed. Hector decides that he will go down fighting and that men will talk about his bravery in years to come.

[[File:Triumph of Achilles in Corfu Achilleion.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Triumphant Achilles dragging Hector's lifeless body in [[Troy]]. (A [[fresco]] in the [[Achilleion (Corfu)|Achilleion]], [[Corfu]])]]
Hector pulls out his sword, now his only weapon, and charges. But Achilles grabs his thrown spears that were delivered to him by the unseen Athena. Achilles then aims his spear and strikes Hector around the collar bone, the only part of the stolen armor of Achilles that did not protect Hector. The wound is fatal yet allowed Hector to speak to Achilles. In his final moments, Hector begs Achilles for an honorable funeral, but Achilles replies that he will let the dogs and vultures devour Hector's flesh. Hector dies, prophesying that Achilles' death will follow soon:

<blockquote>Be careful now; for I might be made into the gods' curse upon you, on that day when Paris and [[Phoibos]] Apollo destroy you in the Skaian gates, for all your valor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Homer |first= |author-link= |title=The Iliad of Homer |publisher=University of Chicago Press |others=Translated by [[Richmond Lattimore]]; introduction and notes by Richard P. Martin |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-226-47049-8 |page=467 |orig-date=Reprint of 1951 translation |ref={{sfnref|Lattimore|1951}}}}</ref></blockquote>

After his death, Achilles slits Hector's heels and passes the girdle that Ajax had given Hector through the slits. He then fastens the girdle to his chariot and drives his fallen enemy through the dust to the [[Danaan]] camp. For the next twelve days, Achilles mistreats the body, but it remains preserved from all injury by [[Apollo]] and [[Aphrodite]]. After these twelve days, the gods can no longer stand watching it and send down two messengers: [[Iris (mythology)|Iris]], another messenger god, and [[Thetis]], the mother of Achilles. Thetis has told Achilles to allow King Priam to come and take the body for ransom. Once King Priam has been notified that Achilles will allow him to claim the body, he goes to his strongroom to withdraw the ransom. The ransom King Priam offers includes twelve fine robes, twelve white mantles, several richly embroidered tunics, ten bars of yellow gold, a very beautiful cup, and several cauldrons. Priam himself goes to claim his son's body, and Hermes grants him safe passage by casting a charm that will make anyone who looks at him fall asleep.

[[File:Hector brought back to Troy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Hector's body is brought back to Troy, from a Roman sarcophagus ca. 180–200 AD.]]

{{blockquote|<poem>
Think of thy father, and this helpless face behold
See him in me, as helpless and as old!
Though not so wretched: there he yields to me,
The first of men in sovereign misery!
Thus forced to kneel, thus groveling to embrace
The scourge and ruin of my realm and race;
Suppliant my children’s murderer to implore,
And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore!
</poem>
|cite=Spoken by [[Priam]] to [[Achilles]]; (Iliad, Book XXIV), [[Alexander Pope|Pope's]] translation}}

Achilles is moved by Priam's actions and, following his mother's orders sent by Zeus, returns Hector's body to Priam and promises him a truce of twelve days to allow the Trojans to perform funeral rites for Hector. Priam returns to Troy with the body of his son, and it is given full funeral honors. Even Helen mourns Hector, for he had always been kind to her and protected her from spite. The last lines of the ''Iliad'' are dedicated to Hector's funeral. Homer concludes by referring to the Trojan prince as the "Breaker of Horses."<ref>{{cite book |author=Pseudo-Apollodorus |title=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]] |at=III, xii, 5–6; "Epitome" IV, 2}}</ref>

In [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', the dead Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream urging him to flee Troy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Diepenbrock |first=George |date=1 June 2015 |title=Were some dreams in ancient Roman poetry the precursor to film? |url=https://news.ku.edu/2015/05/22/were-some-dreams-ancient-roman-poetry-precursor-film |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240603103611/https://news.ku.edu/news/article/2015/05/22/were-some-dreams-ancient-roman-poetry-precursor-film |archive-date=3 June 2024 |website=KU News}}</ref>