Hector

Who were Hector’s parents?

In most accounts, Hector’s parents were said to be Priam and Hecuba, the king and queen of Troy. As their firstborn son, Hector was heir to the Trojan throne. His younger brothers included Paris—who sparked the Trojan War by carrying off Helen—as well as the warrior Deiphobus and the prophet Helenus. His sisters included Cassandra, a prophet whose curse was that no one would believe her predictions.

An alternative tradition, however, claimed that Hector’s real father was not Priam but the god Apollo. According to this tradition, Apollo had had an affair with Priam’s wife Hecuba, and Hector was the result of this union.

Whom did Hector marry?

Hector married Andromache, a princess from the neighboring city of Cilician Thebes (not to be confused with the more famous Thebes in central Greece). Together they had a son named Astyanax.

Following Hector’s death and the defeat of the Trojans by the Greeks, Andromache was taken captive and enslaved. Fearing that Astyanax would try to avenge his father if he were allowed to grow up, the Greeks violently murdered the boy.

How did Hector die?

Hector was killed during the ninth year of the Trojan War by Achilles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. Achilles wished to avenge his friend Patroclus, whom Hector had slain in battle.

Hector faced Achilles in single combat before the walls of Troy. Though he initially tried to run away from the menacing Achilles, Hector finally realized that there was no escape. He fought the famous Greek warrior, who quickly killed Hector with his spear.

Hector Kills Patroclus

During the ninth year of the Trojan War, Achilles, the most formidable warrior in the Greek army, withdrew from the fighting because of a quarrel with the Greek general Agamemnon. Hector took advantage of Achilles’ absence to push the Greeks back, almost driving them out of Troy.

But Achilles’ best friend Patroclus could not stand by and watch his friends die, so he borrowed Achilles’ armor and led his troops, the Myrmidons, into battle. Patroclus managed to drive the Trojans out of the Greek camp but was ultimately killed by Hector.

Achilles, devastated at the loss of his friend, returned to the fighting the next day. He faced Hector before the walls of Troy and killed him in order to avenge Patroclus.

Pronunciation

Titles and Epithets

The most famous of Hector’s epithets was probably hippodamos, “tamer of horses,” though he boasted numerous other epithets as well. Some were unique to him, such as androphanos, “man-slaying”; korythaiolos, “he of the shining helmet”; and chalkokorystēs, “clad in bronze.” Some he shared with other heroes, including diiphilos, “beloved of Zeus”; dios, “brilliant” or “godlike”; megas, “great”; and phaidimos, “glorious.”

Origins of the Trojan War

Hector was the eldest and most beloved of King Priam’s sons. He was a great warrior and a strong leader, fiercely devoted to his family and his city. He was also the heir to the throne of Troy, a wealthy city located on the northwestern tip of modern Turkey.

When Hector’s younger brother Paris went to the Greek city of Sparta and returned with Helen, the beautiful wife of the Spartan king, the Greeks were not happy. They demanded that Helen be returned; when these orders were dismissed, they sailed to Troy with a huge army to get her back by force. Though Hector disapproved of Paris’ actions, he took it upon himself (as the greatest warrior in Troy) to lead his city against the invading Greeks.

Hector distinguished himself in the Trojan War right away. According to the common tradition, it was Hector who killed the first of the Greeks to set foot on Trojan soil, a hero named Protesilaus.^[14] But despite Hector’s bravery, the Greeks managed to win the beachhead of Troy. The Trojans retreated behind their strong walls, and the decade-long Trojan War began.

Hector in the Iliad

The best-known ancient text on the Trojan War is Homer’s Iliad, which describes in detail a few eventful days during the ninth year of the ten-year war. In the Iliad, Hector is represented as the greatest warrior in Troy, as well as the commander of their army.

Paris and Menelaus

According to Homer, when the Greeks and Trojans had both become weary of the long war, Helen’s husband Menelaus challenged Paris to a duel: if Menelaus won, Paris would return Helen, while if Paris won, he could keep Helen and the Greeks would go home. Paris did not want to accept Menelaus’ challenge, but when Hector saw him cowering, he reproached him angrily:

Evil Paris, most fair to look upon, thou that art mad after women, thou beguiler, would that thou hadst ne'er been born and hadst died unwed. Aye, of that were I fain, and it had been better far than that thou shouldest thus be a reproach, and that men should look upon thee in scorn. Verily, methinks, will the long-haired Achaeans laugh aloud, deeming that a prince is our champion because a comely form is his, while there is no strength in his heart nor any valour…

Wilt thou indeed not abide Menelaus, dear to Ares? Thou wouldest learn what manner of warrior he is whose lovely wife thou hast. Then will thy lyre help thee not, neither the gifts of Aphrodite, thy locks and thy comeliness, when thou shalt lie low in the dust. Nay, verily, the Trojans are utter cowards: else wouldest thou ere this have donned a coat of stone by reason of all the evil thou hast wrought.^[15]

At Hector’s insistence, Paris fought Menelaus. But just as Menelaus seemed poised to defeat the young prince, Paris managed to escape with the help of the goddess Aphrodite, who loved him dearly. Thus, the war went on as before.

Hector and Ajax

The Greeks were understandably angry that Paris had fled from his duel. When a Trojan hit Menelaus with an arrow (wounding but not killing him), anger turned into an all-out battle. Hector, of course, led the Trojans and played a prominent part in the fighting. 

Eventually, Hector decided to end the day’s battle by challenging any one of the Greek heroes to a duel. To decide who would face the fearsome Hector, the greatest Greek warriors drew lots; the task fell to Ajax the Greater, a hero known for his large size and impressive physical strength. 

Though Hector and Ajax fought long and hard, neither could gain the upper hand, and the two warriors were finally separated by heralds. Hector and Ajax exchanged gifts as a token of respect for one another’s skill. In the end, both armies called a truce and ceased fighting for the day.^[16]

Attack on the Greek Camp

The next day, Hector was able to get the better of the Greeks and forced them to retreat to their camp on the beach. Because Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, had left the fighting due to a quarrel with his commander, Agamemnon, the Greeks now had no one who could stand up to Hector. Knowing this, Hector resolved to drive the Greeks from Troy once and for all.^[17]

In the following days, Hector continued to press the Greeks. At one point in the battle, Ajax threw a large stone at Hector and knocked him out, but Zeus ordered Apollo to revive the fallen prince.^[18] He returned to battle stronger than ever, pushed past the fortifications of the Greek camp, and even started burning Greek ships.^[19]

The Death of Patroclus

As the situation grew more desperate for the Greeks, Achilles’ closest friend, Patroclus, begged him to put aside his pride and help his friends. Achilles refused, but he agreed to let Patroclus put on his famous armor and lead his men, the Myrmidons, against Hector.

Clad in Achilles’ armor, Patroclus was able to strike fear into the hearts of the Trojans and drive them away from the Greek camp, back towards the city. Patroclus even went head-to-head with Hector, but Hector emerged victorious, killing the young warrior (with some help from Apollo). 

Hector quickly realized that the man he had killed was not Achilles but instead Patroclus in his friend’s armor. After Hector had stripped the armor from the corpse, the Trojans and Greeks fought a vicious battle over the body. The Greeks barely managed to rescue it for a proper funeral.^[20]

The Death of Hector

When Achilles found out that Hector had killed his best friend, he would stop at nothing to get revenge. Wearing a new suit of armor made for him by the smith god Hephaestus himself, he went back into battle and slaughtered numerous Trojans in search of Hector. All the Trojans fled before Achilles’ onslaught and retreated behind the walls of Troy—all except for Hector, who decided bravely (if foolishly) to stand his ground.^[21]

When Hector’s parents saw their son preparing to do battle with the invincible Achilles, they begged him to come inside.^[22] At first, Hector refused to listen and was determined to stand and fight honorably. But when he saw Achilles face-to-face, he lost heart and tried to run. 

Achilles chased Hector three times around the walls of Troy. Finally, at the urging of Zeus, the goddess Athena (an ally of the Greeks) tricked Hector into fighting Achilles: she disguised herself as Deiphobus, one of Hector’s brothers, saying that they would stand against Achilles together.^[23]

With renewed confidence, Hector stopped running and told Achilles he would face him. But he asked Achilles to swear that the winner would honor the loser with a proper funeral:

I will do unto thee no foul despite, if Zeus grant me strength to outstay thee, and I take thy life; but when I have stripped from thee thy glorious armour, Achilles, I will give thy dead body back to the Achaeans; and so too do thou.^[24]

Achilles’ response was chilling:

As between lions and men there are no oaths of faith, nor do wolves and lambs have hearts of concord but are evil-minded continually one against the other, even so is it not possible for thee and me to be friends, neither shall there be oaths between us till one or the other shall have fallen, and glutted with his blood Ares, the warrior with tough shield of hide.^[25]

The duel between Achilles and Hector was brief. Achilles threw his spear first, missing Hector; Hector then threw his spear, which bounced off Achilles’ shield. But according to Homer, Athena brought Achilles’ spear back to him and then vanished. Hector, deprived of both his spear and “Deiphobus,” realized that he was doomed. Achilles charged and speared Hector through the neck.

As Hector lay dying, he begged Achilles one last time to give his body to his parents for a proper funeral. When Achilles refused, he predicted Achilles’ own death at the hands of Paris and Apollo.^[26]

Hector’s Body

After Hector was dead, Achilles stripped him of his armor (the same armor Hector had stripped from the body of Patroclus the day before), tied him to the axle of his chariot, and dragged him three times around the walls of Troy. He then took the body back to his camp, where he continued to mistreat it; it was kept unblemished only through the intervention of Apollo.

Finally, after twelve days, Priam sneaked into the Greek camp to offer Achilles a ransom for the body of his favorite son. Reminded of his own aging father, Achilles took pity on Priam and complied.^[27]

Priam took the body back to Troy, where it was given a lavish funeral. Hector’s funeral marks the end of the Iliad, whose final words are: “On this wise held they funeral for horse-taming Hector.”^[28]