Natasha Marsalli

Iliad Paper

Heroes and Villains: Achilleus vs. Hektor

September 28, 2009

Homers great epic poem, The Iliad, is perhaps the most well

known of the classical Greek literary texts; there are few who do not

know, at least nominally, of the almost decade-long struggle between

the Greeks (called either Achaians or Danaans by Homer) and the

Trojans for the return of the Grecian demigod, Helen. While Homer

presents the reader with an unrivaled panoply of splendid characters,

the Iliad primarily focuses on two men: the Achaian demigod Achilleus

and the Trojan warrior Hektor; both unrivaled champions in their

respective regions, it is upon their struggles and shortcomings that

Homer winds his tale, and it is their eventual face-to-face confrontation

that serves as the ultimate climax of The Iliad. While the idea of two

men facing each other in mortal combat might at first seem a bit

clich, Homers unexpected destruction of the readers pre-conceived

expectations regarding Achilleus and Hektor serves not as a plot

twist but as an attempt to humanize the protagonists thereby giving

the entire myth a sense of believability.

Homers audience naturally longs to set up Achilleus as the hero;

first of all, he is a demigod, endowed with inhuman strength and skill in

battle. Readers, especially those subconsciously influenced by the

Christian idea of a benign deity may also make the assumption

(however incorrectly) that the son of a goddess will not only be

endowed with superhuman physical traits, and but also will embody

virtue and valor. Furthermore, Achilleus is fighting on the side of the

Achaians. Certainly it is safe to say that Homer (whose writing shows

occasional pro-Greek bias) and his Greek audience would sympathize

with their ancestral Achaians, even, perhaps, if they had been the

wrongdoers. But as it is, the Achaians are certainly the wronged and

the righteous in this conflict, fighting to take back their kings wife,

leaving even the modern reader with sympathies for the Achaian

forces and a desire to see them succeed. With these points in mind,

the reader has high expectations for the semi-divine prizefighter of the

Achaian troops before he has even cracked the book open.

Homer plants the seeds of doubt in these pre-conceived notions

before he has even finished his invocation of the Muse; he reveals that

Achilleus destructive anger is responsible for the deaths of thousands

of Achaians in the very first sentence: Sing, goddess, the anger of

Peleus son, Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains

thousandfold upon the Achains, hurled in their multitudes to the house

of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to the delicate

feasting of dogs, of all birds (Homer, Iliad 1.1-5). Right away, the

reader feels uneasy about Achilleus as a hero since his uncontrolled

rage is responsible for the deaths of his own people.

 The reason for his fury makes Achilleus look even less heroic.

When Agamemnon decides to take Achilleus slave Briseis to make up

for the loss of his own girl, Achilles becomes enraged; He storms off to

his ships where he sulks for the majority of the book, refusing to fight

with the Achaians in order to exact revenge on Agamemnon (Iliad

1.169-171). Even when Agamemnon apologizes, begs him to return,

and promises the return of Briseis along with countless other gifts,

Achilleus refuses coldly (Iliad 9.374-388). His refusal of the girls return

proves that he has chosen not to fight due to his bruised pride, not, as

he claims, because he yearns so deeply for Briseis. Lacking their

strongest fighter, the Achaians lose their advantage and many men die

because of Achilleus immature desire for revenge.

Achilleus even goes a step further and prays that the Achaians

will be driven back to their ships to teach Agamemnon a lesson (Iliad

1.407-412); this not only unheroic, it is treasonous! As if this isnt bad

enough, Achilleus doesnt seem to do much for himself, leaving his

mother, Thetis, to carry out important tasks for him. After Briseis is

taken from him, he goes tearfully to Thetis and begs her to have Zeus

punish the Achaians on his behalf, which she does (Iliad 1.407-412).

Thetis also helps Achilleus before he goes into battle; he is without

armor, so the goddess commissions and then delivers to his feet a new

set of battle attire, forged by the blacksmithing god, Hephaistos (Iliad,

19.10-11). After these events, Achilles certainly does not seem heroic
or semi-divine; he acts more like a spoiled child, crying to his mother

for justice after a bully at the sandbox takes his toys.

When he finally does engage in combat, it is not out of pity for

his fellow Achaians or out of a sense of duty towards his people but out

of pure rage and lust for revenge over the death of Patroklos (Iliad,

18.90-93) He is so eager to exact his revenge only permits them to rest

and eat at the urging of wise Odysseus, and even then he only agrees

after Odysseus points out that they will all fight better with food in

their stomachs (Iliad 19.160-170). When he gets out on the battlefield,

Achilleus turns into a brutal killing machine, ending with the slaughter

of Hektor and the desecration of his body. While the Greeks viewed the

vengeance of a close friend as an honorable pursuit, Achilleus takes it

too far. He does not kill Hektor fairly, but cheats with the help of

Athene (Iliad, 22.226-231, 275-277), and then refuses to ransom

Hektors body to his family (Iliad, 22.344-354). Instead, after allowing

his fellow Achaians to desecrate the body, Achilleus hitches it to his

chariot and drives around the battlefield in full view of Hektors

countrymen, parents, and wife (Iliad, 22.395-404). This is not just

exacting revenge on Hektor, but punishing his family and satisfying

Achilleus obsessive anger. Even the gods agree that his madness is

doing no good to anyone, causing Zeus to intervene and force him to

return the body (Iliad, 24.75-76).

 Contrast this behavior with Achilleus attitude during the funeral

games, Homers analogous depiction of how the conflicts portrayed

throughout the Iliad should have been resolved. At the games,

Achilleus is the ideal hero; he is generous towards the contestants,

rewarding even the losers (Iliad, 536-538). He is calm and fair; when

Antilochos accuses him of being unfair when he decides to take

Antilochos rightfully won prize mare, Achilleus does not fly into a rage

as one might expect, but agrees with Antilochos and offers to draw a

different reward from his own stock of wealth in order to keep

Antilochos happy (Iliad, 23.557-559). Everyone ends up content,

leaving the readers to wish that Achilleus had acted this

magnanimously during the real conflicts. However, at the very end of

the Iliad, Achilleus does treat Priam with courtesy, return Hektors body

to him after cleaning it and making it presentable, and offer a twelve-

day truce so the Trojans can properly bury Hektor, leaving the readers

to hope that his days of ruthless and destructive anger are over.

Ironically the hero that Homers audience longs for in Achilleus is

found on the opposing side in the character of Hektor. It is a shock, at

first, to find anyone worthwhile in the city of Troy; the first real

example of a Trojan soldier that Homer gives is Paris as he steps out to

fight Menelaos, who recoils like a man who has come across a snake

cheeks seized with a green pallor (Iliad, 3.33-35) before being

whisked away by Aphrodite to his perfumed bedchamber where he

makes love with Helen (Iliad, 3.380-382). After this, readers probably

view all of the Trojans, as weak and effeminate compared to the

Achaians, especially with Homers pro-Greek bias subtly woven into the

writing. This only adds to the shock value when they find that Hektor,

the strongest warrior and leader of the Trojan troops, is one of the most

heroic characters in the entire Iliad.

One thing that distinguishes Hektor is his innocence; unlike

Achilleus, who behaves poorly and is punished justly, Hektor does

nothing wrong and yet dies at the hands of Achilleus and has his body

completely desecrated. In fact, Hektor is only fighting in the war out of

loyalty to his people; he says multiple times that Paris ought to have

been stoned when he brought Helen to Troy, but because Priam

accepted them both into the city, they all are responsible, and must

fight to protect their families (Iliad, 3.39-56). Hektor is also somewhat

unfairly targeted by Achilleus for his brutal revenge; Not only was

Patroklos killed fairly in battle, Hektor was the third person to deliver a

severe blow to him which, according to the victim himself, was not the

fatal wound; Yours is the victory given by Kronos son, Zeus, and

Apollo, who have subdued me easily, since they themselves stripped

the arms from my shouldersNo, deadly destiny, with the son of Leto,

has killed me, and of men it was Euphorbos; you are only my third

slayer (Iliad, 16.844-850). Yet despite all this, Hektor is slaughtered by

Achilleus with the help of Athene and brutally dragged behind

Achilleus chariot after his death.

Unlike Achilleus, Hektor also operates on his own with no familial

aid, divine or mortal, to fall back on. In fact, his brother Paris does

quite the opposite. Paris is not only responsible for the entire war to

begin with, he is also little help on the battlefield; when Hektor makes

him engage in man-to-man combat with Menelaos for Helen, Paris gets

the shivers and withdraws back into the army until Hektor forces him

to step forward (Iliad, 3.33-35). After the gods interrupt the duel, Paris

is taken back to Troy where he relaxes and makes love to Helen while

his people, led by Hektor, fight a war on his behalf, again until Hektor

comes and forces him back into the fighting. Hektors parents also

offer little support; while it is obvious they love him dearly, they are too

aged to be of much help, leaving Hektor completely on his own.

Hektors personal life also wins the reader over and convinces

him that Hektor is also a morally upright man. Even though Helen, the

most beautiful woman in the world and the daughter of Zeus, tries to

seduce him at one point Hektor remains staunchly faithful to his wife,

Andromache (Iliad, 6.354-360). Unlike Achilleus, who is obviously not

involved in a truly loving and monogamous relationship with anyone,

Hektor seems to love his wife very much and she him; he seeks her out

to bid her and his son, Astynax, farewell before going into battle again
(Iliad, 6.365-367) and pities them for the suffering they will most likely

face. Hektor is good not only to his wife but also to Helen, even though

she is the cause of the war: I have never heard a harsh saying from

you, nor an insult. But when anotherwould say a harsh word to me

then you would speak and put them off and restrain them by your own

gentleness of heart and your gentle wordsThere was no other in all

the wide Troad who was kind to me, and my friend; all others shrank

when they saw me (Iliad, 24.766-775) Finally, Hektor is a god-fearing

man who always made the appropriate sacrifices to the gods, actions

which would later convince the gods to return his body to his family

(Iliad, 24.33-35). Both on and off the battlefield, Hektor proves himself

to be the stereotypical hero that Achilleus was not.

While Hektor may act nobly through most of the Iliad, his final

duel with Achilleus surprises the reader even more than Homers

casting of heros. The climax of the Iliad comes when Achilleus spots

Hektor in the battlefield and the two face each other in mortal combat.

However, Hektor completely throws readers for a loop when, upon

spotting the raging demigod charging at him, he does not fulfill the

readers expectations by standing his ground and bravely fighting to

the death. Instead he turns and runs away out of fear (Iliad, 22.136-

138)! While this is a major disappointment to the reader, it is in fact, a

clever maneuver by Homer; by shattering the heroic image of Hektor,

Homer makes him more human, allowing the reader to sympathize and
draw closer to him, as opposed to Achilles who, as a sort of elevated

mortal is more machine-like and less approachable.

Homers Iliad and the characters therein destroy all pre-

conceived notions of what should happen and how heroes and

villains should behave in an epic. However, by making the champion

of the Achaians proud and immature and by portraying the hero of the

Trojans as an honorable and courageous yet humanly flawed man,

Homer illustrates that reality is not so clear-cut as we might like to

believe. By frustrating readers expectations, Homer humanizes his

characters, elevating his myth from the purely fantastic to the realm of

the believable.