Book XXII: The Death of Hector explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Heroism and Mortality

  Hector's decision to face Achilles despite knowing his likely death highlights the tension between heroic glory and the inevitability of mortality.

• Grief and Loss

  The chapter is saturated with grief: Priam's plea, Hecuba's lament, and Andromache's discovery of Hector's death all underscore the profound personal losses of war.

• The Role of the Gods

  Athena deceives Hector into fighting, Apollo taunts Achilles, and Zeus permits the desecration of Hector's body, showing divine manipulation of human fate.

• Wrath and Its Consequences

  Achilles' wrath, kindled by Patroclus's death, drives him to kill Hector and desecrate his body, demonstrating the destructive cycle of vengeance.

Characters to notice

• Hector

  Hector resolves to face Achilles outside the Scaean gates, despite his parents' entreaties, but flees when Achilles approaches. He is deceived by Athena and ultimately killed by Achilles, his body dragged behind a chariot.

• Achilles

  Achilles pursues Hector around Troy, kills him, and then drags his body behind his chariot back to the Greek ships, vowing to honor Patroclus.

• Priam

  Priam, from the walls, desperately begs Hector to come inside the city, foreseeing his own grief and the fall of Troy. After Hector's death, he struggles to go to the Greek camp to ransom the body.

• Hecuba

  Hecuba bares her breast and pleads with Hector to remember her nursing and come inside. After his death, she laments that he was the bulwark of Troy.

• Andromache

  Andromache, unaware of Hector's death, is weaving in her chamber. She hears the lamentations from the walls and rushes out, learning of her husband's fate.

• Athena

  Athena descends to aid Achilles, deceiving Hector by appearing as his brother Deiphobus and encouraging him to stand and fight.

• Apollo

  Apollo reveals himself to Achilles after luring him away from the city, reminding him that he is immortal and cannot be slain.

• Zeus

  Zeus allows the Greeks to insult Hector's corpse, as the gods weigh Hector's fate and determine his death.

Key passages

• “O wait not, Hector, my beloved son, / To combat with Pelides, thus alone / And far from succor, lest thou meet thy death, / Slain by his hand, for he is mightier far / Than thou art.”

  Priam begs Hector not to fight Achilles alone, warning that Achilles is stronger and will kill him.

  Priam's desperate plea from the walls highlights his paternal love and foreshadows Hector's doom.

• “Revere this bosom, Hector, and on me / Have pity. If when thou wert but a babe / I ever on this bosom stilled thy cries, / Think of it now, beloved child; avoid / That dreadful chief; withdraw within the walls.”

  Hecuba bares her breast and asks Hector to remember how she nursed him as a baby, urging him to come inside the city.

  Hecuba's appeal uses maternal imagery to try to sway Hector from his fatal course.

• “He stood and waited for his mighty foe / Achilles, as a serpent at his den, / Fed on the poisons of the wild, awaits / The traveller, and, fierce with hate of man, / And glaring fearfully, lies coiled within.”

  Hector waits for Achilles like a venomous snake coiled in its den, ready to strike a passing traveler.

  The simile emphasizes Hector's resolve and the deadly nature of the impending confrontation.

• “Thus onward flew Achilles, while as fast / Fled Hector in dismay, with hurrying feet, / Beside the wall. They passed the Mount of View, / And the wind-beaten fig-tree.”

  Achilles chased Hector as he fled in fear along the wall, past the lookout hill and the windswept fig tree.

  The chase around Troy's walls underscores Hector's fear and the relentless pursuit by Achilles.

• “Die thou; and I, whenever it shall please / Jove and the other gods, will meet my fate.”

  Achilles tells the dying Hector that he too will die when the gods decide, accepting his own mortality.

  Achilles acknowledges that despite his victory, he is not immortal and will eventually face death.

• “He spake, and, planning in his mind to treat / The noble Hector shamefully, he bored / The sinews of his feet between the heel / And ankle; drawing through them leathern thongs / He bound them to the car, but left the head / To trail in dust.”

  Achilles pierced Hector's ankles, threaded thongs through them, and tied the body to his chariot to drag it, leaving the head to drag in the dust.

  This act of desecration reflects Achilles' wrath and the dishonor he intends for Hector's body.