July 31, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
According to Emily Wilson, a Greek hero is extraordinary because of their connection to the divine. The closer one is to the gods, the more heroic the human. So, heroes don’t need to do good deeds or have impressive moral standards. Instead, Greek heroes are uncannily victorious, beyond superior on the battlefield. One might say they have a lot of plot armor.
Achilles, then, makes a fitting hero. After months of being idle, the death of Patroklos spurs him to re-engage in battle. He enters the war and destroys everyone. Then, after the massacre on the Trojan plain (see last week’s blog), Achilles confronts Hector for the final time. Having seen Achilles’ brutality, Hector runs away at first. He fears the “cataclysmic wrath” of Achilles.
“Achilles with relentless speed pursued/ Hector – as when a dog pursues a fawn,/ and drives her from her mother’s lair and hunts her/ across the hillside, through the glades and valleys,/ and even if she crouches in the bushes/ to hide, he runs and tracks her, till he gets her – / so Hector could not hide from swift Achilles.” (Wilson translation, Book 22, lines 250-256)
And Hector might have kept running if it were not for Athena. First, Athena visits Achilles and tells him to rest and catch his breath while she convinces Hector to fight. Then, she promises to assist Achilles and kill Hector. She says that together they will:
“bring great glory/ back to the ships – an honor for the Greeks./ The two of us will slaughter Hector now.” (Wilson translation, Book 22, lines 288-292)
Athena leaves Achilles and goes to Hector in the guise of Deiphobus, one of Hector’s brothers. Athena-as-Deiphobus convinces Hector that she will stay and fight with him. Thus encouraged, Hector stands to face his enemy. Upon Achilles’ approach, Hector suggests a fair fight which includes rules, one which honors the fallen. But Achilles will have none of that. Achilles replies,
“Fool, forget about agreements./ Lions do not swear solemn oaths with humans.” (Wilson translation, Book 22, lines 348-9)
Each warrior fires words and spears at each other. Neither hit the mark. Hector runs out of weapons and calls for the help of Deiphobus (who the reader knows was never there). When no one answers Hector’s call, he realizes his mistake. This heartbreaking passage simply reads:
“Then Hector understood inside his heart.” (Wilson translation, Book 22, line 397)
I cannot understand why the gods meddle, why the gods interfere, why this brutality serves as a form of justice, or why anyone fights at all. In my estimation, Hector appears to be the noblest of all the warriors in this book. He defends his brother Paris, whether he wants to or not. He is forced to defend his city when the Greeks come to attack. He realizes that he is Troy’s only hope. He never backs away from his role as leader. He honors his parents. He dotes on his wife and child. And now, after nine long years of fighting, the gods decide to truly abandon him. I wonder why they encouraged him at all. It all seems so unjust.
In addition, Achilles desecrates Hector’s body in horrific ways. True to his word, Achilles remains the lion as he drags Hector’s body behind his chariot. The gods do not stop Achilles, though they do enchant the corpse so that it does not decay. Even now, the gods cannot or will not curb Achilles’ revenge. Aphrodite and Apollo protect Hector’s body from decay, dogs, and damage (Book 23, lines 251-262), but they permit the “hero” to run riot.
During our class, Emily Wilson spoke of honor and I summarized her comment as: people who take the most risks receive the most honor. Achilles certainly gains the most honor. But has he taken the most risks? After weeks of ease, he becomes a whirlwind of brutality. Also, he seems to know that the gods are with him, which indicates there is little risk of failure.
Near the end, the Greeks set a funeral pyre for Patroklos. They host games in his memory and Achilles receives the honor of being judge. He appears light-hearted, content, friendly – even jovial – which is an abrupt change from the previous pages and pages of rage. Does he deserve to be judge? Has Achilles proven himself honorable? Is his greatness innate, eternal, or socially constructed? Where does his honor lie? Is it attached to his person, to his memory, to his time and place, to his soul, to his nature, to his story, to his culture, or to his body?
This is a question that still weighs upon me. I cannot quite remove my contemporary lens and, therefore, I still struggle to see Achilles as a hero. I thank Emily Wilson and my colleagues for adding depth to my previously superficial reading of Achilles, but I’ll admit: I’m still working on the problem of Achilles.
To read the previous posts in this series, visit: https://hmu.edu/the-fate-of-achilles and https://hmu.edu/achilles-revisited
Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Apostolis Giontzis
