What did Hector's death mean? Hector's death spells doom for the Trojans, even if the poem ends before the Greeks' victory. He is the Trojans' best warrior, and without him, they are on a path to destruction from which they cannot escape.
While Hector dies in this scene, the values that he represents—nobility, self-restraint, and respect—arguably survive him. Indeed, Achilles later comes around to an appreciation of these very values after realizing the faults of his earlier brutality and self-centered rage. Read more about death and glory in the Iliad.
The death of Hector at the hands of Achilles is foreshadowed by the sea god. Poseidon promises Achilles glory in the war, and tells him to seize it.
Hector, in Greek legend, the eldest son of the Trojan king Priam and his queen Hecuba. He was the husband of Andromache and the chief warrior of the Trojan army. In Homer's Iliad he is represented as an ideal warrior and the mainstay of Troy.
Hector has a broad view of education and refuses to conform to modern teaching methods, or to the Headmaster's desires for Oxbridge places. He is a central character in the play, but there are conflicts in how he is presented.
We learn that both Achilles and Hector are good men. They are driven by courage and nobility; they want only to defend and avenge their loved ones. Each of them is their respective side's best warrior. It's no wonder that Homer wrote so much about them.
The one-on-one combat ends with Achilles killing Hector. Still pulsing with anger and needing to satisfy his revenge and grief for having lost Patroclus, Achilles allows Achaean soldiers to stab and mutilate Hector's corpse.
Thus, his death at the hands of Achilles is the most moving and tragic of all the many deaths that occur in The Iliad. Hector's death effectively symbolizes the fate of Troy itself. Though the war will continue, Troy will soon be plundered and destroyed now that its guardian Hector has been killed.
Kneeling over his corpse, Achilles sheds tears, which could potentially symbolize the Greek hero's realization of the futility of war, and the possibility of respectful comradeship between the two in the absence of the feud over Helen.
Andromache, wife of Hector saw what happened to her love and fainted fearing what was to happen to her son, having no father to be there for him. Achilles thus then rode the body back to the Greeks where he showed them what he did to Hector. He rode the body twice round the tomb of Patroclus. His death was avenged.
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.
What did Achilles say after killing Hector? In the Iliad, Achilles says the following after killing Hector: "Die; for my part I will accept my fate whensoever Jove and the other gods see fit to send it. '
He saw Hector as brother, because they shared together his most important values. And he killed him. Achilles could have probably felt like he killed himself, for a reason that might seem absurd from that perspective... That's why the tears and that's why he said "we'll meet soon my brother".
Achilles' most distinctive characteristic is his invulnerability, coupled with the fact that he has one small spot on his body which is vulnerable. The lesson, it seems, is that everyone has their weakness, capable of bringing them down.
How Does the Iliad End? Hector was Troy's best warrior so his death was a sign that Troy would eventually fall to the Greeks.
Achilles then continues to maltreat Hector's corpse: he ties it to the chariot again, dragging it while he rides three laps around the pyre of Patroclus.
Priam tearfully supplicates Achilles, begging for Hector's body. He asks Achilles to think of his own father, Peleus, and the love between them. Achilles weeps for his father and for Patroclus. He accepts the ransom and agrees to give the corpse back.
The chief protagonist of The Iliad is Achilles, the great Achaean warrior whose rage instigates the action of Homer's story. At the very beginning of the poem, Achilles finds himself in conflict with the Achaean king, Agamemnon, who has decided to take for himself Achilles's beloved war prize: the maiden Briseis.
Achilles chased Hector back to Troy, slaughtering Trojans all the way. When they got to the city walls, Hector tried to reason with his pursuer, but Achilles was not interested. He stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him.
Pietro Testa (1611–1650), Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy. Etching, 1648–50. Achilles, with his lust for revenge still not satisfied, deliberately mistreats the body of Hector, tying him to his chariot and dragging him behind in the dirt as he drives back to the Greek camp.
The return of Hector's body and a twelve-day truce are the peaceful result. We follow Priam back to a grief-stricken Troy, leaving Achilles behind. "And so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses" (24.944). It is Hector, therefore, who earns the last line of the epic.
When Achilles learns of the death of Patroklos, he bursts into tears, tearing his hair and throwing himself on the ground. His sorrowful lament is heard by his mother, Thetis, and she comes to comfort him. She points out that if Achilles avenges Patroklos, he himself will be killed.
But when Achilles was now sated with grief and had unburdened the bitterness of his sorrow, he left his seat and raised the old man by the hand. Achilles, seated, and Priam, crouched at his feet, cry at length, the one for Patroclus and Peleus, the other for Hector.
The shield of Achilles can be read in a variety of different ways. One interpretation is that the shield represents a microcosm of civilization, in which all aspects of life are shown. The depiction of law suggests the existence of social order within one city, while feuding armies depict a darker side of humanity.