ari’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

all the trojans are inside the city walls except Hector while Achilles chases a disguised apollo, angry that he’d ‘deprived him of success, “You are the one who works from far away, most cruel and destructive of the gods. Numerous men would not have reached the town, but would have seized the earth between their teeth if you had not deprived me of success. You saved them easily. You had no fear of any retribution in the future. But I would surely take revenge on you, if only I had strength to fight a god.” He then turns back towards the city.
— “Old Priam was the first to notice him sprinting across the plain. He saw the gleam, just like the star that rises in late summer, whose beams shine bright amid the consolations at dead of night—the people call it Dog Star, Orion’s dog, which flashes dazzling light, an evil omen bringing many fevers to poor, unhappy mortals—so the bronze shone on Achilles’ breastplate as he sprinted. The old man groaned in grief and struck his head then raised both arms up high and wailed and shouted and begged his dear son to come home again. But he remained outside the city gates, funded in his firm intent to fight Achilles.”
— Priam tries to sway Hector to leave Achilles be, as he knows this fight will only end in his death, “Hector, my dear child, do not wait for that man out there alone, I beg you, or you will fall and quickly meet your end, you stubborn fool! The son of Peleus, Achilles, has far greater strength than you. I wish the gods loved him the way I do! Then dogs and vultures would soon eat his corpse. Then this despair would leave my mind and heart. Achilles has already taken from me many fine sons. He slaughtered some of them and captured others, selling them as slaves on distant lands. (…) But the people of Troy will only grieve a little while—unless Achilles kills you also, son. Come back inside the wall and save the Trojans, both men and women. Do not give such glory to great Achilles, son of Peleus, and rob yourself of your own precious life! And pity me—a poor, unlucky man, allotted so much pain. The father, Zeus, will give me a humiliating death when I am on the threshold of old age. And I will witness many horrors—sons slaughtered and daughters dragged away as slaves and houses ransacked and the little children hurled to the ground amid the massacre and my sons’ wives seized by the deadly hands of Greeks. And finally, myself—when someone has thrown or thrust a sharp bronze spear at me and striped the spirit from my limbs, the dogs who watched my doors, who fed beneath my table, will hunger for raw meat and rip me open and drink my blood in front of my own house, and lie there in the doorway of the palace, rabid and frenzied with the glut of gore. A young man killed in battle by sharp bronze looks glorious in every way. His body is fine and handsome even in his death. But when the digs disposal a gray old head and gray old beard, and shame his private parts, this is the most heartrending sight of all for poor unhappy mortals.” His mother also cries for him in like… a really weird way… neither of them end up dissuading hector
— Hector has a moral qualm realizing he had put himself and his people in this position, in the face of Achilles monstrous wrath, and should have drawn the greeks into troy sooner rather than recklessly fight them outside the walls, perhaps trusting his strength too much. carrying this guilt, he anxiously fumbles through his choices. die with glory trying to kill achilles, at the very least in defence of troy; set his armour and spear down and go unarmed, even; what if he swore to give helen back and all the treasure paris took with her, along with even more wealth? “But no! Why did my mind suggest these things? I cannot face him as a supplicant. He will not pity me or show respect. He will kill me unarmed, just like a woman, if i set my weapons on the ground. i think there is no way, from oak or rock, to chat with him as girl and boy might do, a girl and boy who chat and flirt together. better to start the conflict right away, and we will soon see which of us is granted success by the olympian, lord zeus.” Hector, for all his indecision and worrying, stays put.
— Achilles draws even closer, “like Ares Enyalius, the god of war, who wears a shining helmet.” Hector began to tremble and ran as fast as he could around the wall while Achilles chased him down. “In front, a fine man fled, but at his back a far superior athlete ran to catch him. Swiftly they sped because their competition was not to win a sacrificial bull or oxhide, normal prizes for footraces. Their race was for the life of horse-lord Hector.” Four times Hector dashes across the wall, hoping the Trojans would help him from above only for him to have to continue dashing, alone, since Achilles had shook his head to the greeks to say not to attack and kill Hector, as to not be made second. “As in a dream, the chase goes on forever—you never catch, you never get away—“
— Zeus pities Hector and asks the gods to decide on either saving him or letting Achilles kill him. Athena reminds him that Hector is a mortal who’s been doomed to die, yet he wants to set him free, and he can do what he likes but it’ll anger them all. Then fuckass “i didn’t mean it when i said those things” Zeus allows Athena to do as she wishes. His scales tip to say Hector will die, so Athena goes to Achilles and, to Achilles delight, says Hector can no longer run from him and she’ll go and convince Hector to fight face to face (as Deiphobus).

— Hector having been tricked by Athena stops and goes to Achilles, “I did not dare stand still and wait for you. But now my spirit urges me to stand and face you. I may kill you or be killed. Let us invoke the gods. They are the best as witness and guardians of contracts. I shall not mutilate you or disgrace you, if Zeus grants me the stamina to take your life away, Achilles. I will strip your famous armor, but I will give back your body to the Greeks. You do the same.” Swift-footed Lord Achilles scowled at him and answered, “Hector, don’t speak to me of contracts. Fool, forget about agreements. Lions do not swear solemn oaths with humans, and wolves and lambs do not share common feelings. Their enmity endures furthermore. Just so, there is no way for you and me ever to love each other or be friends, and there can be no paths between us two, till one man falls and slakes the thirst of Ares, the warrior, the god who bares the shield. Remember all your skill and all your courage. Now is the time for bravery in battle. Now you must be a warrior, a fighter. Now all your chances to escape are gone. Pallas Athena, through this spear of mine, will soon destroy you. In a single instant you will soon pay me back for all my pain, my grief for my companions, whom you killed when you were running riot with your spear.”
— Achilles initially misses hitting Hector with his spear and Hector mocks him, “You missed, godlike Achilles! You knew nothing from Zeus about my destiny or death, although you thought you knew it all. (…) I will not turn and run away from you. You will not fix your weapon in my back. Drive it straight through my chest as I attack you, if some god grants the victory to you. Now try and get away from my bronze spear! I hope you offer it a gentle welcome and let its whole length rest inside your flesh. The war will lie more lightly on the Trojans after your death. You were our greatest curse.” Hector also fucks up throwing his spear and calls to Diephobus to fetch it for him. Nobody answers and he realizes he’d been tricked. “The gods have called me to my death. I thought Deiphobus was at my side. But he is on the wall. Athena tricked me. The horror of my death is near me now, not far away, and there is no way out. Zeus and the son of Zeus, the distant archer, must have decided all this long ago—the gods who used to be so kind to me, who helped me in the pat. And now my doom has come at last. But never let me die without a struggle and without acclaim. Let me achieve some greatness and be known to people in the days to come.” T_T
— Hector charged with his sword until Achilles drives his spear through an opening in his stolen armour, right through the neck. “Hector, I suppose after you killed Patroclus, you imagined that you were safe. You paid no heed to me, because you knew that I was far away. Fool! I am still his helper and avenger, stronger than him by far, although he left me beside the hollow ships. I am the one who caused your death and made your limbs unravel. The dogs and birds will mutilate and shame you. Patroclus will be buried by the Greeks with all due funeral honours.” Faint and feeble, Hector, his helmet flashing bright, replied, “I beg you, by your life, your knees, your parents, do not let dogs devour me by your ships. Accept the bronze and gold, the lavish gifts my noble parents will provide you with, and give my body back. Let me go home, so that the Trojan men and Trojan wives grant me my due in death—a funeral pyre.” Achilles scowled and said, “Dog, do not beg or speak of knees or parents. If only I had will and heart to do it I would carve up your flesh and eat it raw, for the abominations you have done me. No one can save your body from the dogs, but even if they bring me as a ransom yeh times or twenty times the usual rate and weigh it out and promise even more. Not even if Dardanian Priam promised to have you weighed and give your weight in gold. Not even so will your own mother ever lay you out properly upon a bier, and mourn and grieve for you, the child she birthed. The dogs and birds will eat you up completely.” Then Hector in his flashing helmet, dying, answered, “I see you and I understand you. There is no way for me to change your mind. The heart inside your chest is made of iron. Be careful now. I may become the cause of wrath agains you from the gods, one day, when Paris and Apollo will distort you behind the Scaean Gates, despite your strength.” Gus death wrapped round him as he spoke. His spirit flew from his limbs to Hades, and she mourned his fate, and left his manhood and his youth. Achilles spoke to him though he was dead— “So die! And I will welcome my own death whenever Zeus and other deathless gods decide to end my life.”
— Achilles strips Hector of his armour as the other Greeks ran up to marvel at Hector’s body, stabbing him. “Look at this! Hector is so much softer to the touch than when he burned our ships with blazing fire.” Achilles calls out to them about the fate of the Trojans, “Will they abandon their citadel, now that this man is fallen? Or are they eager to remain and fight, even though Hector is no longer with them? But why am I considering all this? He still lies there beside the ships, a corpse, unswept, unburied. I will not forget Patroclus, never, while my body still moves, while I am still among those still alive, and even if the dead forget each other in Hades, even there I will remember my friend, the man I love. But, warriors, come on, let’s sing loud the victory sing, and carry this man to the hollow ships. We have achieved great glory. We have killed Hector, whom Trojans honoured as a god.” He then completely defiles Hector’s body and bounds him to his chariot by his tendons, driving round the city walls for all of Troy to see Hector be shamed and mutilated. Hecuba, Priam, and the people of Troy are struck with a horrifying anguish at the sight, Priam rushing out only to be pulled back, “He has inflicted such pain, such loss on me. He killed so many fine, healthy handsome sons of mine. I weep and mourn for all of them, but none as bitterly as this one. My sharp grief for him will lead me to the house of Hades. I wish my son had died in my own arms!”
— Andromache still hadn’t heard of Hector’s death and had called for the house selves to head a tripod on the fire so his washing water would be hit when he came back. “Poor fool! She did not know that very far from any bath, he was already dead.” She hears the people at the wall outside, including Hecuba, and already senses something had gone wrong. “My heart is jumping through me to my mouth. My legs are paralyzed. Some trouble must be near the sons of Priam—let my ears not hear it! (…) He never stayed among the mass of troops. He always hurtled far ahead, aggressive and giving way to no one.” She sees his body being dragged around and laments among the women and girls of Troy, “Hector. My life is over. You and I were both born for this self-same destiny. You were born here in Troy to Priam’s house, but I was raised in Thebe, underneath the forests of Mount Placus, and my father, Eetion, cared for me when I was little. His luck was bad and mine was ruination. If only he had never had a daughter! Now you have gone beneath the depths of earth into the house of Hades and you leave me in bitter grief, a widow in your halls. Our son is still a little baby, born to such unlucky parents—you and me. You will not help him now that you are dead, Hector, nor will ge you. If he escapes this world of tears, this war against the Greeks, trouble and pain will be with him forever. Others will seize his lands. A father’s death deprives a child of all companionship. In need he will approach his father’s comrades, and tug one by the cloak or tunic. They will feel bad for him, and one may give him a tiny sip, enough to wet his lips but not his throat. (…) Back to his widowed mother comes the child, Astyanax, who once, in earlier times, sat in his father’s lap and only ate marrow and luscious mutton fat, and when he finished with his fun and games, and sleep seized him, he used to sleep on a soft bed held in his nurse’s arms, with his heart full of happiness. But now he will endure terrible suffering without his father—the boy to whom the Trojans gave the title Astyanax, ‘the master of the city.’ You were the only one who could protect the gates and towering walls of Troy for him. Far from your parents now, beside the ships, the writhing worms are nibbling you. The dogs will soon be glutted with your naked body. Naked—although at home you have so many beautiful, delicate clothes, the work of women. I will burn all of them on blazing fire. They are no good to you, you cannot wear them. But this will bring you glory from the people of Troy, both men and women.” T_T