Meanwhile, Hector stands on the rampart while his parents plead with him not to fight Achilles: he's mad, and besides, Hector's no match for him. Hector ignores his parents, deciding that it's best to just do away with Achilles for good. For a moment he considers offering him some riches, but he decides not to go through with that plan. While he's vacillating, he looks up and sees Achilles coming at him and trembles with fear. He takes off running--another ironic bit, as he swore he'd never do that. But, they circle the city three times.
Zeus, observing the action, turns to his daughter, Athena, to have mercy on these two. She, like her mother, warns him not to mess around with fate.
Hector is losing the battle fast: Achilles keeps cutting him off and cornering him. Athena addresses Achilles:
"There's nothing but glory on the beachhead
For us now, my splendid Achilles,
Once we take Hector out of action, and
There's no way he can escape us now,
Not even if my brother Apollo has a fit
And rolls on the ground before the Almighty.
You stay here and catch your breath while I go
To persuade the man to put up a fight" (243-50).
Athena draws the two men toward each other and Hector gives up running. It is here that Hector asks Achilles not to defame his corpse if he kills him. Of course, Achilles scoffs at this. Hector killed Patroclus and a bunch of other friends of his. Not likely he'll bend on this issue.
The fight is onAchilles raises his spear and Hector ducks, mocks him. Then Hecto flings his javelin at Achilles, and the disk bounces of Achilles' shield. While Hector reaches for another, he senses his number is up. While he's ruminating over Athena's trick, impending death, and the possibility of doing some great deed to fix his memory in the annals of history, Achilles charges, spears him right in the tender place where the collarbones meet. Hector dies wearing his rival's armor.
The Greeks strip Hector of his armor, take a moment to admire his body before stabbing it with their spears. But Achilles has a far greater plan for Hector's body: he's going to show it off to Priam and Hecuba, just for kicks. And Vengeance.
Achilles pinions Hectors ankles together and attaches him to his chariot, allowing the horses to drag the man's body before Zeus and everybody. Priam and his wife are understandably horrified; Andromache is clueless until she hears her mother-in-law scream. Then her biggest fear mounts: that her child will grow up a virtual orphan, dependent on the whims of his father's friends. He will be turned away and shamed.
Finally, Andromache resolves to burn her husband's clothes: her husband's body has been desecrated and will never burn on the pyre.
photo: harvardmuseum.org
No comments:
Post a Comment