In Hectors death scene, he proposes an agrrement to Achilles. He says that if he dies he wants Achilles to take his body back to Troy and if Achilles dies Hector will do the same. I feel like Hector only proposs this because he knows he is going to die. He knows that Achilles knows the weak points in his armor, because it was origianally Achilles'. I don't think he really cared what happened to Achilles, and if he thought he had a chance he would have just fought. All Hector cared about was making sure he got all his glory and that he made it to the afterlife. If he didn't care about his pride, he would have retreated like his father wanted, but he wanted to protect his pride and die a hero to Troy. He knew he was going die, but he just didn't know when, he could have just chosen to die later. I feel like if he had one he would not honor his proposal and would have left Achilles' body or taken it hostage, if he didnt care about Petrokolas, then why would he carre about Achilles when he hated him even more. Hector may have wanted to sem honorable and heroic by making his proposal, but his real intentions were to make sure he got were he needed to be in the afterlife.
P.S. I commented on emilyLaforce a life for a life..
I completely agree. Hector knows that he is fated to die at the hand of Achilles, and is really just looking out for himself when he makes this agreement. However, and I am trying to play devil's advocate here, do you really think that Hector would have just broken the agreement? Remember, there is the wrath of the gods of factor in here, and the risk of Hector losing some of his honor by breaking the agreement. Nothing is just black and white in epics such as the Iliad. Hector highly respects and fears the gods, and knows that breaking an agreement with a demigod like Achilles could cause him a lot of grief. I'm certain that the goddess Thetis would not just sit by if Hector dishonored the body of Achilles. The gods don't even like what Achilles does to Hector and are forced to intervene.
ReplyDeleteLet me reword that, it's not that i think he would break the agreement just that if he thought he could win he wouldn't have made the proposal to start with. Sorry about that I should have worded it differently. But yes I do agree with what your saying about the Gods and I don't think Hector would have been as crazy with Achilles body, I just don't think he would pay it much regard.
DeleteI definitely agree that Hektor's intentions in that were kind of to save his own skin, so to speak. He wanted to keep some sort of dignity in his death and he knew he didn't stand a chance. The way Achilles treats his body to me though is so insane. It had to have taken a lowering of pride for Hektor to even make the proposal so I feel like maybe Achilles should have seen that as a sort of plea. Also, Achilles sucks.
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