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Some revision
1. News of the dead Patroclus (Book 18). New armour for Achilles (Books 18-‐19).
2. Achilles re-‐enters the baBlefield in Book 20 (Theomachy). No other Greek hero gets a menGon on the baBlefield aHer Achilles returns.
3. Achilles in water and fire of the river Scamander (Book 21)
4. The ‘chain of death’: Sarpedon (Book 16); Patroclus (Book 16); Hector (Book 22); Achilles (aHer the Iliad); Troy (aHer the Iliad).
Some revision
5. The focus has become more and more on the treatment of bodies aHer death (esp. from Book 16). This is a major theme in Books 22-‐24 6. NoGce how ‘normal’ it is to strip a dead body of armour for a keepsake. Remember the Greeks are there for booty. Hector takes the armour of Patroclus (Achilles’ armour) and wears it. There is a sense that this only reiterates his doom.
IlIAD 22: The Quest of Hector
• 22.99-‐130: Hector ponders whether to surrender or to fight: “BeBer to bring on the fight with him as soon as it may be. We will see to which one the Olympian grants the glory.” (22.129-‐30)
Chris Mackie
Hector, with Priam and Hecuba, arms for baBle; Euthymides, c.510 BCE, A_ca. Image source: ARTstor.
IlIAD 22: The Quest of Hector • 22.131-‐166: Achilles approaches; Hector flees “And the shivers took hold of Hektor when he saw him, and he could no longer stand his ground there, but leH the gates behind, and fled, frightened” (22.135-‐6)
• Achilles pursues Hector, while the gods look on
Chris Mackie
Below: Perseus pursued by the Gorgons (view 1, 2); Gorgon Painter, c.600-‐590 BCE, A_ca. Image source: ARTStor.
IlIAD 22: The Quest of Hector
• 22.167-‐213: The gods watch the pursuit and discuss Hector’s fate “ then the Father balanced his golden scales, and in them/ he set two fateful porGons of death, which lays men prostrate,/one for Achilleus, and one for Hektor, breaker of horses, / and balanced it by the middle; and Hektor’s death-‐day was heavier/and dragged downward towards death, and Phoibos Apollo forsook him.” (22.209-‐213)
Chris Mackie
IlIAD 22: The Quest of Hector
• Hector at 22.256ff. asks Achilles to agree to honour the loser’s corpse, and he will do the same.
• Achilles responds: “As there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions, nor wolves and lambs have spirit that can be brought to agreement...so there can be no love between you and me, nor shall there be oaths between us, but one or other must fall before then to glut with his blood Ares the god who fights under the shield’s guard” (22.262-‐7)
Chris Mackie
Iliad 22
• The duel of Achilles and Hector
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Chris Mackie
Achilles overcoming Hector. From leH, Athena, Achilles, Hector, Apollo. Greek, 480-‐450 BCE. Image source: ARTStor slide library
IlIAD 22: The Quest of Hector
• Fatally wounded, Hector begs Achilles to honour his corpse
• Achilles: “No more, entreaGng of me, you dog...I wish only that my spirit and fury would drive me to hack your meat away and eat it raw...the dogs and birds will have you for their feasGng” (22.345-‐354)
• Hector: “Be careful now; for I might be made into the gods’ curse upon you, on that day when Paris and Phoibos Apollo destroy you in the Skaian gates, for all your valour” (22.358-‐9)
Chris Mackie
IlIAD 22
Chris Mackie
Achilles drags the body of Hector behind his chariot. Painter A of Leagros Group, Late 6th-‐Early 5th C. B.C , A_ca. ARTstor Slide Gallery .
The role of Athena
• 22.213 Apollo deserts Hector once his fate becomes clear
• NoGce that Athena appears to Hector in disguise as his brother Deiphobus.
• She is ‘working’ for Achilles and her aim is to get him to stop running away, and stand and fight (22.229-‐31).
• Deiphobus says he will join Hector in the fight, and Hector says that he will run no longer (22.250).
The role of Athena
• Achilles throws his spear and misses (22.273ff.). • Athena fetches the spear and returns it to him, unseen by Hector (22.276-‐7)
• Hector throws his spear and it pierces Achilles’ shield (22.289ff.) He turns to ‘Deiphobus’ and asks him for another spear (22.294-‐5)
• But Deiphobus was not there, and Hector knows he is doomed.
Chris Mackie
Iliad 22: the role of Athena
• Does Athena’s role in helping Achilles weaken his victory because he needs a god to achieve victory?
• Or does Athena’s role enhance his greatness?
• Does Athena give Hector a more noble death?
Chris Mackie
From leH: Achilles, Athena, Hector. ABributed to the Berlin Painter, c. 490 -‐ 480 BCE, A_ca. Beazley Archive no. 201956. Image source: hBp://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K8.6.html
The Death of Hector
• NoGce that Achilles scans Hector’s body. • He throws the spear and it pierces a chink in the armour at the neck
• Hector is wearing the set of immortal armour taken from Patroclus’ body.
• Because it is immortally made it cannot be pierced, hence the need for it to pass through a chink in the armour
• Compare the fall of Troy and the Wooden Horse
Chris Mackie
The Death of Hector
• NoGce the emphasis in Book 22 on the treatment of a body, especially aHer death
• This is a major theme in the Greek literature and myth (cf. AnGgone)
• In Hector’s case there are references to eaGng raw flesh, muGlaGon of the body (by the men around Achilles), and the rejecGon of burial. The culminaGon of all this is dragging the body around face down, presumably to obliterate the facial features.
Chris Mackie
The Death of Hector
• The gods, however, look aHer the body of Hector and do not allow Achilles to hurt it.
• This sets up the magnificent ransom scene in Book 24.
• NoGce too that Book 23 (the funeral for Patroclus) is concerned with the proper conduct of disposing of of a body
• Thus books 23 and 24 have two funerals, one for the Patroclus (Book 23), and one for Hector (book 24)
Chris Mackie