The Iliad, Book 22

Summary, Book 22

Here it is; the showdown we have all been waiting for.  Achilles vs. Hector.  This is not your classic good vs. evil clash, because neither side is wholly sympathetic.  But there is certainly enough drama to go around.

The book begins with the Trojans retreating into the safety of the city walls.  Hector, however, is still hanging out outside the gates.  Apollo, meanwhile, approaches Achilles and mocks him, revealing to him that he deceived him in the previous scene (disguising himself as Agenor).  Achilles is enraged and laments the fact that he is not powerful enough to kill a god.

While this is happening, Priam and his wife, Hecuba, stand at the gates and try to lure their son back into the city.  Priam mourns the loss of several of his other sons, and begs Priam to come in.  We then get this highly disturbing gem from Hecuba:

Then she undid her robe,
and with her hands pushed out her breasts, shedding tears.                 
She cried out, calling him—her words had wings:

“Hector, my child, respect and pity me.
If I ever gave these breasts to soothe you,
remember that, dear child. Protect yourself
against your enemy inside these walls.
Don’t stand out there to face him. Stubborn man,
if he kills you, I’ll never lay you out
on your death bed or mourn for you, my child,
my dearest offspring—nor will your fair wife.
Far away from us, beside Achaean ships,                               
their swift dogs will eat you.”

Good lord, that is inappropriate. Anyway, it is to no avail.  Hector is debating what to do and he decides to stay and fight Achilles.  But as he sees Achilles approaching he is seized with terror and starts to run. Achilles chases him several times around the city walls, as the gods look on.

Zeus pities Hector, and mulls over whether or not to save him.  I thought this was established?  They can’t change fate!  Athena, despite being merciless, makes sense in her response:

  “Father, lord of lightning and dark clouds,                                   
what are you saying? How can you want
to snatch the man back from his wretched death.                                     
He’s mortal—his fate doomed him long ago.
Well, do as you wish, but we other gods
will not all approve your actions.”

Zeus concedes her point and frees her up to go down from Olympus and set things in motion.  He puts both Achilles’s and Hector’s fates on his famous golden scale, and he gets the expected result:  Hector is toast.  At that, Apollo abandons Hector and the end is near.

Athena first goes to Achilles and tells him to take a rest and that she will bring Hector to him.  Overjoyed, Achilles obeys.  Athena than appears to Hector in the form of Deïphobus, his brother, offering his assistance in fighting Achilles.  Hector’s reply, and in fact this whole scene, is actually heartbreaking:

“Deïphobus, in the past you’ve always been
the brother whom I loved the most by far                                    
of children born to Hecuba and Priam.
I think I now respect you even more,
since you have dared to come outside the wall,
to help me, when you saw me in distress,
while the others all remained inside.”

Renewed by the help of his “brother”, Hector confronts Achilles.  Achilles tosses a spear at him and misses, but Athena returns it to him.  Hector then tosses his own spear and it hits Achilles’s shield but bounces off.  Hector turns to Deïphobus to ask for his spear, but he’s gone.  Now Hector sees what is happening, and sees that Athena deceived him.  It’s really sad:

 “This is it, then.
The gods are summoning me to my death.
I thought warrior Deïphobus was close by.
But he’s inside the walls, and Athena
has deceived me. Now evil death is here,                                                 
right beside me, not somewhere far away.
There’s no escape. For a long time now,
this must have been what Zeus desired,                                       
and Zeus’ son, the god who shoots from far,
and all those who willingly gave me help
in earlier days. So now I meet my fate.
Even so, let me not die ingloriously
without a fight, but in some great action
which those men yet to come will hear about.”

Hector charges Achilles and is sliced in the neck with Achilles’s spear.  He is mortally wounded, but as he falls he is still able to speak.  He begs Achilles to return his body to his family so they can give him a proper burial.  Achilles laughs and mocks him and assures him that the dogs and birds will eat him.  Hearing this, Hector utters his last words:

“I know you well. I recognize in you
what I expected— you’d not be convinced.
For your heart and mind are truly iron.                                         
But think of this—I may bring down on you
the anger of the gods that very day
when Paris and Phoebus Apollo,
in spite of all your courage, slaughter you                                                
beside the Scaean Gate.”

With that, Hector dies.  He is one of very few remotely sympathetic characters in the Iliad, and it is a sad and brave death.  It also seems to be something of a theme that, with their last breath, those who are killed remind their killer of their own mortality and their own fate.  Sort of a last zing.  Good for him.

Once Hector is dead, Achilles strips his corpse of his armour (which, actually, is Achilles’s original armour that he lent to Patroclus for that brilliantly conceived plan of substitution.)  Achilles and the other Achaeans descend on Hector’s corpse and mutilate it, stabbing it.  Achilles then ties Hector’s body to the back of a chariot  and drags it behind him through the dirt.  Priam and Hecuba see this and are devastated, wailing with grief for their favourite son.

Andromache, Hector’s wife, is weaving a cloak in her room when she hears the sounds of extreme grief coming from outside.  In her heart she knows the cause, but she brings her ladies outside to see what is happening.  Then she sees Hector’s corpse being dragged behind Achilles’s chariot and collapses with grief, lamenting her son’s fate.  Her ladies join her in her lamentations.  And that is where Book 22 ends.

Reading Notes

This was an extraordinarily powerful section.  I genuinely feel for Hector.  There was a period of a few books where I thought he was spiralling a bit out of control, but I think that lack of exposure to Achilles is what caused my sympathy to wane.  Once Achilles was back on the scene and I remembered just how insufferable he was, I once again felt sorry for Hector.

And honestly, none of this is Hector’s fault.  His brother started this mess by running off with another guy’s wife and here he is sacrificing his life so his brother can screw a woman who, while beautiful, sounds completely wretched in every other respect.

I suppose you could say that revenge has been served for the death of Patroclus.  And yes, Hector (and Apollo) killed him.  But it all comes back to Achilles and his refusal to fight.  That is why Patroclus is dead to begin with.  Is this rage at Hector something of a projection?

There are only two more books, but I don’t think we can top this chapter for drama and upheaval.