Hector of Troy
Portraits of Masculinity #1
Today I am starting a new series coinciding with men’s health awareness month, which is every November, that I am calling Portraits of Masculinity. Throughout this month I will be putting out short articles analyzing fictional characters from mythology and literature and discussing why I believe they serve as archetypes of masculinity, and what we should learn from their examples. This week I am starting out with a hero from the distant past, one that stands in sharp contrast to the great but petulant men that surround him. It is unfortunate that he came to such a tragic end, but the true hero of the Iliad is of course none other than Hector of Troy.
Hector stands in sharp contrast to the other named heroes of his time such as Odysseus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and of course his archrival Achilles. There are of course many attributes they share: they are all great warriors, great leaders, and men of noble birth. But they are not all great men of character. Each and every one of them is grievously flawed, and all but Menelaus (strangely) suffer greatly for these flaws either during or soon after the conclusion of the Trojan War. But Hector is different. He has flaws, and some of them are flaws of virtue, but they are not crippling so. Unlike so many other heroes in the epics that receive their just desserts, Hector is shown regularly overcoming his flaws. His fate is externally imposed, not internally derived.
The best way to summarize what Hector represents in a single word is the virtue of duty. Duty duty to his family, duty to his city, and duty to his conscious. I believe the best place to begin understanding the character of Hector is by examining on of the most human moments in all of Greek mythology, the story of Hector and Andromache at the gates of Troy.
To set the scene, the Greeks have just driven back the Trojan lines after a duel between Menelaus and Paris was interrupted by Aphrodite and failed to end the war. Knowing that he must once more join the battle to lead the counterattack, Hector dons his armor and takes up arms. But as he is about to leave the city he is intercepted by his wife, Andromache, with his son, Astynanax, at the city gates. She begs him not to go. She pleads with him to stay behind for the good of her and Astynanax, because she knows that if he chooses to fight he will most likely parish in battle.
He comforts her by explaining why he must do his duty. As leader of the troops, he must fight on the front lines. He gently reminds her that if he was to abandon his duty it would only be delaying the inevitable. With the wolves at the gates there was no place to hide, and while it may be the easy choice in the moment it would make him not better than his brother Paris. Even if he was to run he may secure his life but he would loose his honor, and how could he raise a son knowing that he was a coward who abandoned all responsibility? He would rather choose to die on his own terms, having done all that he could do to try and defy fate, than meekly surrender.
Before finally leaving he goes to take a look at his infant son, but because he is wearing his armor and crested helmet his son does not recognize him and bursts out crying. It is a reminder of not just what war does to us but what it turns us into. But he then takes off his helmet and embraces his family, showing that there was still something human underneath the monstrous. Hector then leave, never to see his family or his city again. The fate of his wife is enslavement and that of his son death, but for those few minutes he truly had something beautiful.
One last story I believe truly encapsulates who Hector was, and it is the story of his death. Hector is a brave man, but in his final duel with Achilles he gives in to fear and, as Homer accounts, flees from him by running around the walls of Troy three times. But in the end he marshals his fear and turns to face the greatest of the Greek champions despite knowing he cannot win. In the end Hector is mortal, and he cannot hope to stand against a literal demigod, especially when Athena interferes and tips the scales even further into Achilles’ favor. This is the epitome of a hero: facing insurmountable odds out of love for kin and country. For there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend. But it is an incredibly human story, and while Hector’s martyrdom could not save his city, his example may well still move the hearts of men.
It is certainly interesting to note that Homer, and by extension the Greek subconscious, does place such emphasis on the moral character of Hector. All of the great champions have some special trait that makes them stand out: Odysseus his cunning, Ajax his strength, and Achilles his peerless skill. But none are portrayed as moral paragons; more often they are shown to be petulant children. One would think that the victors would portray themselves as the civilized ones and the Trojans as barbarians, but so often the opposite is the case.
This is probably because the Iliad was used for centuries as text for moral education, and presenting the faults of the side that the student would most identify with would help to identify those faults in themselves. And presenting the Trojans as heroic but cursed by fate both heightens the associated dramatic tragedy and allows for a demonstration of the proper behavior in the face of the inevitable. But regardless of the actual reason, with the exception of Paris, the Trojans are presented as a race of better men, in many ways even more noble than the pagan gods.
It is thus for good reason that Dhante placed Hector and his family in Limbo along with all of the other virtuous pagans, and why in the Medieval period Hector was considered one of the “Nine Worthies”. Despite being from an age of egotism and vainglory he stands firm as a symbol of true heroism from an age yet to come. He is of a character that would not have been out of place among the greatest of knights that sat at Arthur’s table at Camelot. Which is where we will be looking next time in order to examine the man who embodies the virtues of chivalry, and yet nonetheless feels like a mortal man.