Hector

Hector was a prince of Troy in Greek mythology, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. His wife was Andromache and they had a son, Scamandrius or Astyanax.

Hector was considered the greatest warrior of Troy, but he did not approve of the war that had started between the Greeks and the Trojans. During the Trojan War, he was the leader of the Trojan army. It was prophesied that the first Greek who would land on Trojan soil would die. Odysseus, cunning as he was, threw his shield on the soil and landed on it. Therefore, the next person who stepped off the ship was Protesilaus and was killed in a duel with Hector, fulfilling the prophecy.

Who Was Hector of Troy?

Hector was the crown prince of Troy and the commander of the Trojan army, the eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and heir to the Trojan throne. He is the greatest warrior on the Trojan side in Homer’s “Iliad” and the defender who holds the city for nearly ten years before Achilles kills him.

• Parents: Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba, his queen
• Wife: Andromache; son: Astyanax, also called Scamandrius
• Brothers and sisters: Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus, Troilus, Cassandra, Polyxena, and many more
• Killed by: Achilles, in single combat outside the walls of Troy

Hector, Prince of Troy

Hector was a prince rather than a king, because his father Priam ruled Troy throughout the whole war. As the firstborn son he was heir to the throne, and he carried the authority of a commander without ever inheriting the crown.

• He led not only the Trojans but the whole coalition of allied peoples defending the city
• Priam is old and takes little part in the fighting, so Hector acts as Troy’s effective military leader
• His death leaves Troy without a defender, and the city falls soon afterwards
• His son Astyanax, the next heir, was killed by the Greeks after the sack of Troy for that very reason

Who Was Hector’s Father?

Hector’s father was Priam, the last king of Troy, and his mother was Queen Hecuba. Priam is said to have fathered fifty sons, but Hector was the eldest and by far the most important of them.

• Some later traditions name Apollo as Hector’s true father, though Homer treats him firmly as Priam’s son
• Priam himself crosses the battlefield alone at the end of the “Iliad” to beg Achilles for Hector’s body
• His most famous brother is Paris, whose abduction of Helen started the war Hector had to fight

Was Hector a Great Warrior?

Hector was the greatest warrior Troy had, admired by his enemies as much as by his own people. He fought the Greek champion Ajax to a standstill, drove the Greeks back to their ships, and killed Patroclus, the closest companion of Achilles.

• Homer’s standing epithet for him is “tamer of horses,” and the “Iliad” ends with those words at his funeral
• He killed Protesilaus, the first Greek ashore at Troy, and many other named Greek fighters
• He was the only Trojan who could hold the line while Achilles stayed out of the fighting
• He was not, however, a match for Achilles, and both men knew it before the final duel

Was Hector of Troy Real?

There is no historical evidence that Hector existed. He is a literary character from Homer’s “Iliad,” not a documented Trojan prince, and no inscription or record from the ancient Near East names him.

• Troy itself was real: a Bronze Age city at Hisarlik in northwest Turkey, excavated since the 1870s
• The site shows destruction layers consistent with warfare, but nothing that names any individual from the myth
• The “Iliad” was composed roughly four centuries after the events it describes, drawing on oral tradition rather than record

Hector in the Trojan War

Hector and Ajax

Hector later proposed that a truce be called between the two sides, and a duel should decide the result of the war. Ajax was the Greek hero who stepped forward and duelled Hector. However, the duel ended in a stalemate after a whole day of fighting, and the two heroes exchanged gifts, admiring each other's strength and skills.

Hector and Andromache

The most famous scene of Hector away from battle is his farewell to his wife Andromache at the Scaean Gate. She begs him to fight defensively and stay on the walls; he answers that he would die of shame before the Trojans if he held back, and that he already knows Troy will fall.

• He reaches for his infant son Astyanax, who screams in fear at the horsehair crest of his helmet
• Hector laughs, takes off the helmet, and prays that his son will grow up a greater man than his father
• The scene is the reason Hector is remembered as the most human figure in the “Iliad,” a warrior defined by what he stands to lose

Hector and Patroclus

Hector killed Patroclus, the dearest friend of Achilles, when Patroclus fought wearing Achilles’ own armour. That single killing decided Hector’s fate, because it brought Achilles back into the war with nothing left to restrain him.

• Apollo struck Patroclus first and Euphorbus wounded him, before Hector delivered the final blow
• Hector stripped the armour of Achilles from the body and wore it himself
• With his dying breath, Patroclus warned Hector that he too would soon be killed

Hector and Achilles

The last fight that Hector gave was against Achilles. However, when he saw Achilles and while he was ready to fight him, he suddenly was overcome with fear and started running. Achilles chased him, and Hector finally decided to battle his fear and stopped running, after seeing the goddess Athena in the form of his brother Deiphobus. Achilles threw a spear against Hector, who managed to evade it. However, when he turned to get a spear from his brother, he saw no one there, and realised that he was about to die. With the last amount of courage he had, he drew his sword; after a fierce duel between the two heroes, Hector died. Achilles, enraged that Hector had killed his friend Patroclus, then dragged Hector's body with his chariot, outside the Trojan gates for twelve days, before he finally accepted to give it to the Trojans, so they could bury him properly.

Why Did Achilles Kill Hector?

Achilles killed Hector to avenge Patroclus. He had withdrawn from the war after a quarrel with Agamemnon and refused every appeal to return, until Hector killed the one man whose death he could not endure.

• Achilles knew that killing Hector would seal his own death, because his mother Thetis had told him he would die soon after
• He chased Hector three times around the walls of Troy before Athena tricked Hector into standing his ground
• Hector begged that his body be returned to his family; Achilles refused, and only Priam’s plea changed his mind

Hector’s Prophecy and Funeral

As he died, Hector prophesied the death of Achilles, naming Paris and Apollo as the ones who would kill him at the Scaean Gate. The prophecy came true within a matter of weeks.

• Apollo and Aphrodite protected the corpse from decay and from dogs throughout the days of abuse
• Priam crossed the plain alone at night, entered Achilles’ tent, and kissed the hands of the man who had killed his son
• Achilles granted a twelve-day truce for the funeral, and the “Iliad” ends with Hector’s burial

Facts About Hector

The essential facts about Hector can be stated briefly:

• He was the eldest of Priam’s fifty sons and the crown prince of Troy
• His name in Greek is Εκτωρ (Hektor), connected with the verb meaning “to hold” or “to hold fast” – fitting for the man who held the city
• His epithet in Homer is “tamer of horses,” and the last line of the “Iliad” belongs to him
• He opposed the war his brother Paris had caused, but fought it out of duty to Troy
• He killed Protesilaus, the first Greek to set foot on Trojan soil, and later Patroclus
• He fought Ajax to a draw and the two exchanged gifts in mutual respect
• He never lived to see the Trojan Horse or the fall of his city
• Both Hector and Achilles were killed before Troy fell, each foretelling the other’s death

Unraveling Hector: The Defender of a Doomed City

Hector is the rarest kind of figure in Greek myth: an enemy the poem admires. The “Iliad” is a Greek epic, yet its most sympathetic character fights on the losing side, defending a city the audience knows will burn.

What separates him from the heroes around him is that he has no choice and no illusions. Achilles fights for glory and can leave whenever he wishes. Hector fights because the walls behind him hold his parents, his wife, and his son, and he says outright that he expects them all to be destroyed. He knows Troy will fall, and he goes out to the gate anyway.

That is why the poem gives him the last word. After the rage of Achilles, the anger of the gods, and ten years of slaughter, the “Iliad” ends not with a victory but with a funeral, and with the burial of Hector, tamer of horses.

See Also: Priam, Hecuba, Paris, Achilles, Patroclus, Andromache, Astyanax, Ajax, Trojan War