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Similarities and differences between Hector and Achilles
Achilles treartment of Hector
Similarities and differences between Hector and Achilles
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In a way Achilles and Hector are similar in many ways, but they are also very different. They both take great honor and pride in how they fight on the battlefield. If one did have to choose between the two on who they admire more I would say Achilles. Achilles is strong, fast, loyal to his country and his men, he is also the son of a goddess.
First off Achilles is very loyal to his country even though he disagrees with Agamemnon often. Achilles always looks out for the greater good of Greece. Achilles fights for Greece not Agamemnon and he does not think that Agamemnon is the greatest king. Hector does the same as the king of Greece, and worries more about how he is going to look.
Secondly Achilles is a phenomenal fighter, he is strong, fast
and very well trained. Achilles is very well decorated in battle because of how great of a fighter he is. He has a spear that he fights with that no other man can lift. Achilles is amazingly accurate with it. Many run at the sight of Achilles showing up in a battle. Him and his men are the fiercest warriors. Thirdly Achilles is the son of the goddess Thetis he may not have the support of all the gods his mother and Athena support him. Athena helps him trick Hector which if one thinks about it Hector should have known that his brother really wasn’t by his side. Sense Achilles is half immortal that makes him have special features that Hector my not have. In conclusion, Achilles has so many wonderful traits that make him more admired than Hector. With strength, speed, and being half immortal on his side nothing can defeat him.
Throughout the poem we are lead to believe that Achilles is a great hero, and that Hector is a modest man with a great amount of compassion for his family, and a mostly successful military leader. He is arguably motivated entirely by the fear of letting his family down We’re shown how incompetent his younger brother, Paris, is, and generally given the impression that he is the best man in the Trojan forces. Yet, here we are seeing Achilles, a supposed glorious hero, mistreating his body horribly. While there is a mention of a personal battle between the men in the Embassy To Achilles, we aren’t lead to believe that there were any reasons for such a rivalry other than the fact that they are the best soldiers of their respective armies. Although ultimately, Achilles kills Hector as revenge for the death of his close friend Patroclus, the point could easily be made that the attempted disfigurement was because of Achilles’ pride and self obsession. He has killed the leader of the opposing army, and possible hundreds of other Trojans amidst his aristeia, and is bragging about it to everyone who will pay attention. This is not in line with the idea of eternal glory he wanted so much earlier, and gives the impression that he no longer cares for his public image, and only for his own violent desires. This picks holes both in the idea of glory
In the Iliad, both Hector and Achilles show heroic stature. Achilles was exalted in Greece because of his furious fight skills and was assisted by Athena with killing Hector. Hector was the Trojans best fighter and lacked the strength that Achilles had. Gods played a key role in the deciding factor between the Trojans and the Greeks. Achilles mother Thetis talked to Zeus to persuade him to allow the Trojans to have the upper hand in the war during the suffering Achilles faced due to losing his war prize since to Agamemnon had to sacrifice his war prize back to Chryses (one of the many revered priest of Apollo). Athena managed to convince Hector to battle Achilles by Athena impersonating as Hector’s brother, which ended with Hector being
Throughout the text, major characters seem to be at constant battle with their different emotions. This inner conflict is mirrored by the everyday conflicts between the gods. Just as Zeus and Hera are constantly at odds with one another, so are the different sides of Achilles: his cultural responsibility, pride, honor, and revenge. No one is completely at peace with his or her conflicting emotions in The Iliad – and therefore, neither are the gods, who represent these emotions. Hector is a prime example of a human who finds himself torn between two forces: his love for his growing family, and his duty as a prince of Troy. He admits to Andromache that he worries about his own mortality, but emphasizes that “I would die of shame to face the men of Troy…if I would shrink from battle now, a coward.” (Homer 6: 523, 525). Hector’s deeply ingrained sense of honor and loyalty to home is clearly established in the beginning of the text. Therefore, when Zeus later grants Hector “power to kill and kill till you cut your way to the benched ships” (Homer 11: 241-242), it is not too much of a stretch to attribute Hector’s dodged perseverance to his upbringing and rigid sense of duty, rather than to the
These two characters have obvious differences in their approaches to fitting the heroic mold to which they both try to conform. However, despite their differences and the fact that they are fighting for opposing armies and meet each other with hatred in battle, they also have numerous similar traits which logically lend themselves to a comparison between the two men. They both display behavior that could be described as heroism. The first way in which Achilles, who fights for the Greeks, and Hector, who fights for the Trojans, act differently is how they approach war and the inevitable violence and death which accompany it. Although Achilles knows that he is fated to be killed in battle, when his faithful and devoted friend Patroclus is mercilessly and dishonorably cut down in combat, he puts aside his pride and chooses to temporarily forget about his previous feuds with Agamemnon that have up until now prevented him from participating in the war.
For example, Hector does not like to fight in battle, the only reason why he fights is because he is the only way Troy could ever win the war. However, Achilles loves the war. He even chose being a warrior over having a long life, something that Hector probably would not do. Achilles is drawn to war because of his anger. As I have previously stated, Hector is only fighting in the war because he has to fight for the city of Troy. Achilles on the other hand, does not have to fight for his city. This is because the Greeks are not being attacked. Also, Hector is human. Although his father is a wealthy king, he does not have any god- like powers. Achilles however, is a demi-god he is an exceptional warrior and great runner because of this. Also, because he is a demi-god he is only venerable in his heel. While Hector, being a human, is venerable everywhere. Lastly, Hector is not dictated by rage like Achilles. Even before their battle Hector showed respect towards Achilles. Hector did so by saying “With all the gods as witnesses, I swear: if Zeus gives me the victory over you, I will not dishonor your corps, only strip the armor and give the body back to the Greeks. Promise you’ll do the same.” (22. 281-285). Hector is the perfect foil for Achilles, everything Hector stands for and everything he is, is the polar opposite of
Achilles is introduced into The Iliad getting into a debacle with the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, during the last year of the Trojan War. Achilles starts a quarrel with Agamemnon because he has demanded possession of Achilles’ woman, Briseis, in consolation for having to give up his woman, Chryseis, so that the gods will end their plague upon the Greek soldiers. Achilles does all he can to get his loved one back, but he knows that nothing will waver Agamemnon’s decision. This is when Achil...
Achilles can be described as a Tragic Hero in many ways. He was brave and had great strength but, he was also prideful and lacked control with his emotions, and in all the label of a tragic hero fits him. A Tragic hero is “a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy” (“Tragic Hero”). To many men Achilles was god-like, and immortal, the epitome of a hero to the Greeks, he was strong, brave in the face of war, and of noble birth because he was the son of a goddess. In the Iliad, Achilles, driven by anger seeks revenge on Hector for killing his “dearest comrade” (“The Heroic Age”), Patroclus, whom he claims to have valued more than his own life. He avenges his friend by killing Hector.
In general, the battle of Achilles with Hector and Cycnus had some similarities and differences. Both of the Trojan heroes are loyal to their country and both are Troy greatest warriors. Other than that, both versions of Achilles poses the arrogant and beast characteristic. However, the characters and attitudes of Hector and Cycnus in the battle with Achilles are completely different, where Hector fears and hesitate to battle with Achilles while Cycnus confidently faces the battle with Achilles. In addition, the main reason of battles is different which lead to different treatment of Achilles to their corpse, where Hector corpse was badly treated by Achilles rage for the revenge of Patroclus death. Last but not least, the setting of both battles Trojan heroes is completely different, even-thought they were fighting with the same enemy, Achilles.
Hector and Achilles are alike in many ways. Both these characters, though arrogant, have verified themselves to be great warriors. Achilles is the mightiest combatant in the Achaean militia. This is due to his super human strength and close relationship with the gods. Hector validated himself as the strongest warrior in all of Troy; this is a vast accomplishment as Hector is fully mortal. Hector killed Patroclus because he misconceived Patroclus to be Achilles, due to the fact that he had on Achilles’ armor and had features similar to those of Achilles. The death of Patroclus r...
Angel Morales 2800 Achilles’ Pursuit of Hector In The Iliad, Homer uses vivid similes developed over several lines to enhance the atmosphere of the scene. Both to help the reader understand the vastness of the situation and enhance imagery, these epic similes as they are known help immerse the reader in the image as well as give it a deeper meaning. In Achilles’ pursuit of Hector, Homer does exactly this using two similes rather than one.
In Homer’s The Iliad he tells of the battles and events during the time of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. This was just a small portion of the Trojan War that had lasted ten years. The Iliad shares the ideas of the glory of war, military values over family life, and the impermanence of human life and its creation. One thing that Homer does is characterize the two different warriors Achilles and Hector. These two great warriors both show different kinds of traits that shape the character they become throughout the The Iliad. Achilles is the main hero in The Iliad, but Homer subliminally tries to persuade the reader that Hector is the true hero in this story.
The two leader’s characteristics unfold where it seems as though Agamemnon cares more about power and wants something that was supposed to be given to him whereas Achilles is way more likely to choose honour over anything because at the end of the Iliad Achilles did not take the death of his dear friend Patroclus and he was not happy when his friend passed away and found out who did it. Agamemnon views his honour is greater than any army, but Achilles states “wrapped in shamelessness, with your mind forever on profit” (Homer, Iliad 1.149) proving how Agamemnon seems to always think about himself before others . The only aspect that these two leaders agree on is that honour can be received through women. They believe honour can be received through women because it is a sign of power and status. Agamemnon goes out of his way to ask for Brisesis because the lady that he received in war Chryseis was taken away. Honour was a very important factor for both of these men as they made sure that their one source of honour through a maiden was not
In The Iliad by Homer there are two major excerpts, “The Rage of Achilles” and “The death of Hector”. They both take place during the Trojan war, which was being fought between the Greeks and the Trojans. In “The Rage of Achilles” the Greek leader Agamemnon is forced to give away his war prize and then demands Achilles’s instead. This leads to Achilles becoming furious, resulting in him refusing to fight. “The Death of Hector” takes place later, when Achilles finally rejoins the battle and goes off to kill the Trojan hero named Hector. Based off of ancient Greek values, Achilles is the greater hero due to his honor. bravery and strength. Achilles displays his honor when he gives away his war prize to Agamemnon. He then goes on to fight Hector, a major exhibition of bravery, due to Hector being the best Trojan fighter. Finally, Achilles kills Hector, proving that he possesses great strength.
According the Iliad by Homer, Hector and Achilles are the main characters that have many different, but also they have some similarity.They both have the different in personalities and life. Also, they have the different about leadership and relationship with their family. Both are the two strong warriors and heroes. Achilles is in Greek side, Hector is in the Trojans side , and they both want to win the battle . Both characteristics believed that their fate is to die on the battle as the warrior, but approach war differently. However, they all have the advantage and disadvantage. Also, They have the different reasons to fight the battle that hector fight for his homeland and his family's honor and Achilles fight for Helen , also because he is the best warrior that he want people to respected him.
In the poem, Iliad, Achilles and Hector both show relative heroism in their own different ways. Achilles may have been the more popular hero, but Hector had great heroism as well. Each of these characters possess their own different strengths and weaknesses. These two characters both have pride as being one of their main weaknesses. Hector seems as if he would suit best in the modern world, but there are a few different reasons as to why the ancients may have chose Achilles. Hector and Achilles both lost a lot by letting their pride get in the way of their heroism. Both of these characters were their country’s best warrior. Achilles and Hector have very different personalities, and very different ways of approaching situations.