Hector Foreshadowing

J. A. Stuart

“There can be no sweet murmuring (…) do as your purpose directs, and do not hold back any longer.” Using this passage as a starting point, discuss how Hector’s death is foreshadowed and made to seem tragic.

Hector’s death is the culmination of 22 books of foreshadowing, this in and of itself makes Hector’s death so tragic because throughout all those books the audience has been shown how noble and loved Hector is. It is clear how much he means to his family in their desperate attempts to stop him facing Achilles, for Priam’s reaction when he sees Hector about to confront Achilles is extreme and creates great sympathy. Hector is not yet dead but his family is already mourning him because they know he cannot defeat Achilles, “he

is far stronger than you.” Having been told all the awful things that will happen when Hector dies by Priam heightens the terror during Achilles’ pursuit because it means the audience knows that the ramifications of Hector’s defeat extend far beyond the death of one man. The tragedy of Hector’s death is that it represents the destruction of the city he died trying to protect.

Although the Iliad does not narrate the fall of Troy, it does incorporate this event symbolically both by the general superiority of the Greek gods and heroes to those of the Trojans and, in particular as mentioned above, by the death of Hector “who alone protected Ilion”.

The destruction of the city is repeatedly stated as the collective goal of the Greek army. But Homer imbues it with even greater meaning by his description of Troy as a socially developed community of men and women, parents and children, younger men and older generations, whose annihilation is felt as the destruction of a rich human culture and civilization by the equally human but far more savage Greek army. Much of the tragic power of the Iliad is derived from a paradox: the activity that has the highest value - attainment of honour and glory by both Trojans and Greeks, involves destroying a city that represents all that is domestically and socially most humane and civilised – a city much like the home cities the Greek warriors left

behind.
As the audience is shown the relationship between Hector and his family, Homer builds up the foreshadowing of Hector’s death whilst also creating pathos for him. During Andromache’s speech in book 5 she says that there will be no other comfort left for her “when you meet your fate, only misery.” This speech is laden with pathetic imagery, but it is said in vain for she herself has admitted it is his fate to die. Further in the speech, her last attempt to make him stay is by telling him that he will make a vulnerable orphan of his child and a defenceless widow of his wife. This is an interesting point because his death means there is no one strong enough left to protect the most vulnerable of Troy – the children, women and old men; in their mourning for Hector, his family becomes a metaphor for Troy as a whole. This is exemplified in the lamentations for Hector in book 22, first we see Priam break down crying – and old man; then we see Andromache’s lament – a women; within this lament she speaks on behalf Astyanax – a child. Hector feels compelled to reaffirm his heroism and go out and fight, but it becomes an act as harmful to his family as it is to his enemies.

Priam’s relationship with Hector is particularly interesting as it is used to heighten the tragedy in the poem. Priam says of his son that ‘he was a god among men, and did not seem like the son of a mortal man but of a god.’ This passage is slightly paradoxical, because he says this on his way to retrieve Hector’s dead body from ruthless and god-like Achilles. These are god-like heroes who are subject to death, and in the case of Hector, we see being violently killed. Hectors’ epithets and descriptions contrast poignantly with his human fate; the epithet helps to bring out the human pathos.

When Achilles has killed Hector he gives a small victory speech over his body: “We have won a great victor: we have slain the god-like Hector, whom the Trojans adored like a god in Troy.

Here the epithet and the idea of adoration by one’s fellow citizens becomes a triumphant taunt. A few moments after this, Homer tells us that Achilles “wrought acts of humiliation on god-like Hector”, piercing his ankles and dragging him through the dust of his own country. The immediate juxtaposition of ‘god-like Hector’ and ‘act of humiliation’ enables Homer to bring out the pathos of the greatest possible fall for a man, from god-like stature to humiliation and

helplessness.

Hector is a victim of fate as seen in the weighing of the scales. Furthermore, he is tricked by Athene into fighting Achilles and so carry out his destiny. However, the divine presence in the Iliad ensures that the fall of Troy is not just one more disaster, but an event of moral significance. Noble Hector must die to ensure the punishment of Troy for stealing Helen from Agamemnon and for having insulted the goddesses Hera and Athena during the judgement of Paris. The fact that Hector knows the war will lead to the destruction of his city and the enslavement of his wife, lead to his last words to Andromache having to do with his “portion”, or with that which can’t be changed. Hector, as the defender of his city, cannot escape the consequences of a heroic way of life that necessarily involves both his own destruction and the destruction of his city. According to scholars such as Schein, in the original Greek these contradictions are particularly clear because the words which express Hector’s obligation as a warrior to Troy also express his responsibility to Andromache (aidos).

Hector does return again from battle and presumably sees Andromache again, but poetically the conversation between the two takes place in their last meeting before Hector’s death. As a result, the audience is absorbed in Hector’s impending doom throughout the subsequent sixteen books, a doom explicitly prophesised by Zeus in book 15 and 17. In these passages, the audience’s knowledge of Hector’s approaching death becomes objective and certain, but Hector himself never shares in this objective knowledge as Achilles does in the knowledge of his own death. Hector does know that death will come at some time and that it is unavoidable, but in contrast to Achilles who has transcended humanity, Hector is merely human and cannot accept this knowledge. He continues to hope; he never consciously foresees, chooses, or prepares himself for his death until it is inescapably upon him.
Hector’s inability to foresee his imminent death shows how limited his perception of himself and his circumstance is. The warning of Polydaumas is parallel to and reinforces the other hints and prophecies of Hector’s impending death. Hector makes this choice thinking that he is living up to his heroic values and patriotic obligations, and that Zeus is behind him. He does not realize that Zeus plans only a temporary Trojan victory followed by their defeat, his own death, and the sack of Troy. This hope Hector carries with him to the bitter end despite all the foreshadowing, makes the moment of Anagnonsis the more acute. His moment of tragic realisation when he learns that Athene has tricked him is all the more crushing because he thought he had a fair chance of winning.