The Iliad opens with "the rage of Peleus' son Achilles," (Iliad 1.1) and closes with the burial of "Hector breaker of horses" (Iliad 24.944). The bracketing of the poem with descriptions of these two men suggests both their importance and their connection to one another. They lead parallel lives as the top fighters in their respective armies, and, as the poem progresses, their lives and deaths become more and more closely linked. They each struggle to fulfill the heroic ideal, and they both grapple with temptations that lure them away from heroism. While Hector embodies the human heroic ideal, Achilles strives to surpass human heroism to achieve some identification with the divine. These delusions of grandeur diminish Achilles greatly; despite his efforts he can never be immortal, and a mortal god, besides being an oxymoron, would be decidedly pitiful.

Achilles' heroism, therefore, is incumbent on his acceptance of his humanity. Achilles entangles Hector in his struggle to come to terms with his own mortality by recognizing himself in

The two men are lured away from heroism in opposite directions; Hector, by his connections to home and family, and Achilles, by his connections to the gods. To be a hero is to sacrifice one's own personal and familial ties in favor of facing death and striving for glory. In the poem, Hector is repeatedly tempted to abandon the front lines of battle against the Achaeans and to defend his city from within its walls. He is also very attached to his wife, Andromache, the rest of his family, and the entire city of Troy. When he travels into Troy to fetch Paris, he makes a deliberate detour to visit his family and they bid him to remain within the city walls. But although he loves his family intensely, he resists the temptation to remain with them. He says that he must answer the call to "fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers, winning my father great glory, glory for myself" (Iliad 6.527-29). He is determined to stay on the path of the hero, but it is very difficult for him to resist the pull of his loved ones. Just before his fatal encounter with Achilles, he is almost swayed by his family to stay within the walls of Troy. "Why debate, my friend? Why thrash things out?" he asks himself (Iliad 22.146). Hector is constantly torn between heroism and familial ties, but he finally chooses the path of glory as he turns to face Achilles, his murderer.

In this way, Achilles' fury at Hector is a misplaced rage against his own mortality. Hector embodies all of the human ties such as family and citizenship that Achilles rebels against. Achilles rages against the prospect of mortality, which has become embodied in his enemy, a very human hero. Killing Hector is Achilles' last desperate attempt to stomp out his own mortality. His efforts are, of course, in vain; his humanity cannot be killed because it is an essential part of him. He still tries to kill his humanity even after Hector's death. He "was bent on outrage, on shaming noble Hector" (Iliad 22.466) almost immediately after he kills his enemy. He defiles Hector's body almost obsessively. He continues to abuse Hector's body many days after the life has left it because he is still trying to conquer the mortality that it represents.

On the occasion of Priam's visit, Achilles finally gives over Hector's body, and therefore gives himself over to death. Since Achilles identifies himself with Hector, in putting Hector on the funeral pyre he is finally accepting his own mortality. "Achilles lifted Hector up in his own arms and laid him down on a bier" (Iliad 24.691-92). He does not leave this job for one of his servants or friends, but personally makes the decision to give the body to Priam. In giving Hector up for a proper burial,

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Approximate Word count = 1831
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)