The Hero 43
When Hector is fi nally dead, Achilles pierces his ankles and runs
a rawhide thong through them. He yokes the body to his chariot and
in bitter triumph rides away, dragging Hector’s head in the dust.
Later, after Patroclus in buried and the body of Hector is in the
Greek camp, Achilles will perform a ritual that recalls his triumph.
Again, he pierces Hector’s ankles and again yokes his body to the
chariot. He drags the corpse around Patroclus’ tomb three times,
the number of times that Hector ran around the walls of Troy in
terror (XXII, 198; XXIV, 19). Achilles wants as protracted, public,
and complete a triumph over Hector as he can possibly achieve.
For Achilles, it would be deeply unsatisfying to fi ght Hector
alone, or with only a few witnesses, one man against another in the
manner of a nineteenth- century duel. No, the scene in front of Troy
repeats and enlarges the scene of Achilles’ humiliation at the begin-
ning of the poem, when Agamemnon takes his slave girl. All the
Greeks are there to watch Achilles reclaim what is his by right, his
full honor. The Trojans are there, too, and they must see. Honor is
won and lost in public— with all looking on. The restoration to full
stature for Achilles is a theatrical event, almost ceremonially reli-
gious in its inclusion of men and gods, presided over by Zeus who,
with his balance beam, takes on something like the role of the high
priest at a sacrifi ce.
Is Achilles’ restoration of pride, fullness of being, a horror to the
civilized reader? It may be. But for Achilles the restoration of pride
is necessary— without it he will not be able to fi ght with full force.
Without it, he will not be able to lead the troops to victory and pro-
tect them when they’re besieged. Achilles is the Greek bulwark
against defeat, which means death and slavery. He owes it to his
fellow soldiers and himself to restore his brilliant and terrifying full-
ness of being. To fi ght as he must, Achilles needs to believe he is
the best of the Greeks, and that all of his comrades concur— and
after defeating Hector, he has achieved precisely that.