42 Ancient Ideals
Hector’s fate. But not quite. At the point of decision, Zeus raises his
celestial balance beam on high. In one pan is the fate of Achilles, in
the other the fate of Hector. “And down went Hector’s day of doom”
(XXII, 253).
Athena descends to preside at the killing; she takes the form of
Hector’s friend and brother Deiphobus and tells Hector that he
should stand and fi ght, for who knows who may win the contest?
Deluded, Hector stops running and faces his attacker. From then
on nothing is in doubt. Achilles approaches his prey with ferocious
confi dence. Hector, ever the man of reason and decency, begs for
some humane pact between them. He says that if he dies— and on
some level he knows he will—he wants his body returned to his par-
ents so they can perform the funeral rites and mourn him properly.
He w i l l do the same for Achi l les if he shou ld lose the fi ght and perish.
But Achilles laughs. There are no pacts between men and lions, or
between wolves and their prey, he tells Hector. The full restoration
of his honor is going to require not only victory in direct combat:
Achilles will need more.
Hector fi ghts with all he has, but he cannot withstand the force
of Achilles, who overwhelms him. With his dying words, Hector
reminds his great foe that soon he, Achilles, will be dead, cut down
by Paris outside the Scaean Gates. But Achilles is not moved. Let
death come when Zeus and the other deathless gods will it, Achilles
says—as long as I have my glory, as long as I have due revenge.
Every true warrior is willing to make the crucial trade: he will
die early in order to achieve glory. He will perish young in the body
so that his fame can live on and on in the future. There is only one
kind of desirable immortality for Achilles. Heroes do not live to
ascend to heaven—in Homer the afterlife is dismal. The hero wants
to be remembered as a person who does deeds that others cannot;
he wants to live on in the minds of men as someone who did not fear
death.