The Ransom Of Hector. From the left Priam approaches with attendants bearing rich gifts. Achilles, at
ease on his dining couch beneath which lies Hector's corpse, turns away to tell a cup-boy to bring more
wine (the boy carries sieve and dipper). The mood is one of supplication to an arrogant hero rather than
the more sympathetic one of Homer (Iliad 24). but was long preferred in Greek art. This Athenian cup is
by the Brygos Painter, of about 490-480 B.C.
Even when he faces Achilles he maintains that the battle is not a foregone conclusion; and it is only at the
last minute that he realizes that this is indeed the end (22.296 ff.). But it is then, when he knows he has
lost and when he has no aid from god or man, that Hector shows his finest heroism:
Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious,
but do some big thing first, that men to come shall know of it.