Editing Hector (section)

== Reception and analysis ==
Many scholars consider Hector to be the most sympathetic character in the ''Iliad'', more than the main hero of the story, Achilles.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Farron |first=S. |date=1978 |title=The Character of Hector in the 'Iliad' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24591547 |journal=Acta Classica |volume=21 |page=39 |issn=0065-1141 |quote=Many scholars have recognized that Hector is the most sympathetic and interesting character in the ''Iliad''.}}</ref> For example, [[Richmond Lattimore]] writes that Hector "is still the hero who forever captures the affection of the modern reader, far more strongly than his conqueror [Achilles] has ever done".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Homer |first= |author-link= |title=The Iliad of Homer |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |others=Translated with an introduction by [[Richmond Lattimore]] |year=1951 |pages=36–37}}</ref> Hector's strong emotional relationship with his family has been cited as a feature which makes his character particularly sympathetic and tragic.<ref name=":0" /> Lattimore and Steven Farron interpret Hector as a naturally unwarlike person driven to fight by the circumstances.{{Sfn|Farron|1978|p=40}}{{Sfn|Lattimore|1951|p=46}} Lattimore writes that Hector does not believe in Paris' cause but fights anyway out of a sense of duty and concern about the opinions of others:

{{Blockquote|text=Some hidden weakness, not cowardice but perhaps the fear of being called a coward, prevents him from liquidating a war which he knows perfectly well is unjust. This weakness, which is not remote from his boasting, nor from his valour [...], is what kills him.{{Sfn|Lattimore|1951|p=46}}}}

[[Emily Wilson (classicist)|Emily Wilson]] describes Hector as bringing on his own death through his pursuit of martial glory, itself a result of his "dread of shame" and the demands of his social role as a warrior. Instead of following his wife's practical advice to defend Troy from the city wall, Hector insists on fighting on the frontlines for the sake of glory. Thus, Wilson writes, Hector isolates himself from his society and its immediate needs through his efforts to uphold the warrior's code.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Homer |title=The Iliad |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |others=Translated by [[Emily Wilson (classicist)|Emily Wilson]] |year=2023 |isbn=9781324001812 |location=New York |pages=xxxii-xxxiii}}</ref><ref>According to [[James M. Redfield]], the poem includes a rational explanation for Hector's decision not to defend the city from its wall: Troy is greatly outnumbered and has limited resources with which to pay its allies, so the Greeks cannot be held off indefinitely. {{Cite book |last=Redfield |first=James M. |title=Nature and Culture in the ''Iliad'': The Tragedy of Hector |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-8223-1409-7 |edition=Expanded |location=Durham |page=153}}</ref> [[James M. Redfield]] sees Hector's fate in the ''Iliad'' as "in some general sense fated and necessary" but "also, when and as it occurs, the consequence of his own errors and chosen by himself".{{Sfn|Redfield|1994|p=142}} Ultimately, writes Redfield, it is not any flaw in Hector's character which leads to his doom but his ''[[aidos]]'' ('shame' or 'fear of disgrace'). From the perspective of Homeric culture, where morality and conformity to social norms are not distinguished, ''aidos'' is the "emotional foundation of virtue". Hector falls victim to his fear of disgrace before his community and is "defeated by his own characteristic goodness".{{Sfn|Redfield|1994|pp=116, 158}}

Many, but not all,<ref>A number of scholars deny the existence of such an incongruence; see {{harvnb|Farron|1978|p=55, note 55}}. According to Farron, the main reason for the denial of the incongruence is that it was one of the points of the [[Homeric scholarship#Analysts|Analyst]] school of Homeric criticism; thus, partisans of the opposing viewpoint, Unitarians (the idea that the Homeric epics are the work of a single author, not a variety of poets or editors), strove to refute it.</ref> scholars of the ''Iliad'' see an incongruence between Hector's in-story reputation and his actual achievements. He is described by different characters as the most fearsome warrior among the Trojans but falls short of these expectations on many occasions.{{Sfn|Farron|1978|p=40}} Examples of this include his poor performance in duels with Ajax and Diomedes; his avoidance of Agamemnon; his victory over Patroclus only with the help of Apollo and another Trojan; and his flight in fear from Achilles before finally facing him.{{Sfn|Farron|1978|pp=41–55}} Different explanations have been proposed for this inconsistency. According to John Scott, who theorized that Hector was invented by Homer and not present in the pre-Homeric tradition of the Trojan War, Homer could not change the circumstances of the deaths of the major Greek heroes by having them be slain by Hector. Therefore, he gave Hector "human and moral excellences" to make up for his lack of martial achievements.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=John |title=The Unity of Homer |publisher=Biblo and Tannen |year=1965 |edition=Reprint |location=New York |page=87 |orig-date=Originally published in Berkeley in 1921}} Cited in {{harvnb|Farron|1978|pp=56–57}}.</ref> According to another view, in the original tradition, Hector was in fact a great warrior, but his achievements were deliberately diminished by later bards (per the [[Homeric scholarship#Analysts|Analyst]] view of the Homeric epics' composition) because of their pro-Greek bias.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mahaffy |first=John |author-link=John Pentland Mahaffy |title=A History of Classical Greek Literature, Vol. I, Part I |publisher=Macmillan |year=1891 |edition=3rd |location=New York |page=87}} Cited in {{harvnb|Farron|1978|pp=55–56}}.</ref> Lattimore writes that Homer's consistent efforts to reduce Hector's achievements result in one of the poet's "accidental triumphs", since they actually make the reader "sense deception, and feel that Hektor '''really was''<nowiki/>' greater than Patroklos or any other Achaian except Achilleus".<ref name=":1" /> Steven Farron agrees that the incongruence between Hector's achievements and reputation is a deliberate choice by the author but rejects the idea that it reflects a pro-Greek bias. Farron states:
{{Blockquote|text=The contradictions between Hector's domestic strengths and military weaknesses and between his reputation and achievements form a coherent, tragic character. His tragedy is that he is a peaceful, home-loving man who is forced by circumstances into the role of the great hero and defender of Troy. But despite his desperate efforts, he is unable to fulfil that role and live up to the expectations that everyone, including himself, has for him.{{Sfn|Farron|1978|pp=56-57}}}}