Why does Achilles return the body of Hector? Following the funeral of Patroclus, Achilles' grief makes him restless. He ties Hector's body to his chariot and repeatedly drags it around the tomb of Patroclus, in his furious need for retribution.
He rejoins the fighting, crushing Trojans who are in his way, then demands to face Hector. The one-on-one combat ends with Achilles killing Hector. Still pulsing with anger and needing to satisfy his revenge and grief for having lost Patroclus, Achilles allows Achaean soldiers to stab and mutilate Hector's corpse.
Kneeling over his corpse, Achilles sheds tears, which could potentially symbolize the Greek hero's realization of the futility of war, and the possibility of respectful comradeship between the two in the absence of the feud over Helen.
Priam tearfully supplicates Achilles, begging for Hector's body. He asks Achilles to think of his own father, Peleus, and the love between them. Achilles weeps for his father and for Patroclus. He accepts the ransom and agrees to give the corpse back.
What Does Achilles Do to Hector's Body? After killing Hector, Achilles rode around the city of Troy dragging the his lifeless body with him for three days. He then tied Hector's corpse to his chariot and rode to the camp of the Achaeans still dragging the body of Hector with him.
But even after Agamemnon offers to return Briseis, along with numerous other gifts, Achilles remains angry, indicating that one of Achilles' major character flaws is his excessive pride.
The Iliad, the story of the Trojan War, offers several moral lessons to its readers, including the importance of leaders treating their soldiers with respect, the importance of accepting apologies, and the need for respecting family bonds.
Achilles kills Hector
Achilles: "I smashed your strength! And you—the dogs and birds will maul you, shame your corpse while Achaeans bury my dear friend in glory!" (395-7)
Near death, Hector pleads with Achilles to return his body to the Trojans for burial, but Achilles resolves to let the dogs and scavenger birds maul the Trojan hero.
Each day for the next nine days, Achilles drags Hector's body in circles around Patroclus's funeral bier. At last, the gods agree that Hector deserves a proper burial. Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector's father and the ruler of Troy, into the Achaean camp.
If Hector is a tragic hero, than his tragic flaw would be his stubbornness to accept the force of fate and his own delusional belief in a Trojan victory. But beneath these flaws are the works of understandable human feelings; Hector does all this because of his desire to protect Troy, his people and his family.
He and Hector come face to face in the battle and Hector kills Patroclus. When Achilles learns of his beloved friend's death, he flies into an intense rage. He rejoins the battle and makes it his personal mission to be the one who kills Hector to avenge Patroclus' death.
He pierces Hector's neck, but not his windpipe. Hector falls down while Achilles taunts him with the fact that his body will be mutilated by dogs and birds. Hector begs him not to, but to let Priam ransom him.
He stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him. Hector had begged for an honorable burial in Troy, but Achilles was determined to humiliate his enemy even in death. He dragged Hector's body behind his chariot all the way back to the Achaean camp and tossed it on the garbage heap.
When Achilles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, refused to fight because of a quarrel with the Greek commander Agamemnon, Hector nearly managed to drive the Greeks from Troy once and for all. But he made the mistake of killing Achilles' best friend Patroclus in battle.
SUMMARY: This article examines the order of the three laments in Iliad 24 and especially the significance of Helen's prominent position as the last mourner of Hector.
Achilles strips off Hektor's armor and fastens his naked body to his chariot by the heels. Then he gallops off, dragging the corpse behind him in disgrace.
Upon his death Hector, the dying prince of Troy told Achilles, the warrior of Greece, his last words. “Spare my body!
Lesson Summary
After leading the Greeks in battle against the Trojans, disguised in the armor of the great Greek hero Achilles, Patroclus is killed by the warrior Hector, fulfilling a prophecy made by the god Zeus. Enraged at the death of his dear friend Patroclus, Achilles is driven to seek vengeance.
Patroclus's Last Words
''...had twenty such men as you attacked me, all of them would have fallen before my spear. Fate and the son of Leto have overpowered me, and among mortal men Euphorbus; you are yourself third only in the killing of me.
This is exemplified when Hector, the best of the Trojans, flees from god-like Achilles, simply because he is afraid. It is important for people to read and consider this in order to understand how war is glorified today and how detrimental and corrosive that is to society.
The term Achilles heel references a vulnerability or weakness. It is rooted in the myth of Achilles' mother dipping him in the River Styx, making his entire body invulnerable except for the part of his foot where she held him—the proverbial Achilles heel.
Much of it is no doubt fantasy. There is, for example, no evidence that Achilles or even Helen existed. But most scholars agree that Troy itself was no imaginary Shangri-la but a real city, and that the Trojan War indeed happened.
Climax: The Grecians use Odysseus' scheme to infiltrate the walls of Troy via a great wooden horse, which is supposedly an offering to the god Poseidon. Once inside, the Grecians begin slaughtering the Trojan citizens. Climactic Moment: Paris shoots Achilles through his mortal heel—killing him.
Thetis, the mother of Achilles, disguised him as a girl and planted him among the daughters of Lycomedes. This was to prevent him from fighting in the Trojan war because an oracle had prophesied that Achilles would die should he partake in the war.