Love
In BOOK VI, Hector return to Troy, his wife Andromache came running up to meet him.
Hector and Andromache By Scottish artist Gavin Cre Hamilton
“Hector, you are my father, you are my mother
You are my brother and my blossoming husband.
But show some pity and stay here by the tower,
Don’t make your child an orphan, your wife a widow.”
Andromache tried to persuade Hector didn’t go back to the battlefield. The war made Andromache lose her family. But marry to Hector made her had a new family. Now, Hector, her husband, the most important person in her life. She couldn’t accept to lose him, and also she didn’t want to lose her family again.
“When I lose you, Hector,
There will be nothing left, no one to turn to,
Only pain.”
It was the most affecting confession from Andromache to Hector. To Andromache, Hector was her whole life. She couldn’t look at her husband go to the battlefield without say anything. She worried about him and wanted to make him to stay. It is a persuasion of a wife to her husband. But the answer of Hector is: “If I hung back form battle like a coward. And my heart won’t let me.” Not only he was the husband of Andromache, his also was the prince Tory. He could not violate his heart to achieve his wife’s aspirations.
“No one is going to send me to Hades before my time,
And no man has ever escaped his fate, rich or poor,
Coward or hero, once born into this world.”
It was the comfort of a husband to his wife. It also was the love between Hector and Andromache.
Friendship
In book XXI, Achilles finally return to battle, based on his best friend Patroclus’ death.
Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus By Gavin Hamilton
“Son of wise Peleus, this is painful news
For you to hear, and I wish it were not true.
Patroclus is down, and they are fighting
For his naked corpse. Hector has the armor.”
Achilles was refuse Agamemnon before. He could have stay out this battle. The death of Patroclus, made Achilles becomes to Devil. He couldn’t accept Patroclus’s death, and also couldn’t forgive Hector. In order to revenge, Achilles went back to battle, to fight for Patroclus’ glory.
In book XXII, Achilles killed Hector. Before Hector’s death, he beg Achilles, to accept the gold and bronze and send his body back home to be burned. But Achilles’ heart was a lump of iron, Hector didn’t persuade him.
“Don’t whine to me about my parents,
You dog! I wish my stomach would let me
Cut off your flesh in strips and eat it raw
For what you’ve done to me.”
It was a hatred from Achilles to Hector, and also it was the friendship between Achilles and Patroclus.
Family Affection
In book XXIV, it’s a story about Achilles and Priam. Priam, father of Hector. In order to redeem Hector’ body, he went to the Greek ships alone.
“If I am fated to die by the Achaean ships,
It must be so. Let Achilles cut me down
As soon as I have taken my son in my arms
And have satisfied my desire for grief.”
Français : Jérôme-Martin Langlois, Priam aux pieds d’Achille, 1809, Paris, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
Nobody can stop this father to getting his son’s remains back. He came to alone and with gifts to soften Achilles’ heart.
“Think of your own father, and pity me.
I am more pitiable. I have borne what no man
Who has walked this earth has ever yet borne.
I have kissed the hand of the man who killed my son”
Priam using his sincerity to touched Achilles’ heart. He redeemed his son’s remains and brought armistice back to his country. It was a love from a father to his son, and also was a family affection between Priam and Hector.
I agree that these parts of The Iliad were touching. First, Andromache trying to tell Hector not to go back to battle because she doesn’t want him to die. Second, Patroclus’s death was the driving force for Achilles to go back to war and gain victory for the Greeks. Third, Priam begging Achilles for Hector’s dead body. It was also ironic though. Andromache and Hector vividly foretelling their own deaths, Achilles killing Hector for his best friend instead of for his country, and Priam having to get pity from his son’s killer were all ironic as well as touching.