The Iliad Hector Quotes

But ceaseless war's upon us - quote with picture of Hector

But ceaseless war’s upon us!
Time and again I’ve gone to battle, fought with men
but I’ve never seen an army great as this. Too much –
like piling leaves or sand, and on and on they come,
advancing across the plain to fight before our gates.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 906-910. Zeus sends messenger goddess Iris to Troy, alerting them to assemble their armies to meet the Achaeans advancing towards the city. She warns Trojan King Priam and his son Hector that she has never seen an army as great as this. She likens them in a simile to piling leaves or sand.
Paris, appalling Paris! Our prince of beauty - Hector in The Iliad

Paris, appalling Paris! Our prince of beauty –
mad for women, you lure them all to ruin!
Would to god you’d never been born, died unwed.
That’s all I’d ask. Better that way by far
than to have you strutting here, an outrage –
a mockery in the eyes of all our enemies. Why,
the long-haired Achaeans must be roaring with laughter!
They thought you the bravest champion we could field.
and just because of the handsome luster on your limbs.
but you have no pith, no fighting strength inside you.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 3, lines 43-52. Hector rebukes his younger brother Paris for his cowardice and lack of honor after he backs away from combat with Menelaus and hides within the Trojan ranks. Hector says that Paris is an embarrassment to his family and to Troy. The man who later kills Achilles by shooting an arrow through his heel is portrayed by Homer as weak, cowardly, and a womanizer who doesn’t pull his weight on the battlefield.

Maddening one, my Goddess, oh what now?
Lusting to lure me to my ruin yet again?
Where will you drive me next?
Off and away to other grand, luxurious cities,
out to Phrygia, out to Maeonia’s tempting country?
Have you a favorite mortal man there too?
…Well, go to him yourself – you hover beside him!
Abandon the gods’ high road and be a mortal!
Never set foot again on Mount Olympus, never! –
suffer for Paris, protect Paris, for eternity…
until he makes you his wedded wife – that or his slave.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 3, lines 460-465, 470-474. When Aphrodite bids the beautiful Helen over whom the Trojan War is fought to join Paris in his bed, Helen rebukes the goddess of love for interfering in her life. Aphrodite is protector of Hector, who kidnapped Helen from her Achaean husband Menelaus. Helen sees herself as the "slave" of Hector and implies that her kidnap was Aphrodite’s doing, telling the goddess to go him Hector herself.

Hector, you go back to the city, tell our mother
to gather all the older noble women together
in gray-eyed Athena’s shrine on the city’s crest,
unlock the doors of the goddess’ sacred chamber –
and take a robe, the largest, loveliest robe
that she can find throughout the royal halls,
a gift that far and away she prizes most herself,
and spread it out across the sleek-haired goddess’ knees.
Then promise to sacrifice twelve heifers in her shrine,
yearlings never broken, if only she’ll pity Troy,
the Trojan wives and all our helpless children,
if only she’ll hold Diomedes back from the holy city.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 102-113. Helenus, a son of Priam and also a seers, tells his brother Hector how to save Troy from Diomedes’s onslaught. Hector is urged to go back to the city to organize a Trojan sacrifice of twelve heifers to Athena so that the goddess will pity Troy and hold Diomedes back.

Look,
your people dying around the city, the steep walls,
dying in arms – and all for you, the battle cries
and the fighting flaring up around the citadel.
You’d be the first to lash out at another – anywhere –
you saw hanging back from this, this hateful war.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 386-391. Hector scolds his brother Paris because he has been missing from the battlefield. Using metaphorical language he talks of fighting flaring all over the city as though it were a fire, and people dying everywhere. Yet Paris is nowhere to be seen, instead Hector finds him at home with Helen and her handmaidens.
Hector with Andromache and child

Reckless one,
my Hector – your own fiery courage will destroy you!
Have you no pity for him, our helpless son? Or me,
and the destiny that weighs me down, your widow,
now so soon? Yes, soon they will kill you off,
all the Achaean forces massed for assault, and then,
bereft of you, better for me to sink beneath the earth.
What other warmth, what comfort’s left for me,
once you have met your doom? Nothing but torment!
I have lost my father. Mother’s gone as well.
…You, Hector – you are my father now, my noble mother,
a brother too, and you are my husband, young and warm
and strong!
Pity me, please! Take your stand on the rampart here,
before you orphan your son and make your wife a widow.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 482-491, 509-512. A very emotional Andromache pleads with her husband Hector to remain within the city walls. With the Greek forces massed for assault, she warns him that his fiery courage will lead to his destruction. She turns out to be correct, foreshadowing that Hector will die later in the war.
Hector tells Andromache he is no shrinking coward

All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman.
But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing their long robes
if I would shrink from battle now, a coward.
Nor does the spirit urge me on that way.
I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely,
always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers.
winning my father great glory, glory for myself.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 522-529. Hector’s reply to his wife Andromache when she begs him to remain home, be a husband to her, and not leave their child an orphan. Hector is touched by her plea, but won’t allow himself to be moved. What is more important to him, he makes clear to her, is winning great glory, not being a shrinking coward in battle and always to fight in the front ranks.

Zeus, all you immortals! Grant this boy, my son,
may be like me, first in glory among the Trojans,
strong and brave like me, and rule all Troy in power
and one day let them say, "He is a better man than his father!" –
when he comes home from battle bearing the bloody gear
of the mortal enemy he has killed in war –
a joy to his mother’s heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 568-574. Hector’s parting words before going to battle in this prayer to Zeus for his infant son and wife. He asks the god to take care of his son’s reputation, so that he it will exceed that of his father. He asks also that his son be a joy to his mother. As well as being a great warrior, Hector is a committed family man, who deeply loves his wife Andromache and son.

So Hector prayed
and placed his son in the arms of his loving wife.
Andromache pressed the child to her scented breast,
smiling through her tears. Her husband noticed,
and filled with pity now, Hector stroked her gently,
trying to reassure her, repeating her name: "Andromache.
dear one, why so desperate? Why so much grief for me?"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 574-580. Hector is depicted here as a loving family man, trying to reassure his tearful wife Andromache as he departs for battle and prays for his family.
No man will hurl me down to death against my fate, Hector tells Andromache

Why so much grief for me?
No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate.
And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it,
neither brave man nor coward, I tell you –
it’s born with us the day that we are born.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 580-584. In his farewell to his wife, Hector speaks here about the ancient Greek idea of fate, believing that his life and death are controlled by it. He tells his wife Andromache not to be so upset or worried about him during the conflicts of war, saying that no man can kill him if he is not fated to die.

And someday one will say, one of the men to come
steering his oar-swept ship across the wine-dark sea
‘there’s the mound of a man who died in the old days,
one of the brave whom glorious Hector killed.’
So they will say, someday, and my fame will never die.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 101-105. Hector, who has challenged the best of the Achaeans to fight a duel with him, imagines one day a traveler arriving to the burial place of the Greek hero he will defeat. The defeated warrior’s bravery and his own fame and glory will be celebrated, says Hector.

Both men bent on combat, on they fought like wind
when a god sends down some welcome blast to sailors
desperate for it, worked to death at the polished oars,
beating the heavy seas, their arms slack with the labor –
so welcome that brace of men appeared to the Trojans
desperate for their captains.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 3-8. The Trojan troops welcome their leaders Hector and his brother Paris back to the fighting. An epic simile compares the soldiers’ relief to a welcome blast of wind sent to tired sailors, who have been laboring to death at their oars in heavy seas.

Wave on wave of them settling,
close ranks shuddering into a dense, bristling glitter
of shields and spears and helmets – quick as a ripple
the West Wind suddenly risen shudders down the sea
and the deep sea swell goes dark beneath its force –
so settling waves of Trojan ranks and Achaeans
rippled down the plain.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 70-76. The Trojan and Achaean armies momentarily pause to listen to Hector address them. An extended simile likens them to waves on the sea, rippling and turning dark as the West Wind suddenly blows over them.

Ajax harnessed himself in burnished, gleaming bronze
and once he had strapped his legs and chest in armor,
out he marched like the giant god of battle wading
into the wars of men when Zeus drives them hard
to clash and soldier on with heart-devouring hate.
So giant Ajax marched, that bulwark of the Achaeans –
a grim smile curling below his dark shaggy brows,
under his legs’ power taking immense strides,
shaking his spear high, its long shadow trailing.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 237-245. A fully armed Great Ajax moves out to face Hector in single combat. In an epic simile he is compared to a giant god of war, Ares, marching into a clash of warriors stirred up to fight by the god Zeus.

A flash of his helmet as rangy Hector shook his head:
"Ajax, royal son of Telarnon, captain of armies,
don’t toy with me like a puny, weak-kneed boy
or a woman never trained in works of war!
War – I know it well, and the butchery of men.
Well I know, shift to the left, shift to the right
my tough tanned shield. That’s what the real drill,
defensive fighting means to me. I know it all,
how to charge in the rush of plunging horses –
I know how to stand and fight to the finish,
twist and lunge in the War-god’s deadly dance."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 271-281. Responding with confidence to the taunts of Great Ajax, Hector shows that he is unafraid of the Greek giant. He speaks about being an experienced and skilled warrior, who knows well the butchery of men. Displaying the qualities of a hero, Hector tells his opponent that he knows how to stand and fight to the death.

Come,
let us give each other gifts, unforgettable gifts,
so any man may say, Trojan soldier or Argive,
"First they fought with heart-devouring hatred,
then they parted, bound by pacts of friendship."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 345-348. Sometimes on the battlefield, there is a fine line between enemies and friends. After agreeing to a truce in their duel until the next day because night falls, Hector suggests to Great Ajax that they exchange gifts. This shows that the Trojan hero believes his sworn enemy is due a certain respect and honor as a worthy opponent.

The god bent his head that the armies must be saved
not die in blood. That instant he launched an eagle –
truest of Zeus’s signs that fly the skies – a fawn
clutched in its talons, sprung of a running doe,
but he dropped it free beside the handsome shrine
where the Achaean soldiers always sacrificed to Zeus.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 8, lines 281-286. Zeus feels sorry for the weeping Agamemnon, who appeals to the god as Hector calls for torches to burn the Greek ships. Zeus sends Agamemnon an omen that his armies are to be saved – an eagle carrying a fawn in its talons and dropping it free at the shrine where the Achaeans sacrifice to Zeus.

Hector far in the lead, bristling in all his force
like a hound that harries a wild boar or lion –
hot pursuit. snapping quick at his heels,
hindquarters and flanks but still on alert
for him to wheel and fight – so Hector harried
the long-haired Argives, killing the last stragglers,
man after lagging man and they, they fled in panic.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 8, lines 384-390. As the killing machine of Hector attacks and despatches the Achaeans, he is compared to a hound harrying a wild board or lion in this epic animal simile.

How his spirit leapt when he heard those horrors –
and buckling his gleaming armor round his body,
out he rushed to war.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 723-725. The Myrmidon warrior Phoenix tells Achilles the story of the great Aetolian warrior prince Meleager, that foreshadows Achilles’s return to battle. During the Aetolians war with the Curetes, Meleager left the battle to stay in bed with his wife Cleopatra. Eventually Cleopatra prevailed on him to rush back to war by "recounting all the griefs that fall to people whose city’s seized and plundered – the men slaughtered, citadel burned to rubble, enemies dragging the children, raping the sashed and lovely women." Achilles will also rush back to war when the grief falls close to home with the killing of his closest friend Patroclus by Hector.

Hector bore his round shield in the forefront, blazing out
like the Dog Star through the clouds, all withering fire,
then plunging back in the cloud-rack massed and dark –
so Hector ranged on, now flaring along me front,
now shouting his orders back toward the rear,
all of him armed in bronze aflash like lightning
flung by Father Zeus with his battle-shield of thunder.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 69-75. On the battlefield on the Trojan side, the troops mass around Hector. In a dramatic epic simile, the Trojan warrior is likened to a blazing star as if lit up by lightning from Zeus.

Hector –
whipping the fight and fire in each man like a huntsman
crying on his hounds, their white fangs flashing,
harrying savage game, some wild boar or lion –
so at Achaea’s ranks he drove his fearless Trojans.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 338-342. Hector rallies the Trojan soldiers in a drive against the Achaean ranks. An epic simile compares him to a huntsman urging on the hounds in pursuit of savage game. He goes on to kill nearly a dozen Greek captains and the Achaean line begins to flee.

think of the hounds and huntsmen circling round
some lion or boar when the quarry wheels at bay,
rippling in strength as the men mass like a bastion
standing up to his charge and hurl their pelting spears
and the boar’s brave spirit never flinches, never bolts
and his own raw courage kills him – time and again
he wheels around, testing the huntsmen’s ranks
and where he lunges out the ranks of men give way.
So Hector lunged into battle, rallying cohorts now,
spurring them on to cross the gaping trench.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 50-59. A brave and heroic Hector attacks the Achaean wall. An epic simile likens Hector to a lion or boar, surrounded by hounds and huntsmen hurling spears at their quarry, and the animal repeatedly turns around and lunges at its attackers.

For suddenly, just as the men tried to cross,
a fatal bird sign flashed before their eyes,
an eagle clutching a monstrous bloody serpent in both talons,
still alive, still struggling – it had not lost its fight,
writhing back to strike it fanged the chest of its captor
right beside the throat – and agonized by the bites
the eagle flung it away to earth, dashed it down
amidst the milling fighters, loosed a shriek
and the bird veered off along the gusting wind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 230-239. As the Trojans led by Hector and Polydamas try to storm and breach the Achaean wall, Zeus sends a sign, an omen. An eagle with a serpent in its talons flies over the Trojan army. But the great bird is in agony from the serpent’s bites and flings it down to earth among the fighters.
Close