Poor soldier. Never a thought of death weighs down
your spirit now, yet death is right beside you…
You don the deathless arms of a great fighter –
and all other fighters tremble before him, true,
but you, you killed his comrade, gentle, strong,
…never again will you return from battle, Hector.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 17, lines 230-234, 238. Zeus wags his head in pity and mutters this to himself, as he sees Hector donning Achilles’s armor which he steals from the body of Patroclus. Anyone can don a hero’s armor, but that doesn’t bestow him with the qualities of that hero, as Hector will learn to his cost. Zeus, who gives Hector great power for the moment, knows that the armor is not rightfully his and foretells Hector’s doom.