If it really was Achilles who reared beside the ships,
all the worse for him – if he wants his fill of war.
I for one, I’ll never run from his grim assault,
I’ll stand up to the man – see if he bears off glory
or I bear it off myself!
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 18, lines 355-359. Hector is aware of Achilles’s brilliance in battle, but that does not deter him from heroically charging forth. The greatest glory awaits one of the two heroes, he believes, and Hector chooses not to run from it but to stay and fight for it. Hector’s pride is one of his strengths that make him a great warrior, but it also a weakness that will lead to his downfall.