Now my army's ruined, thanks to my own reckless pride, I would die of shame to face the men of Troy and the Trojan women trailing their long robes... Someone less of a man than I will say. "Our Hector - staking all on his own strength, he destroyed his army!"

No way out. If I slip inside the gates and walls,
Polydamas will be first to heap disgrace on me –
he was the one who urged me to lead our Trojans
back to Ilium just last night, the disastrous night
Achilles rose in arms like a god. But did I give way?
Not at all. And how much better it would have been!
Now my army’s ruined, thanks to my own reckless pride,
I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing their long robes…
Someone less of a man than I will say, "Our Hector –
staking all on his own strength, he destroyed his army!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 118-128. Hector probes his own heart as he waits to fight Achilles. He blames his own reckless pride for not listening to Polydamas’s advice to retreat after Achilles returned to the battlefield. However, if he slips back behind the city walls, he will be called a disgrace and lose his honor. Hector knows that he is in a bad situation, but cannot get out of it.

Homer Quotes