No more running from you in fear, Achilles!
Not as before. Three times I fled around
the great city of Priam – I lacked courage then
to stand your onslaught. Now my spirit stirs me
to meet you face-to-face. Now kill or be killed!
Come, we’ll swear to the gods, the highest witnesses –
the gods will oversee our binding pacts. I swear
I will never mutilate you – merciless as you are –
if Zeus allows me to last it out and tear your life away.
But once I’ve stripped your glorious armor, Achilles,
I will give your body back to your loyal comrades.
Swear you’ll do the same.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 22, lines 296-307. A supremely confident Hector stops running from Achilles. He faces him and challenges him to a death duel. He is so full of confidence that he offers a pact to Achilles: if Zeus allows him to take Achilles’s life, he will give his body back to his comrades. He asks Achilles to swear that he will do the same. This is an example of dramatic irony, because the audience already knows that Hector will die, having learned it from conversations between Zeus and Athena, who decided it between them. But you have to admire the heroism of Hector, even if it means his doom.