Hector is the bravest leader of the Trojans in ancient Greek mythology, the main Trojan hero in the Iliad, the son of Priam and Hecuba.

About Hector’s participation in hostilities in the first years of the Trojan War, sources only report that Protesilaus, the Thessalian leader who led 40 ships to the shores of Troy and was the first to land on the Trojan shore, fell at the hands of Hector. According to Hyginus, in this battle Hector killed 31 warriors in total, in the Iliad - 28 Greeks.

Hector became famous only in the tenth year of the war. As the eldest son of Priam and his immediate successor, he leads the Trojans in the fighting, himself distinguished by his strength and heroism.
If Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaeans, brought one hundred thousand Greeks under the walls of Troy, then Hector had fifty thousand at his disposal, and the majority were allies of the Trojans, who fought only for booty or money.
The army of the Trojans themselves, defending their hometown, numbered only ten thousand. However, under the leadership of Hector, they successfully resisted the Achaeans for nine years. Hector did not limit himself to defensive battles, knowing full well that attack is the best type of defense. During forays, Hector always fought in the front ranks, drawing the entire Trojan army with him by his example. Even his enemies recognized the greatness of his exploits.
Twice Hector enters into single combat with Ajax Telamonides, the most powerful Achaean hero after Achilles (Hom. Il. VII 181-305; XIV 402-439). Under the leadership of Hector, the Trojans break into the fortified camp of the Achaeans (XII 415-471), approach the Achaean ships and manage to set fire to one of them (XV 345-388; 483-499; 591-745).
At the very beginning of the war, he was not afraid of the tenfold superiority of the Achaeans and entered into battle with them in order to prevent them from landing on the shore. If he retreated, it was only in order to preserve his army for new defensive battles. During the nine years of war, the Achaeans suffered such losses that they lost heart and were ready to lift the siege of Troy, conclude an honorable peace and return to their homeland.

When, in the tenth year of the war, the Trojan ally Pandarus violated the truce, and Hector had to wage war contrary to the oath-sanctioned treaty, he did not despair and with his courage again won the favor of the gods. Skillfully taking advantage of the discord between Agamemnon and Achilles, because of which Achilles stopped military operations, Hector pushed the Greeks behind the walls of their camp, broke through the gates, and broke through to the Greek ships to burn them. Patroclus, seeing the plight of the Achaeans, asked Achilles to come to their aid, but Achilles refused. He allowed Patroclus to lead the Myrmidon army into battle, gave him his armor, but did not order him to completely defeat the Trojans: having repelled them from the Achaean ships, Patroclus had to return back, so that none of the favorable Three Gods would take up arms against him.
Meanwhile, the Trojans managed to set fire to the ships of Protesilaus at this time. Seeing the destruction of the ships, Achilles struck his thighs in anger and exclaimed:
“Hurry, noble Patroclus, quickly put on your armor! The Achaean ships are already burning: if the enemies destroy our ships, then we will not return to our native land! Arm yourself quickly, and I’ll go and gather the militia.”
Patroclus quickly prepared himself for battle: he put on strong greaves and armor, threw a shield over his shoulder, covered his head with a helmet with a high crest and a long horse's mane, took a sword and two spears, but did not take Achilles' spear: it was heavy, none of the Achaeans except Achilles himself, could not fight with him. The spear was made by the centaur Chiron for Achilles' father, Peleus. While Patroclus was donning battle armor, his friend Automedon harnessed Achilles’ swift-footed, wind-born horses, Xanthus and Balia, to his chariot, while Achilles himself gathered warriors. Burning with a thirst for battle, the Myrmidon leaders and their squads quickly gathered around Patroclus.
Patroclus, looking everywhere for Hector, quickly ran through the enemy phalanxes and defeated their troops. The Trojans mistook Pratocles for Achilles because he was wearing his armor. The brave Patroclus forgot about Achilles' warning and pursued the Trojans to the very walls of the city.
Hector was not taken aback when the Trojans took to their heels, frightened by the appearance of Patroclus in the armor of Achilles. Hector again closed ranks and advanced against them. In the skirmish of the battle, Euphorbus, the son of Panthos, ran up to Patroclus, hit him from the rear with a spear, but did not defeat the hero; Having pulled the spear out of the wound, Euphorbus ran back and took refuge in the crowd of his comrades, since he did not dare to openly fight Patroclus, although unarmed. Patroclus, having escaped death, retreated to the Myrmidon squads.
As soon as Hector saw that his enemy was wounded and retreating from the battle, he rushed after him through the ranks of the fighting Trojans and Danaans and, approaching, threw a spear at him. A spear hit the groin and struck Patroclus to death: he fell to the ground with a noise, and horror then struck the Danaans. Thus the mighty hero fell at the hands of Hector.

After the death of Patroclus, forgetting about past grievances, Achilles was eager to fight to avenge the death of his friend.
When Thetis (Achilles' mother) brought her son new armor the next morning, forged by the god Hephaestus, Achilles challenged Hector:

Pelid had a shining spear, with which
In his right hand he shook, plotting his life on Hector,
Looking for places on the beautiful body for sure strikes.
But the hero's whole body was covered with copper-plated armor,
The magnificent one that he stole, the power of overpowering Patroclus.
Only there, where the keys are connected with ramen, the larynx
A part was exposed, a place where the death of the soul is inevitable:
There, Achilles flew in and struck Priamid with his spear;
A deadly sting passed straight through the white neck;
Only his larynx was not cut by a crushing ash tree
At all, so that, dying, he could say a few words;
He fell into dust, and Achilles cried out loudly, triumphantly:
“Hector, you killed Patroclus - and thought to stay alive!
You weren’t afraid of me either when I was moving away from battles,
The enemy is reckless! But his avenger, incomparably strongest,
Rather than you, I remained behind the Achaean ships,
I, who broke your knees! You for shame
Birds and dogs will tear him to pieces, and the Argives will bury him.”

(Homer, Iliad, XXII)

Achilles put the entire Trojan army to flight, made his way to the city walls and was ready to break into Troy through the Scaean Gate. No one dared to stand in his way except Hector, who obeyed the command of honor and duty.
Despite all the pleas of his parents, his wife, and the rest of the Trojans, he was left alone in front of the locked gates and challenged Achilles to a duel to the death, with the condition that the body of the vanquished would be given to his friends for burial.
Achilles rejected this condition and rushed at Hector. Fear gripped Hector, and he ran around the city walls three times, fleeing from Achilles, who was relentlessly pursuing him. Not only people, but also the gods watched the fight intently. Finally, Zeus threw two lots of death onto the golden scales of fate; Hector's lot fell - his fate was decided.

After the victory, Achilles tied the body of the murdered Hector to a chariot and dragged it around Troy and then handed it over to Priam, the ruler of Troy, for a ransom. According to some authors, Hector's body was ransomed with an equal weight of gold (according to Homer - a greater weight).

According to other sources, the body of the dead Hector was protected by Apollo, so neither predatory animals nor decay touched it. Dead Hector is protected by Apollo, whose help Hector repeatedly used during his lifetime. God twice restored his strength in fights with Ajax (VII 272; XV 235-279), helped Hector during a fight with Achilles, until the lot of fate indicated the inevitability of Hector’s death (XXII 203-213).
The support provided to Hector by Apollo served in the post-Homeric tradition as a reason for the assertion that Hector was the son of God himself (according to Stesichorus, Euphorion and Alexander of Aetolia, the same with Ibycus and Lycophron).
At the council of the gods, Apollo was the first to raise his voice in favor of giving Hector's body to Priam, as a result Zeus ordered Achilles to return Hector's body to Troy, where Priam gave his son an honorable funeral.
According to the oracle, his bones were transferred from Ilion to Thebes, where his grave was at the source of Oedipodium. Hector's grove was located in Ophrynia (Troads). Another grave was shown near Troy.

Andromache (translated from Greek as “at war with her husband”) - in ancient Greek mythology - the daughter of Eetion, originally from Thebes of Placia (or the daughter of Andremon), the wife of Hector, the mother of Astyanax. Called "granddaughter of Dardan."
Going to his last battle, Hector approached the Scaean Gate (the road from the city to the field went through it), Andromache, who was on the wall at that time, hurried to meet him; The nurse walked behind her, holding a baby in her arms - the son of Hector Astyanax.
Hector looked at his son with a silent smile; Andromache, in tears, approached her husband, took him by the hand and began to speak to him like this:
“Hard-hearted, you do not spare either your baby son or your unhappy wife; Soon I will be a widow: soon the Achaeans will kill you, they will all attack you together. It’s better for me then to descend into Hades: if I lose you, there will be no joy for me; I just have to endure sorrows. I have neither father nor mother: my father was killed by Achilles on the day when he took and destroyed Thebes; the brothers also fell from his hand - all seven brothers, every single one, were killed by Achilles; Soon after, death struck the mother too. You are the only one I have now, you are everything to me: my father, my mother, my brother, and my husband. Have pity on me, Hector, stay here on the tower; Don’t make your son an orphan and make me a widow! Place your army there, on the hill, under the fig trees: in this place it is easiest for the enemies to climb the walls.”
Hector answered her affectionately:
“All this worries me too, dear wife; Only it would be a shame for me to look at every Trojan, at every Trojan woman, if I, like a coward, withdrew from the battle and, idle, began to look at him from afar. I can’t do this: I’m used to fighting in the front ranks of the Trojans, gaining glory for my father and for myself. My heart prophesies: the day will come when sacred Ilion will turn to dust, Priam and the people of the spear-thrower Priam will perish. But the coming grief of the Trojans, the fate of my decrepit mother, father and brothers, does not crush me as much as your bitter fate: crying, the Achaeans will take you captive, you will be a slave, weave for a foreigner and carry water; someone will see you shedding tears and say: “Look, the wife of Hector, who surpassed in courage all the Trojans who fought at the walls of Ilion,” she will say and awaken new sorrow in you: then you will remember the husband who would protect you from slavery, would deliver from bitter need. No, it’s better that I die, that they cover me with earth before I see you in captivity and hear your groans!”
So he spoke and wished to hug his baby son. But the baby was frightened and fell to the nurse: the shine of the copper armor and the shaggy mane on his father’s helmet were scary to him. Father and mother smiled; Hector took the helmet off his head and laid it on the ground, then, taking his son in his arms, began to kiss him and rock him and prayed to Zeus and the other immortals:
“Zeus and all of you, immortal gods! May my son, like me, be famous among the Trojan people, may he, like me, be strong in strength and may he reign powerfully over Ilion! When, to the joy of his mother, he returns from battles, burdened with rich booty, let them say about him: he surpasses his father!”
Having said this, he handed his son into the arms of his wife; smiling through her tears, Andromache hugged the baby to her chest. Embarrassed and touched, Hector hugged his wife and, caressing her, told her:
“Do not crush your heart with grief: against fate, a person will not take my life, but no one on earth has ever managed to escape fate. Go home, get busy with weaving and yarn, leave military affairs to the men: let the men take care of the war, and of the Trojans I am more than all the others.”
Having said this, he picked up his helmet from the ground, and Andromache, silent, walked towards the house, often looking back and shedding bitter tears. When she came to her home and the servants saw her in tears, her sadness touched them all, and they began to mourn Hector, as if he had already been killed by the Danaans.

After the capture of Troy, the son of Hector and Andromache was killed by the Achaeans, Andromache became the concubine of the son of Achilles - Neoptolemus. She bore him sons Molossus, Pielus and Pergamon (or one Amphialus, according to Euripides - one Molossus).
After the death of Neoptolemus, Andromache becomes the wife of Helen, brother of Hector. Andromache and Helen reigned in Epirus, where Hector’s former comrade-in-arms Aeneas found them during their travels.
After his death, she went to Asia with her son Pergamum; her heroon (sanctuary) was in the city of Pergamum.

However, a number of authors claim that he was the son of Apollo. Andromache's husband. One of the main characters in the Trojan War, and also one of the main characters in Homer's Iliad.

Hector's exploits began from the first moments of the Trojan War. According to legend, he struck to death the first Greek to set foot on the soil of Troy, Protesilaus.

But Hector became especially famous in the ninth year of the war, challenging Ajax Telamonides to battle. They promised each other, in case of defeat, not to desecrate the bodies of the defeated enemy and not to remove his armor. After a long struggle, they decided to stop the fight and exchanged gifts as a sign of mutual respect. Despite Cassandra's prediction, Hector hoped to defeat the Greeks. The Trojans, under his leadership, broke into the fortified camp of the Achaeans, approached the navy and even managed to set fire to one of the ships.

Hector's next feat was victory in a duel with Patroclus. The hero removed the armor of Achilles from the defeated enemy. Hector was patronized by Apollo himself. Obsessed with revenge for the death of his friend, Achilles fought with Hector and crushed him. He tied the defeated dead Hector to his chariot and dragged him around the walls of Troy, but neither birds nor decay touched the hero’s body, since Apollo protected him.

According to myths, at the council of the Greek gods, Apollo persuaded Zeus to give Hector’s body to the Trojans so that they would bury him with honor. Zeus ordered Achilles to give the body of the deceased to his father Priam.

Hector was a very revered hero in Ancient Greece, which is proven by the presence of his image in antique plastic and on ancient vases.

The protagonist of Euripides' tragedy "Alexander"

The asteroid (624) Hector, discovered in 1907, is named after Hector.

Death of Hector

(Homer. Iliad. P. XXI, 521 - X XII)

Retelling by Georg Stoll

The angry Achilles rushed through the ranks of the Trojans, struck them with a spear and sword and put them to flight; They fled in crowds to the city gates. The king of Ilion, the aged Priam, stood on the sacred tower; Seeing the death and flight of the Trojans, he burst into tears and, going down, ordered the guards to open the gates, and then lock them tightly again as soon as the Trojan soldiers ran into the city. To ward off death from the sons of Troy, Phoebus Apollo raised Agenor, the glorious son of Antenor, to battle: Phoebus filled his heart with courage, and Agenor dared to enter into battle with the formidable Pelid [Achilles is the son of Pelius, that is, Pelid]. Holding a round shield in front of his chest, he aimed at Pelida for a long time and finally launched a spear at him: the spear hit the knee, but did not wound the hero, but bounced back, reflected by the divine armor, a gift from the great artist Hephaestus. Achilles then rushed at Agenor, but Apollo covered the Trojan in deep darkness and, unharmed, led him away from the battle; the god himself took the form of Agenor and ran from Achilles to the shores of Scamander; Achilles chased after him and left the rest of the Trojans. Thus, the god Pelida seduced him and helped the Trojans fleeing from the field to hide behind the walls of the city. The Trojans fled to the city in great confusion; everyone thought about their own salvation only, no one cared about others, no one inquired whether his comrade was alive or died in battle. Running into the city, the Trojans sighed, wiped the sweat from their faces and quenched their thirst. Only Hector remained in the field: as if bound by an evil fate, he stood motionless in front of the Scaean Gate and did not think of entering the city. Achilles at that time was still chasing Apollo; suddenly the god stopped and, turning to Pelidus, said: “Why are you, mortal, pursuing an immortal? Or have you not yet recognized God in me? You won't kill me, I'm not involved in death. You are scouring the field, and the Trojans you struck have already disappeared behind the city walls!” Then Pelid recognized Apollo and, flushed with anger, cried out: “You deceived me, Arrowhead, distracted me from the Trojans! Many of them would fall into dust and bite the ground with their teeth! You stole the glory of victory from me and saved them without difficulty or danger to yourself: why should you fear the revenge of a mortal! But I would take revenge on you if I could!” So the hero exclaimed and quickly ran towards the city.

Elder Priam was the first to see from the wall Achilles running across the field: the hero shone brightly in his armor - like that ominous star that people call Orion’s Dog: in the autumn, among the countless stars burning in the darkness of the night, it shines brightest of all, foreshadowing terrible troubles for mortals . Priam cried out and, sobbing, grabbed his gray head with his hands and began to pray to his son, who was still standing in the field, in front of the Scaean gate, and was waiting for Achilles to approach. “Hector, my beloved son! - Priam told him. - Don’t wait for Achilles in the field alone, without companions: he is stronger than you in battles. O destroyer! If the gods loved him as much as I do, dogs and birds of prey would have tormented his corpse long ago, and my heart would no longer be tormented by sadness! How many of my mighty sons did he kill, how many did he sell into captivity to the peoples living on distant islands! Enter the city, my son; be a protection to the husbands and wives of Ilion. Have pity on me, unfortunate one; Before the doors of the grave, Zeus executes me with a terrible execution, forces me to experience grave troubles: to see the death of my sons, the captivity of my daughters and daughters-in-law, the destruction of our houses, the beating of innocent, defenseless babies. Having destroyed all the Trojans, the enemies will kill me too, and the dogs that I myself have fed will tear my body and drink in my blood!” Thus the old man prayed to his son and tore out his gray hair. Following his father, Hecuba and his mother began to beg Hector; sobbing, she said to her son: “My son, have pity on your poor mother! Do not engage in battle with Achilles: he will defeat you, carry you away, unmourned by either your mother or wife, to his ships, where the Myrmidon dogs will tear your body to pieces!”

But the pleas of his father and mother did not change Hector’s intentions: leaning his shield against the base of the tower, he stood and waited for Achilles. And then Achilles ran up to him, menacing and terrible, like Ares himself; He raised his spear high, and his armor shone with a bright, dazzling light. Hector saw him, trembled and, driven by fear, ran from him; Achilles chased after him like a falcon after a timid dove: the dove rushes to the sides, and the predator, eager to quickly take possession of its prey, swoops straight on it. The trembling Hector quickly ran away from the enemy; but Achilles pursued him tirelessly. They rushed along the city wall, past hills overgrown with fig trees, and came running to the springs of fast-flowing Xanthus. Just as a trapper's dog chases a deer that it has raised, so Achilles chased Hector and did not let him get closer to the wall, where the Trojans could protect him from the towers with arrows. They ran around the city three times and for the fourth time they ran up to the springs of Scamander. The father of immortals and mortals, the provider Zeus, took the golden scales in his hands and cast two lots of death on them: one of Achilles, the other of Priam’s son; Zeus took the scales in the middle and raised them: Hector’s lot sank to the ground. From that moment Apollo retreated from him, and inevitable death approached. Beaming with joy, Athena approached Pelidus and said: “Stop and rest, Pelidus: Hector will not leave us now; wait, I’ll bring him together with you, instill in him the desire to attack you himself.” Achilles obeyed the word of the goddess and, full of joy, stood leaning on his spear; Athena quickly caught up with Hector and, taking the form of his brother Deiphobus, addressed him with the following speech: “My poor brother, how cruelly the fierce Achilles persecutes you! Let’s stop, meet him here and fearlessly enter into battle with him.” Hector answered her: “O Deiphobus! I have always loved you more than other brothers, but now you have become even dearer and dearer to me: you alone came to my aid, while others still do not dare to come out from behind the walls.” “Hector,” said Athena, “and my father and mother, and my friends, everyone begged me to stay with them, but I could not stand it: my heart was crushed by longing for you. Stop, let's fight Achilles, we won't spare any more spears; We’ll see: will Achilles kill us both or will he have to humble himself before us.” So the goddess seduced the hero of Troy and brought him to battle with Pelid.

And when both heroes met, Hector was the first to say to Pelidus: “Son of Peleus, I will no longer run from you; My heart commands me to fight with you: let fate be fulfilled. But before we enter into battle, let us take an oath and call the gods as witnesses to it: if Zeus grants me victory over you, I will not dishonor your body - I will only remove your glorious armor from you, and give the body to the Danaans; do the same." Achilles looked at him menacingly and answered: “It’s not for you, Hector, to offer me the terms of the contract! Just as agreements are impossible between lions and people, between wolves and lambs, so agreements and treaties are impossible between us: one of us must today satisfy the fierce god Ares with his blood. Now remember all your military art: today you must be an excellent, undaunted fighter: you no longer have escape. Soon Pallas Athena will tame you with my spear and at once you will pay me for everything that my friends suffered from you!” And with these words Achilles threw his long spear at the enemy; but Hector, clinging to the ground, avoided the blow: flying over him, the spear pierced the ground. Athena snatched the spear from the ground and again handed it to Pelidus; Hector did not see what Athena did, and, rejoicing, exclaimed loudly: “You planned wrong, Pelis! No, apparently Zeus did not tell you my fate, as you boasted to me now; you thought to intimidate me, but you were mistaken, I’m not going to run in front of you. Now beware of my spear!” So Hector spoke to Achilles and threw a spear at him and did not miss: it hit the very middle of Achilles’ shield, but did not pierce the shield, but, hitting the copper, bounced far back. Seeing this, Hector was embarrassed and lowered his eyes: he had no other spear; He loudly began to call his brother Deiphobus to him, demanding from him another spear, but Deiphobus disappeared. Here the hero realized that he had been deceived by Pallas Athena and that he could no longer avoid death, and in order not to fall ingloriously, without having accomplished anything great, he drew his sharp and long sword and, waving it like an eagle, rushed at Pelidas. But Pelid did not stand idle: angry, he rushed towards Hector, shaking a sharp spear and choosing a place on his body for a more sure blow. The entire body of the Trojan was covered with lush, strong armor, which he had stolen from the body of Patroclus; Only part of the larynx was exposed - near the collarbones. Achilles directed his blow to this place: the spear passed right through his entire neck, and the hero fell to the ground. The triumphant Achilles then cried out loudly: “You thought, Hector, that the death of Patroclus would remain without vengeance! You forgot about me, reckless one! Dogs and birds of prey will now tear your body to pieces, but Patroclus will be buried with honor by the Argovians.” With difficulty catching his breath, Hector began to pray to the winner: “At your feet I conjure you with my life and the people close to you: do not throw my body to be torn to pieces by the Myrmidon dogs; take whatever ransom you want, demand as much as you want, copper, gold - my father and mother will send you everything; just return my body to the house of Priam, so that the Trojans and Trojan women can bury me.” Looking gloomily at him, Achilles answered: “In vain you hug my legs and conjure me: no one will be able to drive away greedy dogs and birds of prey from your head! You wouldn’t be mourned by Hecuba, even if your father agreed to weigh your body for gold!” Moaning, the unfortunate Hector then told him: “I knew you, I knew that no prayer could touch you: you have an iron heart in your chest! But tremble with the wrath of the gods: the day will soon come - the Arrowhead Phoebus and Paris at the Scaean Gate will take your life.” So Hector prophesied and closed his eyes: the soul quietly flew out of his mouth and descended into the abode of Hades. Having snatched a spear from the body of the deceased, Achilles exclaimed: “I am not going to run away from my fate and am ready to face death, whenever Zeus and other immortals send it!”

And then he threw the spear aside and began to remove from Hector his own armor, drenched in blood. Meanwhile, other Achaeans came running to the corpse and marveled, looking at Hector, at his gigantic height and wonderful image. Achilles, exposing the body of the murdered man, stood among the Achaeans and spoke to them like this: “Friend Achaeans, fearless servants of Ares! So the gods helped me put to death the one who did us more evil than all the people of Ilion. Let us now strike at the strong-walled Troy and find out the thoughts of the Trojans: are they thinking of abandoning their strongholds or do they intend to continue to defend themselves, despite the fact that their leader is no longer alive? But what am I planning, what am I telling you! Unmourned, not yet buried, Patroclus lies by the ships! Sing, Achaean men, a song of victory and let’s go to the ships: we have won great glory, we have defeated a powerful hero, whom the Trojans revered as a god!” So spoke Achilles and pierced the tendons on Hector’s legs, and, threading the straps, tied his body to the chariot, then, picking up the armor taken from the deceased, he stood on the chariot and hit the horses with a whip. Achilles quickly rushed towards the ships, dragging Hector’s body behind him; the black curls of Priam's son were disheveled, his face was covered with black dust: the Olympian allowed the hero to be disgraced in his native land, which he had defended from enemies for so long and so valiantly. Seeing this, Hecuba sobbed loudly, tore out the gray hair on her head, beat herself in the chest and, frantic, fell to the ground; Elder Priam also wept bitterly, and all the citizens of Troy also began to cry: screams were heard throughout the whole city - as if the whole of Ilion was being destroyed, engulfed in a disastrous flame from edge to edge.

Andromache was sitting at that time in the most remote chamber of the house and weaving, not foreseeing any trouble; She ordered the maids to light a fire and heat the water: so that water would be ready for Hector’s ablution when he returned from the battlefield. Suddenly Andromache hears screams and screams on the Skei tower: she shuddered and, out of fright, dropped the shuttle from her hands; Andromache knew that her husband never fights with others, but always flies forward, and she thought: had Achilles cut off Hector from the Trojans and attacked him, alone, far from the walls of Ilion? Her heart began to tremble, and like a madwoman she rushed from the mansion to the tower. Entering the wall and seeing how the stormy horses of Pelides were rushing Hector’s body across the field, Andromache fell backward and seemed to give up the ghost. Her daughters-in-law and sisters-in-law gathered around her, picked her up and, pale, overcome with grief, held her in their arms for a long time. Having finally come to her senses, the poor woman began to sob and, turning to the crowd of Trojan wives surrounding her, said: “Oh, Hector, woe to me, poor thing! You and I were both born on the mountain: you in Ilion, and I, unfortunate one, in Thebes, in the house of King Eetion. You descend, my husband, into the abode of Hades, into the underground abysses, and leave me forever, inconsolable, with an orphan and poor baby: the orphan has a lot of grief ahead, a lot of need and insults! With a bowed head, with a tear-stained gaze cast down to the ground, he will walk among his father’s friends and acquaintances and humbly ask for mercy from one or the other. Another, shrinking, will hand the poor man a cup and let him wet his lips in it - only he will not allow his lips, the palate of his mouth to be wetted from the cup. Most often, the orphan will be driven away from the meal, scolded and insulted with rude, heartless words: “Go away,” the happy family man will tell him, “see, your father is not among us!” And, crying, the unfortunate, hungry baby will return to his mother, the poor widow. What will Astyanax experience, what will he endure now, having lost his father! Now his father Hector lies naked near the Myrmidon ships, worms gnaw at his lifeless body, greedy dogs torment him!” So, weeping bitterly, said Andromache; the whole crowd of Trojan wives wept and groaned with her.

Burial of Hector

(Homer. Iliad. P. XXIV)

When the games ended, the Achaeans, going to their tents, hastened to refresh themselves with the evening meal and, tired from the labors of the day, rested in a sweet sleep. But Pelid did not close his eyes all night. Tossing about his bed, he remembered his friend, the ill-fated Patroclus, and shed bitter tears; finally, leaving the bed, he got up and went to the seashore; here, sad and lonely, he wandered until the morning star illuminated both the shore and the sea itself with purple. Then Pelides quickly harnessed the horses, tied Hector’s body to the chariot and wrapped it three times around the burial mound of Patroclus; then he threw the body onto the ground again and went into his tent. Phoebus Apollo had mercy on the body of Priam's son, took care of it and covered it with his golden shield so that it would not be damaged while dragging along the ground behind the chariot of Pelides.

The immortal gods were overcome with pity when they saw how Pelid was dragging Hector’s body behind his chariot. Except for Hera, Poseidon and Athena, all the Olympians were indignant at Pelidas and began to convince Hermes to steal the body of the Trojan hero. The quarrel between the immortals continued for a long time, and finally Zeus called the mother of Pelida Thetis to Olympus and ordered her to go to her son and convince him to humble his anger and, taking a ransom for Hector’s body, gave it to the Trojans. Thetis quickly rushed to her son and found him still in deep longing for his friend. She sat down next to Achilles, caressed him with her hand and said: “My dear child! How long will it take you to break your heart? You don’t think about drinking, or food, or sleep. You don't have long to live; The inevitable Death and harsh Fate stand close to you. Hear my word, I proclaim it to you from Zeus. The gods, said the Thunderer, are angry with you: in a frenzy of anger, you, without accepting a ransom, are holding the body of Hector, unburied, at the courts of the Myrmidons. Take a ransom for the body and give it to the Trojans." At the same time, Zeus sent Iris to Priam’s house. The house of Elder Priam was filled with screams and sobs: the royal old man, covering his gray-haired head with dust, lay prostrate on the ground; His sons sat around the elder and drenched their clothes with tears. In the inner chambers of the house, the daughters and daughters-in-law of Priam wept and were tormented; they remembered their spouses and brothers who had fallen at the hands of the Danaans. Approaching Priam, Iris spoke to him in a quiet voice and said: “Do not be afraid of me, Priam; I did not come to you with evil news - Zeus sent me to your house: he cares and his soul aches for you. Take a herald with you and go with him to Pelidus, take him the ransom for your son and bring his body to Ilion. Do not be afraid of death, do not be afraid of anything on the way: Hermes will go with you and will not leave you until you reach the tent of Pelidas; when you enter his tent, neither he himself will raise his hands against you, nor will he allow others to do so. The son of Peleus is not a madman, not a wicked man: he kindly and mercifully accepts everyone who comes to him with prayer.”

Thus spoke Iris to Priam, and, light-winged, she flew away like a swift wind. Priam ordered his sons to harness the mules and tie the box to the cart, then hastily entered the upper room where the treasures were kept, and called his wife Hecuba there. “A messenger of Zeus appeared to me,” Priam told his wife, “she ordered me to go to the ships of the Danaans, take gifts to Achilles and beg him to hand over the body of Hector, our ill-fated son. What do you say about this, my faithful wife? My heart strongly urges me to go to the camp of the Achaeans today.” Hecuba sobbed loudly and answered her husband: “Woe to me, poor one! Or has your mind perished, for which you were famous in the past both among foreign peoples and in your own kingdom? Do you, old man, alone want to go to the ships of the Danaans, do you want to appear before the eyes of the man who destroyed so many of our strong and valiant sons? An iron heart beats in your chest! When the bloodsucker sees you in his hands, will he spare you, respect your sadness and gray hair? No, we’d rather pay for our son here at home; Apparently, it was destined by fate that our son would feed the Myrmidon dogs with his body! Oh, if I could take revenge on his killer, if I could, biting into his chest, tear his fierce heart to pieces!” This is how the sovereign Priam answered his wife: “Do not resist, Hecuba, do not be an ominous bird - I will not change my decision. Zeus himself, who sympathized with us, ordered me to go to Achilles. If I am destined to die before the courts of the Achaeans, I am ready! Let the bloodsucker kill me, if only he would allow me to hug the body of my dear son!” With these words, Priam lifted the roofs of the chests and took out twelve festive, precious clothes, twelve carpets, the same number of thin tunics and outer garments, weighed ten talents of gold on the scales, took out four golden dishes and two expensive tripods, and took out a priceless, beautiful goblet , given to him by the Thracians at the time when he traveled as an ambassador to the Thracian land: so strong was his desire to ransom the body of his dear son. Then going out onto the porch, Priam saw a crowd of Trojans who had come to persuade him not to go to Achilles: angry, he dispersed the crowd with his rod and menacingly shouted at his sons, Helen and Paris, Agathon, Deiphobus and others: “Will you end, worthless, born Shame on me? It would be better for you all to fall instead of Hector before the courts of the Danaans! Woe to me, poor one: I had many valiant sons, and not a single one remains of them! What remains are these - liars, buffoons, famous only for dancing, despicable predators of the people's flocks! How long will it take you to harness the mules, will you soon put everything that I need to take with me into the box? »

Frightened by the menacing appearance of their father and his angry words, the sons of Priam quickly finished their work: they harnessed the mules, tied a box with expensive gifts, a ransom for Hector’s body, to the cart, and brought out the horses, Priam himself, together with the senior herald, harnessed those horses to the chariot. At this time, sad-hearted Hecuba approached the chariot and gave her husband a golden cup of wine - so that he could make a libation to Zeus. King Priam, having washed his hands with water, stood in the middle of the door; pouring a libation, he looked up to the sky and, praying, exclaimed: “Zeus, our father, possessor from Ida! Help me incline the angry heart of Peleus’s son to mercy! Send me a sign, so that with faith I will go to the ships of the Danaans!” And at that very moment, above Troy, on the right side, a powerful-winged eagle appeared, the prophetic bird of Zeus; Seeing the soaring eagle, the Trojans rejoiced, and Elder Priam, full of hope in the help of almighty Zeus, quickly climbed into his chariot and drove the horses to the city gates; The mules with the cart were sent forward - they were ruled by Ideus, the eldest of the heralds of the Trojan king. All the children of Priam and all his relatives, sad, accompanied the old man to the city gates and mourned him as if he were going to certain death.

Having left the field, the travelers soon arrived at Ila’s grave and stopped their horses and mules at the clear-water river, wanting to give them water; The evening twilight was already falling to the ground. Looking around, Idea saw a husband not far from him, a terrible-looking man, as Idea thought. The frightened messenger pointed him out to Priam and said: “Look here, king: trouble threatens you and me! Do you see this husband: he will kill us both! Let’s hit the horses and gallop away as quickly as possible, or let’s go and fall at his feet and beg for mercy!” The old man was embarrassed and numb with fear; his gray hair stood on end. But the stranger, a handsome, noble-looking young man, approached the travelers in a friendly manner, affectionately took the old man by the hand and asked him: “Where are you going, father, at such an hour, when all people are sleeping? Or are you not afraid of the Danaans? If one of them sees you in the field at night and with such luggage, trouble will come to you: you yourself are weak and frail, and your guide is an old man like you; The first person we meet will offend us. Don’t be afraid of me, I won’t offend you, I would ward off anyone else from you: very much, old man, you remind me of the appearance of my parent.” “You speak rightly, my son,” answered the young man Priam. “But, apparently, the gods have not yet given up on me if they send such a companion as you.” “Tell me the truth,” the young man continued. - Do you, wanting to save your wealth, send them to a foreign land? That's right, do you want to leave Troy? After all, her defender, your dear son, who was not inferior in valor in battle to any of the Achaeans, has fallen!” - “Who are you, good young man? - Priam exclaimed. - Where you're from? Your speeches about the fallen Hector, my ill-fated son, bring joy to the old man’s sorrowful heart!” “My father’s name is Poliktor,” answered the young man. “I am a servant of Achilles, a Myrmidon by birth, I often saw your son in battles in those days when Achilles, angry with King Agamemnon, did not let us into the battlefield: we looked at Hector from afar and marveled at how he crushed the Achaeans with destructive copper.” “If you are truly a servant of Pelidas Achilles,” Priam prayed, “tell me, I beg you: does the body of my son still lie in the courts, or did Achilles cut it into pieces and scatter it to the greedy dogs of the Myrmidons?” - “Neither dogs tormented Hector’s body, nor mortal decay touched him: he lies unharmed to this day at the courts. True, every day at dawn Pelid drags the body around the tomb of his friend Patroclus, but the dead man is unharmed; you yourself will be amazed when you see: your son lies fresh and clean, as if washed with dew, there is not a spot of uncleanness on him. The gods are so merciful about your son, even when he’s dead: he was always close to the hearts of the immortal Olympians.” The old man rejoiced here and, joyful, exclaimed: “My son, blessed are those who bring due tribute to the inhabitants of heaven. My son always honored the gods, and that is what the immortals remembered now, after his ill-fated death.” Priam took a golden cup from the box and, handing it to the young man, asked him to take them under his protection and escort them to Achilles’ tent. The young man was afraid to accept the gift secretly from his leader Pelid, but he willingly agreed to guide the travelers, quickly jumped into the chariot and, grabbing the reins with his powerful hands, drove the horses to the Myrmidon camp. Elder Priam rejoiced that the gods had sent him a kind, strong young man to protect and guide him: that young man was Hermes, sent from Olympus to help Priam by his father Zeus.

While Priam and his two companions rode up to the Achaean camp, the soldiers standing guard at the gate were having supper. Hermes, touching them with his miraculous rod, plunged them all into a deep, sweet sleep, pulled back the bolt at the gate and brought Priam and his cart with gifts inside the camp. Soon they reached the tent of Pelidas. His tent, built from a strong spruce forest and covered with mossy, thick reeds, stood in the middle of the camp, in a wide courtyard, surrounded by a high palisade; The gate leading to the courtyard was locked with a thick spruce bolt: three strong men could barely move the bolt, but Pelid easily pushed it back and closed it alone. Hermes opened the gates for the old man and brought him with gifts into the courtyard of Achilles, then, turning to Priam, said: “Before you, old man, not a mortal youth - before you stands Hermes, who descended from Olympus: my father sent me to you as a leader; Go quickly to Pelidus, fall at his feet and pray that he give you the body of his son.” Following this, Hermes disappeared from the eyes of Priam and ascended to the high-peaked Olympus. Priam hastily descended from the chariot and, leaving Idea by the cart with gifts, entered the tent. Achilles was sitting at the table that time, having just finished his evening meal; Some distance away, at another table, his friends were sitting and having dinner. Unnoticed by anyone, the old man quietly approached Pelidus, fell at his feet and began to cover his hands with kisses - the terrible hands that killed so many of Priam’s sons. “Remember, immortal Achilles,” the old man began, “remember your father, an old man like me: perhaps at this very moment he is being oppressed by evil enemies, and there is no one to save the decrepit old man from grief. But your father, nevertheless, is happier than me: he gladdens his heart with the hope that his son will soon return to him from near Troy, unharmed, covered in glory; I have the Wrath of Achilles, the unfortunate one, there is no hope! I had fifty sons, and most of them were destroyed by the man-killer Ares; One son remained with me, an old man: he was the support and protection of all the Trojans - you killed him too. I came to you for him, Pelid: I brought you a ransom for Hector. Almost gods, Pelid, fear their anger, take pity on my misfortunes, remember your father. I am even more pitiful than he, I endure something that no mortal on earth has experienced: I kiss the hands of the murderer of my children!” The speeches of the grief-stricken old man aroused sad thoughts in Pelida; Taking Priam by the hand, he quietly turned him away from him and cried bitterly: the hero remembered his elderly father, whom he was not destined to see, and he also remembered young Patroclus, who had gone to an untimely grave. Elder Priam wept along with Pelid, mourning the death of his dear son, who was the protection of Ilion. Then Pelid quickly stood up and, touched by the elder’s grief, lifted him by the hand and said: “Poor thing, you have experienced many sorrows! How did you decide to come alone to the camp of the Achaeans, to the man who destroyed so many of your strong, flourishing sons? You are not timid at heart, old man! But calm down, sit here; Let's hide our sorrows in the depths of our hearts; sighs and tears are useless now. The omnipotent gods destined people to live on earth in sorrow: only the gods are carefree. In the abode of Zeus, before his threshold, there are two great urns: one filled with sorrows, the other with gifts of happiness; the mortal for whom Kronion draws from both urns experiences alternately grief and happiness in life; the one who is given gifts only from the first, from the urn of sorrows, wanders, unhappy, on the earth, rejected by the gods, despised by mortals, chased everywhere need is behind him, sorrows gnaw at his heart. So Peleus - the gods showered him with gifts: happiness, wealth, power, but one of the immortals also sent him grief: the old man has only one son, and even he is short-lived, and he does not rest Peleus in his old age, but fights on the battlefields in the distance from the homeland, under the high walls of Troy. So you, old man, prospered before: you shone among people with wealth, and power, and the valor of your sons; but the gods also sent trouble to you, raised a war against Troy and visited your family with sorrow. Be patient, do not destroy yourself with sadness: sadness will not help trouble, and crying will not raise the dead.”

This is how the sovereign elder Priam answered Pelidus: “No, favorite of Zeus, I will not sit down while Hector lies unburied in your tent! Give me the body and accept the ransom - the gifts that I brought you! Looking menacingly at Priam, Achilles said to him: “Elder, do not anger me! I myself know what must return your son; Zeus commanded me to give you the body, I know that you were brought here with the help of the gods, where could you go into our camp, guarded by a vigilant guard, where could you move the bolts on my gate? Be silent and don’t disturb my heart.” So said Achilles, and Priam, frightened by his anger, fell silent. Pelides, however, quickly, like a lion, rushed to the door, followed by two of his friends: Alcimus and Automedon, whom he honored and loved more than anyone else after Patroclus. They quickly unharnessed the horses and mules, brought Idea into the tent, then selected from the cart all the gifts brought by Priam, leaving only two vestments and a thin tunic - they wanted to dress Hector in them. Pelid called the slaves and ordered them to wash and smear the body with fragrant oils, dress him in the vestments left behind, but to do this secretly and away from the tent, so that Priam would not see his son naked and would not flare up with anger: Achilles was afraid that he himself would not be able to restrain himself then out of anger, he will raise his hand against the old man and violate the will of Zeus. When the slaves washed the body of Priamid, dressed him in a tunic and covered him with vestments, Achilles himself laid him on a bed and ordered the bed to be placed on the chariot. Then, entering the tent again, Pelid sat down on a magnificently decorated seat, opposite King Priam, and said to him: “Your son has been returned to you, as you wished, old man; Tomorrow at dawn you can see him and take him to Ilion, but now let’s think about the meal: Niobe, the unfortunate mother who lost twelve children at once, could not forget food; You will have time to mourn your son when you bring him to Troy.” So spoke Achilles and, getting up, killed a white-fleeced sheep and ordered his friends to prepare dinner. And when the old man Priam was full of food, he sat silently for a long time and marveled at the appearance and majesty of Achilles: it seemed to the old man that he saw a god in front of him, and Achilles was equally amazed at Priam: he fell in love with the venerable old man, and he also fell in love with his reasonable speeches. So they sat and looked at each other, finally the old man broke the silence and said to Pelidus: “Let me now rest, beloved of Zeus: from the day my son fell from your hand, my eyes did not close for a single moment: tormented by grief, I groaned I lay prostrate in the dust, today for the first time since then I tasted food.” Pelis immediately ordered his friends and slaves to make two beds on the porch, cover them with carpets and put woolen cloaks with which the elders could cover themselves during the night, then, turning to Priam, he said: “It’s better to lie down in my yard, old man: The Danaan leaders sometimes come to me for advice at night: if one of them sees you here, he will immediately inform King Agamemnon about it, and he will delay, perhaps, by handing over the body of your son. But tell me one more thing: how many days will you bury your son? During all these days I will not go out into battle, and I will also keep my squad from battle.” Priam answered Pelidus: “If you stop fighting for these days and allow me to honor my son with burial, you will show me great mercy: we, as you know, are confined within the walls, the wood for the fire must be transported from afar - from the mountains, and the Trojans are terrified and they are afraid to go into the field. I would like to mourn Hector in my house for nine days, to begin the burial and arrange a funeral feast on the tenth, to build a burial mound on the eleventh, and on the twelfth, if necessary, we will take up arms in battle.” “It will be done as you wish, venerable old man,” said Pelid. “I’ll stop swearing for as long as you ask.” With these words, he took Priam by the hand, squeezed it affectionately and peacefully released the old man from him.

All the immortal gods and all the people on earth rested in sleep; Only Hermes did not sleep: he thought and cared about how to get Priam out of the Achaean camp. Standing over the head of the sleeping old man, Hermes addressed him with the following speech: “Why are you sleeping, old man, and not thinking about the danger that threatens you? You brought Pelida many gifts as a ransom for your son, but your children will have to pay three times as much for you, unless King Agamemnon or another of the Achaeans finds out about your presence here.” Priam was horrified, woke up from sleep and raised his herald. Hermes in an instant harnessed the horses and mules and himself led them through the Achaean camp into the field; none of the Achaeans saw Priam. When they reached the ford of the Skamandra River, dawn broke in the sky. Here Hermes disappeared from the eyes of travelers and ascended to Olympus. Priam, groaning and weeping, directed the horses and mules to the city gates. At that time, everyone in Troy - husbands and wives - was resting in sleep, only Cassandra, the beautiful daughter of Priam, similar in beauty to Aphrodite, left her bed at that early hour: she climbed the tower and from afar saw her father, and the messenger Idea, and the body of her brother, carried mules. Cassandra sobbed loudly and, walking around the wide streets of Troy, exclaimed: “Go, men and wives of Troy, look at Hector, stretched out on his deathbed, meet and greet the dead man, all of you, accustomed to greet him with joy, the winner coming from battles: joy was he and protection for Ilion and his children.” The Trojan men and wives all rushed from the city to the field and stood in crowds at the city gates. In front of everyone stood Andromache, the young wife of Hector, and his mother Hecuba; and when the dead man was brought to the gate, they both burst into tears, tore their clothes and hair and, rushing to the body, hugged Hector’s head with screams and watered it with streams of tears; The Trojan people also wept bitterly, mourning the death of Priamid, who had been an indestructible stronghold for Ilion. And all day long, until sunset, sobs and groans would have continued over the valiant Hector, if Priam had not called out from his chariot to the people: “Make way, friends, let the mules pass; then be satisfied with weeping when I bring the dead man to my house.” The crowd parted and opened the way.

When the train arrived at the home of King Priam, Hector's body was placed on a magnificent bed and carried inside the house; singers were placed near the deathbed, singing mournful, funeral songs; the women echoed them with sobs and groans. Andromache was the first to cry, hugging her husband’s head with her hands and sobbing bitterly, she said: “You died early, my husband, you left me a widow early, you left your baby son helpless! I will not see the son of young men: Troy will soon fall to dust, for you have fallen, its vigilant guardian, you, the stronghold of the people, the protector of women and babies. Soon the Danaans will drag the Trojan wives to their ships and take them with them into captivity, they will take me and my baby away: we will exhaust our strength in shameful works, we will tremble from the wrath of the stern ruler; or, perhaps, on the day of the fall of Troy, a Dane will take the baby by the hand and throw him from a high tower to the ground.” Thus spoke Andromache, weeping, and after her the Trojan women wept and groaned. After her, Hecuba began to cry: “Hector, most trembling of my sons! And alive you were dear to me to the gods, they did not leave you even after death: the fierce Achilles tore out your soul with a spear, he mercilessly dragged you along the ground around Patroclus, how many days did you lie by the Myrmidon ships, prostrate in the dust, and now you rest in my father’s house - unharmed and clean, as if washed with dew, as if struck down by a light arrow from the silver-bowed Apollo.” So Hecuba cried, and the crowd shed bitter tears. The third cry is raised by Elena: “Oh, Hector, of all relatives dearest to the heart! This is already the twentieth summer since I arrived with Paris in Ilion, and in all these years I have never heard a bitter, offensive word from you; even when another member of the household reproached me - whether my brother-in-law, sister-in-law or mother-in-law - you stopped them, softened their anger with a meek, reasonable word and made everyone kinder to me. Now I have no friend, no protector and comforter in all of Ilion: I am equally hated by everyone!” So Helen mourned Hector, and the whole countless crowd of the Trojan people groaned with her.

Finally, Elder Priam turned his word to the people and said: “Now, Trojans, go to the mountains behind the forest, do not be afraid of ambushes and attacks of the Achaeans: Achilles himself, releasing me from the courts, promised not to disturb us for eleven days.” The Trojans quickly harnessed horses and oxen to carts and carried the timber to the city for nine days; on the tenth day, at dawn, they carried out Hector’s body, laid it on the fire and fanned the flames. On the morning of the eleventh day, the whole city gathered around the fire: they extinguished the flame, and poured crimson wine into the entire space through which the fire was spreading; Hector's brothers and friends, weeping bitterly, collected the white bones of the hero from the ashes and, having collected them, put them in a precious urn, wrapped the urn in a thin purple cover and lowered it into a deep grave. Having filled the grave with earth and densely covered it with stones, the Trojans built a high mound over Hector. During all this time, guards stood around the workers and looked into the field so that the Danaans would not attack them by surprise. Having poured a burial mound, the people dispersed, but a little later they gathered again - for a funeral feast, in the house of Priam, dear to Zeus.

This is how the Trojans buried the valiant Hector.

The name of this Trojan princess is translated as “at war with her husband,” although in ancient Greek mythology she is glorified as an example of a faithful and loving wife. Her difficult fate was described by the ancient playwright Euripides in the tragedies “The Trojan Woman” and “Andromache”. Homer admired the power of this woman's love in his famous Iliad. The scene when Hector and Andromache say goodbye is considered one of the most emotional moments of the poem. The tragic story of lovers and Homeric style have inspired more than one generation of artists. Such ancient masters as Virgil, Ennius, Ovid, Naevius, Seneca and Sappho also wrote about Andromache. And the tragedy of Jean Baptiste Racine has long become a favorite work of theater playwrights.

Political union

Ancient myths tell that Andromache, the daughter of the Cilician king Eetion and the wife of Hector, heir to the throne of Troy, lived in those distant and cruel times when the world was torn apart by wars of conquest. In order to defend their independence, many states had to enter into political alliances with other stronger kingdoms and principalities. And the marriage of heirs to the throne, which also binds states by blood ties, was one of the most common political instruments. The union of the daughter of Eetion and the heir to the throne of King Priam, who was the ruler of the influential state of Troy, gave the people of Cilicia hope for the support of the famous Trojan army in the event of aggression from another state.

Fall of Cilicia

Myths tell that the illustrious heir of Priam immediately became inflamed with passion for his chosen one, and now Andromache, as Hector’s wife and his beloved, had the opportunity to influence the politics of Troy in the interests of her homeland. And so it was, until the famous hero Achilles appeared on the military scene with his Myrmidon warriors. He accepted the Greek's offer and joined his army, making him invincible. Cilicia fell and was plundered, and King Eetion himself and his seven sons died at the hands of Achilles. Despite the fact that Andromache influenced the political mood of King Priam as the wife of Hector, Troy was unable to come to the aid of Cilicia, since the new balance of power called into question her own safety. Priam was forced to look for serious allies to resist Agamemnon.

Sparta as an ally of Troy

Despite the family tragedy, Andromache was happy with her beloved Hector. She was expecting the birth of her first child and hoped that her husband, famous in battle, would not have to take up arms in defense of Troy. The news that Hector and his younger brother Paris would soon have to go to Sparta to negotiate a military alliance saddened her with the inevitable separation from her beloved. But wise Andromache, as the wife of Hector, the future king of Troy, understood the importance of this mission, so she released her husband with a heavy heart and promised to meet him with her son in her arms. And perhaps an alliance with Sparta could have stopped the invasion of Troy, but love intervened. Prince Paris and the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, Helen, fell in love with each other. Paris secretly took his beloved from Sparta, and instead of an ally, Troy received a fierce enemy in the person of King Menelaus, who sided with the Greeks.

Trojan War

King Priam did not abandon the son of Paris and Helen, despite the impending war, and Troy prepared for a siege. Hector’s wife knew what the Greeks were capable of, and fearing for his life, her son Astyanax asked her husband to influence Priam and hand over the lovers to the Spartans, but Hector refused. Meanwhile, the troops of Agamemnon and Menelaus approached the indestructible walls of Troy. The chances of Priam’s troops to survive were quite high, and besides, the discord between Agamemnon and Achilles played into their hands, because of which the latter refused to participate in the war.

An incident changed everything: Achilles’s best friend Patroclus decided to take part in the battle against Troy and, wearing the armor of the famous hero, led the Myrmidons into battle. Before the battle, Andromache, with her son in her arms, begs Hector, who leads the troops of Troy, to pay off and give Paris and his beloved into the hands of the Spartan king. After all, it was Helen’s flight to Troy that was put forward by Agamemnon as the main reason for the war. Hector does not heed his wife’s pleas and entrusts the fate of the kingdom and his own to the gods. In the first battle, the Trojans win, and Hector kills Potroclus in the duel, mistaking him for Achilles because of the latter’s armor.

Having lost his friend, Achilles returns to the banner of Agamemnon with the intention of destroying Hector, which he does by challenging the heir of Priam to a duel. Having killed Hector, Achilles, to further humiliate the Trojans, tied his body to his chariot and stretched it along the walls of Troy in front of King Priam and the grief-stricken Andromache, and then three more times around the tomb of Potroclus. In order to bury Hector with the honors due to a prince, Priam had to come to an agreement with Achilles and pay large ransoms. During the funeral, hostilities ceased, which gave the Greeks the opportunity to come up with a cunning plan to penetrate the walls of the city. Using wood from some of their ships, they built a huge horse figure, which went down in history as the Trojan Horse.

Fall of Troy

After the funeral, the Trojans found the enemy camp empty, and in its place - a huge statue of a horse. Taking this as a gift from the gods, they dragged her into the city, thereby dooming themselves to death. Inside the statue there was a Greek strike force, which at the first opportunity killed the guards and opened the gates of the city to Agamemnon’s troops. Troy fell, and those of its citizens who did not die became slaves. Hector's wife, taken prisoner, also did not escape this fate. The Trojan princess became the slave of Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and her son Astyanax was thrown from the city walls.

The further fate of the Trojan princess

The unfortunate Andromache wished for death, but instead was forced to eke out the existence of a concubine and give birth to sons to her fierce enemy. It must be said that Neoptolemus, who ruled Epirus, was very fond of his slave and the sons of Molossus, Piel and Pergamon, which aroused terrible jealousy of his legal but childless wife Hermione. She tried to destroy Andromache and her children, but Achilles’ father Peleus, who had affection for his great-grandchildren, came to the rescue. After the death of Neoptolemus at the hands of Ores in the battles of Delphi, Hermione went over to the side of her husband's enemy. Andromache remarried to Hector's relative Helenus and remained to rule Epirus as queen and mother of the legitimate heirs to the throne.

, Gehlen

Sisters: Creusa, Laodice, Polyxena, Kassandra, Ilione Hector Hector

The protagonist of the tragedies of Euripides “Alexander”, Pseudo-Euripides “Res”, Astydamas the Younger “Hector”, the tragedy of Naevius “Hector the Departing”.

The asteroid (624) Hector, discovered in 1907, is named after Hector.

In popular culture In medieval France, where modern playing cards (“classical” or “French”) appeared around the 14th century, “pictures” (cards with characters - kings, queens and jacks) were associated with certain historical or legendary characters. The Jack of Diamonds matched Hector.

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Greeks The gods are on the side of the Greeks Allies of the Greeks Trojans The gods are on the side of the Trojans Allies of the Trojans Additionally

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Excerpt characterizing Hector

On the same evening, as the prince gave orders to Alpatych, Desalles, having demanded a meeting with Princess Marya, informed her that since the prince was not entirely healthy and was not taking any measures for his safety, and from Prince Andrei’s letter it was clear that he was staying in Bald Mountains If it is unsafe, he respectfully advises her to write a letter with Alpatych to the head of the province in Smolensk with a request to notify her about the state of affairs and the extent of the danger to which Bald Mountains are exposed. Desalle wrote a letter to the governor for Princess Marya, which she signed, and this letter was given to Alpatych with the order to submit it to the governor and, in case of danger, to return as soon as possible.
Having received all the orders, Alpatych, accompanied by his family, in a white feather hat (a princely gift), with a stick, just like the prince, went out to sit in a leather tent, packed with three well-fed Savras.
The bell was tied up and the bells were covered with pieces of paper. The prince did not allow anyone to ride in Bald Mountains with a bell. But Alpatych loved bells and bells on a long journey. Alpatych's courtiers, a zemstvo, a clerk, a cook - black, white, two old women, a Cossack boy, coachmen and various servants saw him off.
The daughter placed chintz down pillows behind him and under him. The old lady's sister-in-law secretly slipped the bundle. One of the coachmen gave him a hand.
- Well, well, women's training! Women, women! - Alpatych said puffingly, patteringly exactly as the prince spoke, and sat down in the tent. Having given the last orders about the work to the zemstvo, and in this way not imitating the prince, Alpatych took off his hat from his bald head and crossed himself three times.
- If anything... you will come back, Yakov Alpatych; For Christ’s sake, have pity on us,” his wife shouted to him, hinting at rumors about war and the enemy.
“Women, women, women’s gatherings,” Alpatych said to himself and drove off, looking around at the fields, some with yellowed rye, some with thick, still green oats, some still black, which were just beginning to double. Alpatych rode along, admiring the rare spring harvest this year, looking closely at the strips of rye crops on which people were beginning to reap in some places, and made his economic considerations about sowing and harvesting and whether any princely order had been forgotten.
Having fed him twice on the way, by the evening of August 4th Alpatych arrived in the city.
On the way, Alpatych met and overtook convoys and troops. Approaching Smolensk, he heard distant shots, but these sounds did not strike him. What struck him most was that, approaching Smolensk, he saw a beautiful field of oats, which some soldiers were mowing, apparently for food, and in which they were camping; This circumstance struck Alpatych, but he soon forgot it, thinking about his business.
All the interests of Alpatych’s life for more than thirty years were limited by the will of the prince alone, and he never left this circle. Everything that did not concern the execution of the prince’s orders not only did not interest him, but did not exist for Alpatych.
Alpatych, having arrived in Smolensk on the evening of August 4th, stopped across the Dnieper, in the Gachensky suburb, at an inn, with the janitor Ferapontov, with whom he had been in the habit of staying for thirty years. Ferapontov, twelve years ago, with the light hand of Alpatych, having bought a grove from the prince, began trading and now had a house, an inn and a flour shop in the province. Ferapontov was a fat, black, red-haired forty-year-old man, with thick lips, a thick bumpy nose, the same bumps over his black, frowning eyebrows and a thick belly.
Ferapontov, in a waistcoat and a cotton shirt, stood at a bench overlooking the street. Seeing Alpatych, he approached him.
- Welcome, Yakov Alpatych. The people are from the city, and you are going to the city,” said the owner.
- So, from the city? - said Alpatych.
“And I say, people are stupid.” Everyone is afraid of the Frenchman.
- Women's talk, women's talk! - said Alpatych.
- That’s how I judge, Yakov Alpatych. I say there is an order that they won’t let him in, which means it’s true. And the men are asking for three rubles per cart - there is no cross on them!

Hector Hector

(Hector, Εχτωρ). The eldest son of the Trojan king Priam and Hecuba, husband of Andromache. He was the main hero of the Trojans in their fight against the Greeks and was killed in a duel with Achilles. This is one of the noblest figures in Homer's Iliad.

(Source: “A Brief Dictionary of Mythology and Antiquities.” M. Korsh. St. Petersburg, edition by A. S. Suvorin, 1894.)

HECTOR

(Εκτωρ) in Greek mythology, son Priam And Hecuba, main Trojan hero in the Iliad. About G.’s participation in hostilities in the first years of the war, sources only report that G. fell at the hands of Protesilaus, the first to enter Trojan land (Apollod. epit. Ill 30). G. became famous in the tenth year of the war. As the eldest son of Priam and his immediate successor, he leads the military operations of the Trojans, himself distinguished by strength and heroism. Twice G. enters into single combat with Ajax Telamonides, the most powerful after Achilles Achaean hero (Hom. II VII 181-305; XIV 402-439). Under the leadership of G., the Trojans break into the fortified camp of the Achaeans (XII 415-471), approach the Achaean ships and manage to set fire to one of them (XV 345-388; 483-499; 591-745). G. also manages to defeat him just before the gates of Troy Patroclus and remove the armor of Achilles from the murdered man (XVI 818-857). After Achilles enters the battle, G., despite the pleas of his parents, remains alone with him in the field and dies in a duel at the Skeian Gate, predicting the imminent death of Achilles himself (XXII 25-360). The latter, obsessed with the thirst for revenge for Patroclus, ties the body of the murdered G. to his chariot and drives around Troy, dragging the corpse of the slain enemy. Although Achilles subsequently continues to desecrate G.’s body, neither beasts of prey nor decay touch him; the dead G. is protected by Apollo, whose help G. used repeatedly during his life. God twice restored his strength in fights with Ajax (VII 272 next; XV 235-279), helped G. during the duel with Achilles, until the lot of fate indicated the inevitability of G.’s death (XXII 203-213). The support provided by G. Apollo served in the post-Homeric tradition as a reason for the assertion that G. was the son of God himself (Stesich. frg. 47). Apollo is the first to raise his voice in defense of the murdered G. at the council of the gods, after which Achilles receives an order from Zeus to hand over the body of the murdered man to Priam, who arranges an honorable funeral for his son.
Researchers of the ancient Greek epic have long noticed that the name of G. is not associated with any other events of the Trojan War, except for those depicted in the Iliad. G.'s grave was shown not in Troas, but in Thebes (Paus. IX 18, 5); this makes it possible to assume that G. is a Boeotian hero by origin, and his battle with Achilles originally took place on Greek soil. Only relatively late was the image of G. included in the circle of legends about the Trojan War, in which G., more than any other hero, personifies the idea of ​​patriotic duty. This is probably why the image of G. enjoys great sympathy from the author of the Iliad. G. is depicted with particular warmth in the famous scene of farewell to his wife Andromache(VI 370-502).
V. n. brightly.

In Europe literature (“Farewell to G.” by Schiller and others), the traditional attitude towards the image as the personification of nobility was preserved (for example, in J. Giraudoux’s play “There Will Be No Trojan War,” G. is essentially the main character - the exponent of humanistic ideas).
In ancient plastic art (reliefs of sarcophagi) and vase painting, the following subjects were especially common: G.'s duel with Ajax, farewell to Andromache, G.'s death, the ransom of his body by Priam. Europe art turned to subjects: the duel with Achilles (sketch by P. P. Rubens, fresco by J. Amigoni); Achilles dragging G.'s body around the walls of Troy (paintings by Italian and French artists of the 17th and 18th centuries); ransoming the body (paintings by C. Le Brun, G. B. Tiepolo) and farewell to Andromache. The most significant work of musical and dramatic art is the cantata “The Death of G.” P. Winter, 18th century.

(Source: “Myths of the Peoples of the World.”)

Hector

In the Iliad, one of the main Trojan heroes, the eldest son of the king of Troy, Priam and Hecuba. The main defender of Troy. Andromache's husband. Brother of Agathon, Aretas, Helenus, Hippothoos, Deiphobus, Cassandra, Cebrion, Cleitus, Creusa, Laodice, Lycaon, Paris, Polydorus, Polyxena, Politus, Troilus and others. He died in single combat with Achilles, who was taking revenge on Hector for the murder of his friend Patroclus.

// Jacques Louis DAVID: Andromache mourns Hector

(Source: “Myths of Ancient Greece. Dictionary-reference book.” EdwART, 2009.)

Left Priam, right Hecuba.
Painting of the red-figure amphora of Euthymides.
Around 510 BC e.
Munich.
Museum of Ancient Applied Art.

Synonyms:

See what "Hector" is in other dictionaries:

- (Greek hektor owning, from echo I own, hold). Male name: owner. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. HECTOR (Greek). The bravest leader of the Trojan army, the son of Priam and Hecuba, married to Andromache... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

In the myths of the ancient Greeks, the son of King Priam of Troy and Hecuba. Hector became famous in the tenth year of the Trojan War; he led the military operations of the Trojans, distinguished by his strength and heroism. Under the leadership of Hector, the Trojans broke into the Achaean camp, approached... Historical Dictionary

Hector- Laid down on July 9, 1774 at the St. Petersburg Admiralty. Builder I. V. Yames. Launched on November 4, 1781 (construction was completed in 1777 and stood on the slipway for 4 years), became part of the Baltic Fleet. 39.9x10.2x3.3 m; 26 op. In 1784 he surveyed the shores of the Gulf of Finland. and measurements... ... Military encyclopedia

And husband. Borrowed Report: Hektorovich, Hektorovna. Derivatives: Heka; Hera.Origin: (Greek Hektōr the name of the hero of the Trojan War. From hektōr almighty, guardian.) Dictionary of personal names. Hector a, m. Borrowing. Report: Hektorovich, Hektorovna. Derivatives... Dictionary of personal names

Almighty, Guardian Dictionary of Russian synonyms. hector noun, number of synonyms: 2 asteroid (579) hero ... Synonym dictionary

HECTOR Dictionary-reference book on Ancient Greece and Rome, on mythology

HECTOR- – the eldest son of King Priam and Hecuba, husband of Andromache, main defender of Troy in Homer’s Iliad. Hector leads the Trojans in battle, engages Ajax twice and kills Patroclus. Apollo helps Hector all the time, which was the reason... ... List of Ancient Greek names

In the Iliad, one of the main Trojan heroes, the eldest son of the king of Troy, Priam and Hecuba; died in single combat with Achilles, who was taking revenge on Hector for the murder of his friend Patroclus... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The central character of Homer’s poem “The Iliad” (between the 10th and 8th centuries BC). Son of King Priam of Troy, father of fifty sons and fifty daughters. Husband of Andromache, daughter of Getion, king of Thebes, killed by Achilles. In the “Iliad” G. is accompanied by the epithets “great”, ... ... Literary heroes

- (Hector) the bravest leader of the Trojan army, the son of Priam and Hecuba, married to Andromache, who bore him Astyanax or Scamandria. His exploits are sung by Homer in the Iliad. Having killed Patroclus, he fell at the hands of Patroclus' friend, Achilles. His body is Achilles... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Books

• Hector and the Secrets of Love, Francois Lelord, 416 pp. Hector and the Secrets of Love is the second part of the trilogy, following the famous Journey of Hector. This time the goal of the restless researcher is to find his older friend and... Category: Journalism Series: Psychology Publisher: