Hector of the "Iliad"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Homer's Hector of Troy and how Hector is Homer's implicit hero within the "Iliad." The paper suggests that because Homer was an admirer of Aristotle, he created Hector to be the fictional embodiment of Aristotlean rationality and virtues in operation. The paper analyzes the character of Hector in the "Iliad" and illustrates the ways that Hector can be clearly seen as Homer's idea of an Aristotlean hero.

From the Paper:

"So Hector is at first shocked, and then deeply troubled, at his initial realization of his brother Paris's reckless impetuousness at having actually stowed Menopause's runaway bride Helen aboard en route back to Troy. This is a move that cannot be afforded, but Paris's practically-minded brother knows this too late. Hector thinks immediately, though, of the inevitable costly and painful ramifications of this intra-island abduction: for his father's vulnerable Kingdom, in particular while Paris continues staring into Helen's eyes. In all of these ways, then, and also by virtue of the inherent and exquisitely sensitive selfhood that Hector's creator Homer gives to him in particular and no one else within the Iliad or elsewhere, on and off the battlefield, Hector is perhaps Homer's very own hand-created hero: like the author of the Iliad himself, by reputation, plain spoken; direct; forthright. Hector, like his author with no sight, intuits with sensitive accuracy long before he needs, physically, to see on the Trojan battlefield itself."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. W.D. Ross. The Internet Classics Archive. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from: <http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html>.
• "Aristotle's Poetics: An Introduction." May 4, 2004. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/index.htm.
• Certeau, Michel de. "General Introduction." The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1984.
• ---. The Writing of History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. 93.
• "Derivation of Iliadic [sic] Self-Identity through Heroic Code". The University of Michigan. [n.d.]. Retrieved November 28, 2006, from: <http://<www.umich.edu/.../Marisa%20-%20Self-identity%20in%20the%20Iliad.htm>.

More papers on Hector of the "Iliad":

• Book Review # 28698 : "Analysis of "The Iliad" by Homer"
• Analytical Essay # 132589 : "Analyzing the Social Roles of the Heroic Code in the Iliad"
• Comparison Essay # 6516 : "The Iliad" and "The Aeneid"

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