in terms of heroism and morality, who was better : achilles or hector ? #askstudytwt #greekmyths
convo w/ my friend & theories!
my friend was the first to say that achilles was the better one since he was descended from the immortals themselves. i argued that he may be god-like but homer had referred to hector as the sole defense of troy. he led the trojans and their allies+
in battle and never cowered away despite never wanting to fight in the first place. isn't that what a true hero was?

i'm not saying that achilles wasn't a hero, i'm just saying that hector was more of a better hero than him. i respect the fact that achilles loved patroclus so+
much that he returned to war, killing hector despite knowing what would happen if he did. it was rather interesting in a horrific way (oh god, does this even make sense-) when he abandoned their culture and tradition and became a merciless warrior who disrespected and dragged+
hector's corpse from the back of his chariot around the city walls.

and isn't that the scary part? due to the fact that he was god-like, he was able to kill anyone who stood in his way and watched them die without any guilt or regret. and we know the gods and goddesses up there+
in mt. olymous did whatever they want, disregarding life and toying with mortals as if they were just puppets and dolls for them to control and play with. achilles was furious– which was understandable since someone he was close to just died– but to kill ten thousand soldiers,+
fighting a literal god and winning, making rivers run red with blood, and then defiling a corpse by dragging it through the mud?? bro,,, kinda heartbreaking once you think that it was patroclus' death that made him do those stuff, but terrifying as well.+
were those the actions of a morally good mortal, in grief/rage or not?

oh! but that doesn't mean that i don't like achilles though !! there are many out there who hate him since he was vain, arrogant, merciless, etc.,,, but is there truly any human who isn't arrogant?+
and he did realize his mistake when hector's father, priam, literally entered their camp despite knowing what would happen if he did and begged achilles to give hector back to him so that he could bury his son.+
due to the fact that we never had a chance to know hector because the iliad was about achilles, the only thing i could confidently say was that he was loyal and courageous. he had a wife and a child, and never even wanted war in the first place, yet he still fought for his+
city, and over something in which he had no part in. as i said, he was the sole defense of troy– he gave his all, bringing hope and inspiration to his people, and even showed kindness and compassion to the women who were waiting for their family fighting in the war.+
the way he interacted with his fellow men, family, and even helen were kind and fair, loving, and respectful respectively.

yes, he killed patroclus, but i think it wasn't because of hatred or rage. i think he just wanted to end the barbaric battle that wasn't even his fight+
in the first place, and in a way, he kinda did, but,,,, yeah, that thing with achilles happened,, in the end, though, i can confidently say that he was a good son, a good leader, a good husband, and a good son.+
in the end, we never finished our talk, but before we ended our call, i told her that i symphatized with the two, and she agreed.

i hate the fact that it was their fate to die. in the book, hector kept running away from achilles but athena persuaded him to stop and fight.+
and that was one of the reasons my friend believed achilles was better– he was going to win from the very start. it was practically written in the stars that achilles would kill hector, winning the war, but would then die at troy.+
to become a hero in ancient greece, they would have to live and die seeking glory and honor. but,,, in the iliad, achilles said that, "the same honor waits for the coward and the brave. they both go down to death, the fighter who shirks, the one who works to exhaustion."+
hero or not, half-immortal or not, the coward or the brave, the young or the old,,, isn't it all the same for everyone in the end?
thanks for reading lmao it's so long fnbsbsbs what are all your thoughts on this? i would love to hear them!

+ i found the quote on the website goodreads & i went through my messy notes abt the iliad as well as the internet. talk or not, i was ready to debATE lmao
You can follow @unalivexme.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: