Hector as the Ideal Homeric Man from Homer's IliadHomer's Iliad captivates readers with its "valiant heroes who stand fight for the glory of Greece. The Iliad, however, is not just a war story; it is also a story of individuals. Through the words and actions of the characters, Homer paints portraits of the irritable Achilles and the vain Agamemnon, of the condemned Paris and Helen, of the faithful Patroclus, of the tragic Priam, of the versatile Odysseus and of the entire troupe of gods. Ironically, the most complete character in the epic is Hector, enemy hero and prince of Troy. Hector is in many ways the ideal Homeric man: he is a man of compassion and piety, a man of integrity and courage, a man who loves his family and, above all, a man who understands and fulfills his obligations social according to strict rules. of the heroic code. Hector, returning to the city after a series of fierce setbacks at the hands of the Achaeans, is presented as a man of compassion and piety. His behavior as a hero and as a son is markedly different from that of Agamemnon and Achilles. When he passes through the Scaean gates, he is immediately surrounded "by the wives and daughters of Troy... who inquire about their sons, brothers, friends and husbands" (VI, 150-151). The very fact that the women approach Hector, intimidating as he must be in his bloodstained armor, is telling. Until now, women throughout history have been silent victims of the angry nature of the men around them. In contrast, the women of Troy display their confidence in Hector's character by approaching him without fear. Although he himself is exhausted and discouraged, Hector responds patiently to the anguished women, demonstrating the compassion he feels for his fighters and their families. So many ties to the middle of paper serve as a foil against the cruelty, arrogance, and self-indulgence that cripples some of the other heroes of the Iliad. To the Greeks of Homer's time, Hector appears as a symbol of what could have been...and a model of what could have been. Works cited and consulted: Clarke, Howard. Homer's Readers: A Historical Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Newark, Del. : University of Delaware Press, 1981. Goodrich, Norma. Myths of the hero. New York: Orion Press, 1962. Homer: Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Nagy, Gregory. Concepts of the Greek hero. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. Richardson, Nicholas. The Iliad: a commentary. Flight. VI: books 21-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993. Segal, Charles. Heroes and gods of the Odyssey. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.