It's about odyssey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

It's about odyssey - Essay Example As leaders of their people and key figures in the war, both men tend to cast their personal values back upon those they lead, thus presenting a generalized conception of how the Greeks and the Trojans differed in their overall world view. For this reason, it is helpful to examine these two characters in particular to gain an impression of how these two peoples differed from one another. In their approach to battle, in their adherence to the code and in the way that they each violate this code, the two men demonstrate that the differences between their people is really little more than a gloss of locality. Both Hector and Achilles can be seen to struggle with the heroic code as they prepare themselves for war. Each character has received relatively reliable information that they will be killed in the battle – Achilles through his mother, the goddess Thetis who tells him that he will not die as long as Hector lives, Hector through the pleadings of his wife who urges him to fight from the walls. While Achilles withdraws from the battle on the pretext of a feud with Menelaus, Hector spurns his wife’s pleading to honor the heroic code that insists a true warrior should not hide behind the walls of a fortress rather than stand tall on the plain. Andromache provides him with a moment of foresight as she tells him, â€Å"your valour will bring you to destruction; think on your infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your widow – for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you† (Book VI). It isn’t until after Hector kills Patroclus , Achilles’ most devoted friend, who is wearing Achilles’ armor, that Achilles is finally driven to re-enter the war. â€Å"Hector’s words following this action show that he does not realize his own limitations and that he could never have been so successful without the help of Zeus† (Lefkowitz, 2003, p. 66) and the other gods.