Book 6: Hector being adorable with his family (you’ll cry)
Lots More Fighting
The fighting (and thus, the battlefield) is now between the Xanthos and Simoeis rivers.
We first see Big Ajax killing Akamas, son of Eussoros, by throwing his spear at Akamas’s head. The spear goes straight through Akamas’ helmet and lodges into his skull. Next, Diomedes is seen killing Axylos and his chariot driver named Kalesios. A Greek soldier by the name of Euryalos then kills Opheltios and Dresos, then Aisepos and Pedasos. Polypoites, also Greek, kills Astyalos while Odysseus kills Pidytes. Teuckros (Greek) kills Aretaon. Antilochus kills Ableros, and Agamemnon kills Elatos. Leitos kills Phylakos, and Eurypylos kills Melanthios.
Among all this madness we zero in on Menelaus, who has captured a man named Adrestos. Adrestos’ horses had bolted over the uneven land and got entangled in some bush, causing the chariot to flip. The horses had run off back to the city and left Adrestos open to the enemy (Adrestos was hurled from the chariot and landed face first on the ground). When Menelaus had reached the fallen warrior, Adrestos supplicated him by saying (something along the lines of), “Please don’t kill me!! My dad is super rich and can give you crazy gifts for my ransom!” Surprisingly, this convinces Menelaus to spare Adrestos’ life.
As he’s handing Adrestos over to his henchmen to take back to the Greek camp, Agamemnon bounds over to his brother and demands that he kill Adrestos. He asks Menelaus when the Trojans had ever shown any of the Greeks such hospitality in war (which — spoiler — they haven’t). Hearing this, Menelaus agrees with Agamemnon. He shoves Adrestos backwards, causing him to stumble into Agamemnon’s personal space. Agamemnon uses the opportunity to stab Adrestos and kill him.
Elsewhere, Nestor notices that the Greek soldiers appear to be more concerned with getting plunder rather than focusing on killing as many of the enemy as possible. The old man screams at the Greeks that they can get the goodies of war AFTER they have won the damn thing.
Homer tells us that at this point in the battle, the Trojans would have crawled back over the wall and into Troy out of fear for the Greeks, had it not been for Helenos (Priam’s son and best of the augurs) stepping up. He stands beside Aeneas and Hector and encourages them to rally their soldiers because he can see that the men are about to retreat. Helenos then advises Hector to return to Troy and tell their mother (Hecuba) to gather all the honourable ladies of Troy and instruct them to go to the temple of Athena. There, they should lay an extravagant robe on the knees of Athena’s statue and offer the goddess twelve heifers in her honour. He hopes that this will cause the goddess to take pity on Troy and the children within its walls, and further have her do something about Diomedes as he’s the one who is really terrorising the Trojan ranks. Helenos even makes an interesting point here, stating that the Trojans never feared Achilles as much as they fear Diomedes!
Hector does not disobey Helenos’ instructions. First, the prince of Troy jumps down from his chariot and rallies all his men for battle. The forces re-attack the Greeks with such power that the Achaeans pause their slaughtering to marvel in amazement; with the way that the Trojans were getting on, the Greeks assumed that some god must have infused them with this new-found strength. Hector tells the Trojans to keep being badasses because he has to go back to Troy and tell the women to make offerings to Athena. He then leaves.
Glaukos vs Diomedes
Glaukos then goes to attack Diomedes and, as they come together, Diomedes begins a conversation. He asks Glaukos who he is, stating that he’s never seen the man before in his life and yet Glaukos seems more than comfortable coming to face the son of Tydeus. He ends by saying (something along the lines of) “Unhappy are those men whose sons face me!” However, this causes Diomedes to pause, whereby he then follows up by saying that if Glaukos happens to be a god, then the pair will not engage in fighting and Diomedes will walk away.
Glaukos, son of Hippolochos, replies by initially comparing Diomedes’ questions to the life of leaves, suggesting that where one leaf dies, another grows. Therefore such is the same with people and their family generations. He goes on to explain the long story of his family background and how he got to where he is today. The story is incredibly long and spans about two whole pages of the poem.
Diomedes listens intently the whole time. When Glaukos finishes, Diomedes sticks his spear into the ground beneath him and expresses his shock at Glaukos’ lineage. As it turns out, the pair’s families are old guest friends because some guy in Diomedes's family had entertained some guy in Glaukos’ family once upon a time.
And so, they agree to not fight and to remain friends in case either of them wants to travel to their respective cities/towns in the future. Diomedes and Glaukos swap armour to visibly show their mini alliance — however, one item of armour is gold and one is bronze, meaning that their worth isn’t equal.
Hector & His Mum
The action now cuts to Hector, who is approaching the city gates of Troy. As he arrives, all the wives and daughters of Troy come running around him to ask about their sons and husbands on the battlefield. Hector has to tell a number of them some bad news, but encourages all of them to continue praying to the gods.
Hector continues walking through the city towards the palace of Priam. Homer notes that there are fifty sleeping chambers in this palace — MEANING THAT THERE ARE AT LEAST 100 PEOPLE IN THIS PALACE. AT LEAST. It’s noted that these chambers slept the lords of the daughters of Priam specifically.
When he arrives at the palace, the prince of Troy is met by his mother, Hecuba, and Laodike (who was the hottest of Priam’s daughters, remember?). Hecuba asks Hector why he’s left the battle and says that she’s going to fetch some wine for him for two main reasons: the first is that he needs to pour some out to honour Zeus, and the second is that he needs to drink some wine to recuperate his strength.
Hector declines his mother’s offer of wine because he says that it may stagger his strength and make him forget his courage. He also does not want to make any offerings to Zeus at the moment, given that he’s filthy with blood and dirt from the battle, and so would prefer to clean up first. Hector relays what Helenos had told him to tell Hecuba: he tells her to go to the temple of Athena and make an offering of twelve heifers in the hopes that the goddess of warcraft takes pity on Troy and helps get rid of Diomedes. Hector concludes this by telling her that he needs to go and find Paris.
While Hector stalks off, Hecuba goes to gather all the ladies in the palace. Once all of them have been assembled, they then go out into the city of Troy to round up all the highborn women to help them. As a team, they go to get the robe from the store chamber of the palace which Helenos had demanded that they leave for the goddess (this robe was taken by Paris when he stole Helen from Sparta). Hecuba is the one to physically bring the robe to Athena’s temple and once she’s joined the other women, they all lift up their voices in prayer to Athena. Obviously, Athena doesn’t hear — nor care about — this prayer.
Hector & Paris
Back with Hector, the prince is on his way to Paris’ house. When Hector arrives he finds Paris fiddling with his armour and Helen getting ready in their chamber.
Naturally, Hector’s a little pissed. He has a moment where he yells at his brother (something along the lines of), “PARIS, PEOPLE ARE DYING OUT THERE! COME ON, MAN!”
Paris, again, takes Hector’s insults like a champ. He replies to his brother and explains that despite what it looks like, he wasn’t sitting around because he doesn’t care if people die in battle — he does care. In fact, right before Hector appeared, Helen had been (supposedly) encouraging him with “soft words” to return to the war. Paris asks that his brother wait for him to put on his armour, and then he’ll join him outside.
When Hector doesn’t immediately reply, Helen says that she wishes she was never born. She states that if she simply had to be born, then she wishes that the sea and wind had swept her away so that none of this would have ever happened. But since it has happened, she literally says she wishes she was married to a better man than Paris. She tells Hector to come and sit down since he’s been doing all of Paris’ dirty work while Paris’s sheer existence continues to make a joke out of both of them.
Hector declines Helen’s offer, saying that he is unable to stay because he has to go and see his own wife. But he does ask Helen to make sure Paris is speedy with the armour so that he’s on the battlefield by the time Hector returns.
Hector & Andromache
Hector leaves Paris and Helen and walks towards his home. When he arrives, he can’t find his wife. The handmaidens tell Hector that Andromache has taken their son to the walls of the city because she heard the Trojans were losing the war.
And so, Hector goes along to the wall and finds Andromache. His son, Skamandrios/Astyanax (yes, he has two names), is described as being as beautiful as a shining star. When Andromache sees her husband, she starts crying and holds his hand.
Andromache tells Hector that his strength will be his death. She claims that he doesn’t seem to care about how his new position is currently affecting her, and further will affect their son in the weeks to come. Andromache tells us that Hector is her only family because Achilles killed her dad AND her 7 brothers (her mother was shot by Artemis). She says that when the Greeks kill Hector, there will be no point in her living on without him. The last thing Andromache tells her husband is that he should order his men to stand near the fig tree on the outside of the walls because that’s where the city is most open to attack.
Hector agrees that he has also been thinking about his family’s future. However, he explains that he is unable to retreat from battle because not only would he be deemed a coward, but also his spirit simply won’t let him. He is aware that Troy is destined to fall along with Priam and his people — but that is not what really scares Hector. The only thing he worries about is Andromache and what will happen to her once he is gone. He worries she will be led to a place like Argos to be a slave, in which case he hopes that he will be long dead so that he won’t have to endure watching it.
On this note, Hector reaches out for his son. Seeing this large and heavily armoured man scares the little boy and causes him to cry. Realising what has happened, Hector laughs, takes off the helmet and pops it on the ground. He then picks up his son and tosses him into the air, both of them giggling, and when Hector catches the baby again he leans over to kiss him. It’s now that Hector prays to Zeus, asking him to grant his son great strength to rule over Troy.
Hector hands his son back to Andromache, who is still crying. He says (something along the lines of) “Don’t be sad! I’m not going down to Hades unless it’s my fate! So go home and do some weaving to calm you, but I must go fight now!”
As Hector leaves, Andromache turns to have one last look at him. When she gets home, all the handmaidens join her in lamenting Hector as if he were already dead.
The last part of the book shows Paris finishing putting on his armour. He runs through the city to get to the battle, but runs straight into Hector, who is returning after his chat with Andromache. Paris says to Hector (something along the lines of), “Hey bro, I feel like I’m being a little disrespectful because I was a lot slower at putting on my armour than I promised”. In response, Hector says (something along the lines of), “Look man, when you fight, you’re good. It’s just a shame that you continue to NOT fight. I get annoyed when I hear people talking crap about you but at the same time, they’re fighting really hard FOR YOU and their frustration is valid. But alas, let’s go now and maybe one day we’ll make things right with the gods after all this blows over”.
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