The divine economy in The Iliad

Homer brings out the most splendid private conversations of a warrior. He shows us the human side of a ‘human slayer’. Hector’s role as a hero, his shift from public realm to private realm is contrasted with the sulky role of Paris in private as well as in public realm. Hector becomes a true hero in the eyes of the readers when homer brings him out of the battle field to home.

Homer has also brought forward a very interesting characterization of women in this chapter. Just as men are shown as commander in the battle field and not so much in the home, women are shown to be a commander of home. When we meet Helen in book 6, she is shown in the chamber ‘with her waiting women’, supervising “their excellent work’ .usually women are shown as not much interested in the battle strategy of in the outer sphere of their husbands world. But in this chapter we witness Andromache breaking this norm. Just as Hector exits the ‘war’ and enters ‘home’,we see Andromache doing exactly the opposite, i.e. going out of the ‘home ‘ onto the ‘war front’.

Women were supposed to be always at home or with other wives. But Andromache is nowhere there; nowhere hector expects her to be. Homer for the first time in his book has shown the women not at home when she should be.it is the anxiety for her husband that has pulled her out of home and towards the walls of Ilium. The point where Andromache meets Hector reinforces this shift. They meet at the Sean gate which is the division between the insides of Ilium and the war front.

The personal relationship of hector and Andromache is the highlight of the Chapter Hector is a Trojan Warrior power and command is reflected through his speech and actions. But he is also a husband and a father. Family to him holds as much importance as his Kleos.He tells Paris to join him in the Battle Front Where other Trojan warriors would be waiting for him, but it is surprising to see that he himself doesn’t do that, instead going to the war front he goes to see his family. Maybe to say the last farewell. When Hector meets Andromache we see how the line blurs between his public figure and his private figure. He is torn between his homely duty and civic duty.

Hector Expresses his priority in front of his wife in these words:

“…Yet what distresses me is not only the thought of what the Trojans will suffer, or Hecabe herself , or lord Priam, or my brothers who , for all their numbers and bravery will be brought down on dust, at enemy hands, but much more the thought of you, when you are dragged off in tears by some bronze –armoured Greek, your freedom gone.”

Homer doesn’t stop Andromache to pour out her entire care and love infront of Hector and convey her worries to him.

“So Hector you are father and mother and brother to me as well as my strong husband. Have pity on me nowStay here on the tower and don’t make your boy an orphan and your wife a widow.rally the Trojans by the fig tree there, where the wall is easiest to scale and the town most open to break….”

She on one hand stops Hector from going out on the battle ground but immediately after she asks him to rally his troops to the fig tree. Thus we can see how she herself in in a conflict. She realizes hers husbands role as the head of the army as well as the head of the family. From a point of view of a wife all she asks Hector to do is safeguard himself. Homer shows the same feeling of love and care in hector as well. He confides his fears only and only to Andromache.

“But I know the day is comind when the Sacred Ilium will be destroyed, together with the peopleof Priam….”

He is aware of his approaching death but all he wishes for is a glorious one. He even imagines the glory to continue even after his death “”There goes the wife of Hector” they will say when they see your tears. “he was the greatest of the horse taming Trojans who fought it out round
Ilium””

This shows us how prominently the idea of kleos is stuck in the mind of a warrior. Homer brings forward the pressure of a glorious death. We start to believe that Warriors want to die for glory. But to respect or not to respect hector in this situation is a personal perspective all together. Some may say that he is wants to go to the Battle so as to avoid shame, that he is being a coward in being brave. But some may respect him with their hats off for the very same thing.

Baby Astyanax is crucial to the seen as it is him that makes us see clearly the human side to hector. Hector we recognize is a killing machine. He is always Referred to as a ‘Hector of the flashing Helmet’. Even though the audience is always shown a warrior side of him but now we witness his softer side. This is very interesting to see. Hector’s helmet only comes off when he realizes that his son is getting afraid of his plumed helmet. We notice that the helmet doesn’t come off all the while Andromache pleads to him to stay at home. Neither does it come off when he talks to Helen or Paris (even though he is inside the house).but as soon as the boy ,his son , gets scared of it, hectors puts the helmet down. The load of duty and the idea of kleos is only cornered for his son. But even though the helmet, an amour of battle, is kept on the ground, the duty which it withhold stay on his head, provoking him to move on to the battle.

Andromache already knows what lies for him on the battle ground. She know that she must already consider herself as a widow. Andromache tells Hector how her whole family was murdered by Achilles and how only he is left to be her father, mother, and a husband. She uses this embedded speech to create a conflict in his mind so that he might stay but it goes in vain. But her determination to stop him and his courage in the face of death is praiseworthy. This makes the characters more real. The lamenting for the loss of hector the hero starts at his even when he is alive, because is evident that he is a dead man walking.

The difference between Paris and Hector is a striking point that homer brings to light in book 6.paris is the weakest of the warriors in Ilium. The war that perishes Ilium was in fact unnecessarily invited by Paris. Hector has the knowledge that this war could have been avoided if not for his brother’s stupidities. But the “glorious hector” is serious about the war. He wants to bring glory to his father and family. But on the other hand Paris pays no interest in it. He doesn’t share hector’s heroic ideas. He sulks in his chamber while the sons of Priam lose their life in the battle because of him. Whereas Paris doesn’t look at anything beyond his personal desire, in contrast we have Hector who doesn’t look at anything before he completes his civic duty. The theme of martial duty and public service is reinforced by the attention paid to Hector’s spear:

“He held an eleven cubit long spear, the bronzed tip shined before the shaft and a golden hoop ran around it”

The language Homer uses to define his spear is a conscious effort to reinforce hectors masculinity. Just as hector has his spear, his helmet, his bloodstained armor, all of which belong to the public realm of war, Paris too has his armour.But both the armours are pictured but differently by homer. Paris in his chamber is shown polishing his armour, his armour is also described as “beautiful”.Paris’s ornaments of war are being cared for but not put in use. The stark contrast between the two brothers is obvious here.Hector is the one who brings his spear, helmet and armour, the objects of public realm, into the private. But Paris turns these same objects as a part of his private life. Unlike his brother Paris has Superficial heroism. This is reinforce when homer shows him moving to the finally battle ground, laughing and dangling his beautiful head here and there upon his armour.Paris can be called a perfect foil to Hectors character. Thus by this chapter we can clearly understand the way homer wants us to see the conflict between the public and private sphere of a warrior.