1. Both Achilles and Hector were the best warriors of their nations. Hector the greatest warrior of for the Trojans and is very well thought of by the people of his nation. Hector fights before his beloved wife and kids. Within the battle he makes many costly errors resulting is the death of many warriors behind him. Even though numbers are low he continues to face Achilles. Achilles fighting for the Achaeans seems to have major flaws in his character in turn leading him to be weak when it comes to battle. He basically turns away from his fellow warriors and hopes that they die in battle so he can be the hero. At the end of the war these two great warriors were killed by Ajax. The original plan between Hector and Ajax was to have Achilles killed but turns out Hector didn’t come up with his end of the deal so Ajax had his way with him. One of the main differences between these two great warriors is that they fought for different reasons. Hector was full of love and pride fighting for his people where Achilles was more about personal pride and didn’t have pride in his nation so he fought to the death.
2. After Achilles berserk episode Priam, Achilles father is the one who brings him back to balance. Achilles delivers Hectors body to his father so that he can forgo a proper burial. Achilles flaws are shown again as his anger problems cycle again. Both sides of the battle lost loved ones that were well known and well liked. The message that we find is that death is everywhere, it happens all around us. The one thing we learn is that one must find a way around the thought of death and see past it and live life to the fullest battle hard like these warriors did. Because one day life will be there for us.
3. The Warrior Code and The Familial Code are not mutually exclusive. They instead seem to clash. We see this with Hector he is a family man who passionately loves his wife and kids. Without a doubt you can see tell that he would much rather stay with his family during battle to keep them safe. Fighting the war was far more honorable and heroic than the latter. Achilles is in the same boat, instead of staying back with his aging father who he might never see again. Both warriors show a great deal of honor, pride, character and bravery to their respected nations in the action that they took in taking part in battle.
I agree with you on our view of Achilles and Hectors personalities. I think the two were destined to battle even though I was definitely rooting for Hector in the end. I also agreed with your view on the fact that the two codes were not mutually exclusive to one another.
They seem to show depending on the situation and how serious it is. I agree that Hector was more of a family man and would if at all possible stop fighting all together, but because of the consequences of surrender, he had to pull harder towards the warriors code to prevent harm to his family or in a more broader way his city. I wonder if these two characters weren’t such pivotal leaders to their armies, if they could have elected one code to live by. I don’t think Achilles always appeared so honorable to his men especially when he refused to fight along side his men because of a disagreement between he and Agamemnon.
I liked your take on the codes and how they clash