Is it bad that I essentially read the Iliad as the tragedy of Hector?

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Hector was traditionally seen as the antagonist

Maybe, but I would argue that he is just as major of a character as Achilles. And with so many important works of history seeing Hector as the more noble warrior of the story, I don't think it is wrong for me to see it as the tragedy of Hector. The Romans essentially saw Hector as a hero. This is apparent in the Aenid. There is Dante's Inferno where Hector is in the outer layer of hell where noble non-christians/virtuous pagans are. Meanwhile Achilles is in a more inner circle of hell (Lust). Shakespeare also portrays Hector as a tragic figure in Troilus and Cressida with the Greeks as kinda bad guys. Overall, I think this is a valid interpretation.

I'll just leave this here:

>Achilles & Hector - Fight to the death above the abyss

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I always sympathize with the bad guy in every story for some reason, with very few exceptions. They are always more interesting characters

Did you cry when he left his son and wife for the last time?

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No, but it was one of the best moments of the story.

That's a beautiful amphora, not gonna lie.

Very cool

This there evidence to support this? I mean it's a greek story and hes the not-Greek but it really shows almost literally every character acting like insane assholes at every point. Even the gods themselves dont know who to support. I have a feeling that the ancient Greeks really didnt attach morality to their stories that way they did post-socrates/christ.

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>tfw you realize Odysseus is actually the bad guy

Everyone’s kind of a bad guy by modern standards. Except Hector who’s stuck in a shit situation because of Paris, all he can do is defend his city despite him knowing the Greeks were right to attack. He’s by far the most heroic of the characters in the modern sense. By our standards Achilles comes off childish and Agamemnon as a bad commander (although that’s slightly implied in the Illiad too)

But Paris is the bad guy and a silly boy.

I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a War story. The heroes here are heroic in a martial sense. Achilles, Odysseus, Diomedes, Aias, and the rest of them are not good people. They are good warriors. To translate them into modern terms, these guys are the type of people who would win a Victoria Cross, not the type of people we would consider virtuous or heroic.

The trouble is that Hector comes off as both a good warrior and virtuous and heroic. His final tragic end is that of a man who goes beyond reason and accepts fighting a demigod, knowing full well he will die, but what choice is there?

>wtf you can't be angry at your enemies it's bad

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>not reading it as the glory of Diomedes

Hector is unquestionably the tragic hero of the poem. Dies and his child is thrown from the battlements because of his devotion to Troy.

all because of his asshole little brother.

>Hector realises that Athena tricked him and he's about to die and tries to get Achilles to agree to let the Trojans bury him but Achilles says fuck you

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no homer sympathised with hector. achilles was the real villain of the piece

>be Agamemnon
>get into a war so your bro can get his wife back
>10 years later finally get to go home
>find out your wife's been cheating on you
>wife kills you while you're taking a bath
Agamemnon was the real tragic character here

it was the gods' fault

that also happens to every trojan soldier

you are talking out of your ass mate

of course agamemnon was also a weak, truculent, greedy, lying, murderous, boastful, irresolute busybody who almost always did the wrong thing.

>killed his daughter as a sacrifice
>somehow the tragic hero
fucking moron

i've done this my whole life

This is unironically my favourite moment in literature

>unironically
oh yeah you're clearly full of integrity

>By our standards Achilles comes off childish

Which isn't really right. Instead, he should be seen as an embodiment of unyielding virtue--to the point where he withdraws from war to uphold personal justice. It's Greek heroism pushed until it breaks.

Achilles was angry at his commander tho.

even semi-barbaric homer doesn't ask us to approve of achilles sulking in his tent heartlessly watching the massacre of his comrades.
when he's offered back everything agamemnon took from him & more he still refuses to fight. he has the problem of his mortality to worry about.

But Achilles himself is standing up for his own personal rights and demands justice from the gods themselves, not dissimilar to how someone would act today. He sits the eat out until he is forced to put his rights aside as honor (avenging the loss of his friend) takes precedence. He is not evil. One could say selfish yes, but there is still the part of him refusing to help someone who denied him what's his

True. I think this is made even more clear in the Odyssey. Odysseus' speech to the people after he throws a discus and smashes everyone else's records makes it clear that he is of a different caliber. It is partly why I love the Odyssey so much. The new people on Ithaca and elsewhere are children compared to the men who fought the Trojan War. This is further shown when Odysseus sends the suitors to the house of the dead and Agamemnon doesn't care about the suitors, but is overjoyed for Odysseus. They were brothers in arms and clearly very rough people

yeah, no. Don’t listen to undergrads user.

Really, you should be reading it as the Comedy of Achilles and if you can’t see why then blame your slave morality.

epic story bro

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baz luhrman should remake the iliad and the odyseey but in a modern setting like how he did with romeo and juliet

Homer didn't create the Iliad, user, he just wrote it down.

odd hill to die on

>But in a modern setting
The Greeks and the Trojans are some arabs fighting a civil war in somethingstan, America, China, and Russia are the Gods, and the heroes get to call in airstrikes in lieu of divine intervention. Everything else stays the same.