Short answer: Achilles wins the fight. Hector wins everything else. Achilles is semi-divine (his mother is the sea goddess Thetis), practically unbeatable, and he fights for glory and for rage. Hector is fully mortal, crown prince of Troy, and he fights because his city and his family live behind those walls. Homer stacked the deck on purpose: he gave the Greeks the better warrior and Troy the better man, then made them meet in the most famous duel of the war for Helen of Troy.
Tale of the tape
| Round | Achilles | Hector |
|---|---|---|
| Parentage | Son of the sea goddess Thetis: semi-divine | Son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba: one hundred percent mortal |
| Motivation | Glory, and after Patroclus dies, pure rage | Duty: protect Troy, protect his family |
| Signature moment | Quits the war over wounded pride, then returns like a force of nature | His helmet scares his baby son Astyanax, so he takes it off laughing and prays for the boy |
| Weakness | His own anger (the first word of the Iliad is "rage") | He is a mortal squaring up to a demigod |
| Fate | Doomed to die young at Troy, and he knows it | Killed by Achilles, mourned by an entire city |
The duel, blow by blow
Hector kills Patroclus, who rode into battle wearing Achilles' armor. Achilles comes back for one reason only. When they finally meet, Hector's nerve breaks and Achilles chases him three times around the walls of Troy. Then Athena cheats: she takes the shape of Hector's brother and promises backup that does not exist. Hector stands, fights, and dies. Achilles drags the corpse behind his chariot for days, but the gods keep the body untouched. At last old King Priam sneaks into the enemy camp by night and kisses the hands that killed his son. Achilles thinks of his own father, weeps with him, and gives Hector back.
Quick questions
Was Achilles invulnerable?
Not in Homer. The famous heel (Thetis dipping her baby in the Styx) is a later, post-Homeric story. In the Iliad, Achilles bleeds like anyone else; he is simply the best warrior alive, by a margin nobody can close.
Why did Athena help Achilles?
She had held a grudge against Troy ever since the judgement of Paris, when the Trojan prince picked Aphrodite over her. Gods never forget a beauty contest.
What happened to Hector's body?
Priam ransomed it with a wagonload of treasure, and Troy got twelve days of truce to mourn. The Iliad does not end with the wooden horse: it ends with Hector's funeral. Homer gave the last word to the loser.
So who was the better man? Achilles is the greatest warrior in Greek mythology; Hector is its greatest human being. Hear the duel narrated like a film in MythologyNow: Achilles is waiting, and Briseis has her own side of the story.
