Divine Protagonists in the Iliad: Hector’s Death in Book 22

Abstract

Zeus and Athena organize the death of Hector down to the smallest detail, and Zeus personally intervenes to accomplish his will (boulē). Acting in parallel, the divine will and the hero’s will bring about Hector’s death. The tricks the gods deploy in contriving Hector’s murder and the absence of any serious rationale for them inspire pity and despair in the poem’s addressees. They also admire Hector as he runs to his demise and tragically chooses a heroic death.