Circling around a city isn't the best way to solve a quarrel much less save energy for a fight. Throughout the Iliad, we see Hector go to his brother Paris and attempt to raise him up in courage and muster enough intestinal fortitude to fight his fight, but in Hector's final breath of battle he convinces himself otherwise. I see Hector as RJ the raccoon from Over the hedge in this situation. RJ was very much able to convince others throughout the film to do the right thing in their eyes but when it came down to crunch time RJ couldn't pull through (until the climax but I won't spoil anything). Hector spends 40 lines (from 117-157) "probing his heart" to decide while he waits on his inevitable doom and then at the very last second what does he do? Run. I mean to quote Joe Biden, "C'mon man!"
"Hector looked up, saw him, started to tremble, never gone, he could hold his ground no longer, he left the gates behind and away he fled in fear-"(Homer 162-164)
Not only do we see him run but we see him run for seemingly forever. I remember simple how tuckered out I would be from soccer excises just by running around the track. I was curious though: How far did they actually run? As I do with most things I googled it and then did the math. According to google Troy during that time was about 74 acres meaning its circumference, if it were perfectly round, would be approximately 1.21 miles.
"But once they reached the springs for the fourth time, the Father Zues held out his sacred golden scales"(Homer 248,249)
"No more running from you in fear, Achilles! Not as before. Three times I fled around the city of Priam-I lacked courage then" (Homer 296-298)
Three to four times they went around the city so they ran somewhere between 3.63-4.84 miles non-stop. That is a relatively useless fact that I just had to dig into. The most important thing I drew from book 22 was the power of Companionship, even though in this case it was false companionship. I am reminded of the very first thing in the Bible God said wasn't good. Genesis 2:18
"Then the LORD God said,"It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper corresponding to him."
I remind you that for an entire chapter and 17 verses we are surrounded by God made this and it was good, but the first thing God says isn't good is man being alone. we see the fear in Hector and the actions of that fear and nothing changes until he thinks he isn't alone. In lines 276-292 we see his bravery return purely on account of not being alone. As kids if you had to run into anything dark it was scary but you would often do it if you had someone with you. Before I get to preachy here I am going to end this with the key thought I focused on: the importance of fellowship. 1 John 1:7,
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."`
I commented on Isabelle Ferguson's and Rachel Gregson's blog.
I like how you tied in Hector's fear when being alone (and literally running for miles, nice random-research,) with God saying it isn't good for man to be alone. I think in today's society, the word alone is used in tandem with everyday life much more, whether spoken out loud or being held within. Technology has created a facade of, "yeah, I have a bunch of friends, I follow them on social media", when in reality loneliness is a common pandemic of sorts that is often pushed aside or ignored. Good point!
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think of that being alone in a crowd kinda of thing that social media causes. It really is how amazingly similar Athena's fake face is to the vast majority of internet "friendships" I think often friends online will say they are your friend but when it comes to really standing up for you like a real friend does, they don't. It is sad and also the reason why bullying is so easy online.
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