Throughout a person’s life, their primary caregivers, most usually biological parents, play a huge role in shaping who they will become. In Homer’s the Iliad there is multiple cases of how a father influences his son. In the poem, a reoccurring theme seems to be: what does it mean to be a father? The role of a father has different views to various people. This is especially prevalent in the Iliad. There are multiple sets of father-son relationships, and each one means something different.
In book 6, Hector, the leader of the Trojan forces, returns home to Troy. Here he encounters his wife, Andromache, and his young son, Astyanax, and prays to Zeus:
Zeus, all you immortals! Grant this boy, my son,
may be like me, first in glory among the Trojans,
strong and brave like me, and rule all Troy in power
and one day let them say, ‘He is a better man than his father!’—
when he comes home from battle bearing the bloody gear
of the mortal enemy he has killed in war –
a joy to his mother’s heart (Iliad 6.
568-574).
Hector prays, beggingly, to the immortal gods that his son will live nothing but a glorious life. As most good fathers would want, Hector wants the same: for his son to be even better than he was. Hector prays that Astyanax would fight strong in battle and make him proud. This is different from what Hector’s father, Priam, the king of Troy, wanted for Hector.
Priam wanted Hector to be safe and off the battlefield to stay alive as he pleaded, “Back, come back! Inside the walls, my boy!” (Iliad 22. 65). The difference between Hector and his father is noticeable. While Hector hopes his son is bigger, better, and stronger than him, Priam wants Hector to remain protected.
Priam cares so much about the safety of his son, Hector, that he goes to the measures to put himself in danger. After Achilles kills Hector, Priam tries to protect the body of his son. He sneaks into the Achaean camp to plead for the return of his son’s body, “It’s all for him I’ve come to the ships now, / to win him back from you…” (Iliad 24. 586-587). Priam cares so much about his son that he wants Hector to be remembered and honored the correct way. To try and convince Achilles to give Hector’s body back he tells Achilles to remember his own father, and how his father were to feel if he died, “Pity me in my own right, / remember your own father!” (Iliad 24. 588-589). Homer does this to compare the father-son relationship between Priam and Hector to Achilles and his father. By putting himself in Priam’s shoes, Achilles feels the pain that Priam is feeling and gives Hector’s body back to Priam for a ransom.
In contrast to Priam, and Hector’s father relationships, Zeus is not a biological father to the mortals, but acts just as Priam or Hector would. Zeus intervenes with the mortals to protect them and to tell them how to act. Even though he may not be their father by blood he acts like it to them. By watching over them and protecting him, the mortals look to Zeus as more than just a higher power. Even though he doesn’t follow through with the plan, Zeus attempts to save Hector from Achilles in book 22 by sending down Athena disguised, “So he launched Athena already poised for action — / down the goddess swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks” (Iliad 22. 222-223). Zeus tried to save Hector from being killed by Achilles, because he acts like a father to the mortals as well. It is comparable to the father-son relationships between Hector and Priam. Just like Zeus is a father-like figure to the mortals, Phoenix claims to be like a father to Achilles. As a young child, Achilles, was raised by Phoenix. Achilles loves and trusts Phoenix very deeply.
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