s how Hektor’s decision to return to the war mimics the Greek outlook of an “individual striving for excellence” (Perry 44). This is the aret that embodies how the Homeric warrior goes beyond “bravery and skill in battle” (43) to display his worth by “unit[ing] nobility of action with nobility of mind” (qtd. in Perry 43). Hektor possesses the aforementioned nobility of action when he fights despite the realization that the day will arrive “when sacred Ilion will perish,” and unites this with the nobility in his mind in the fact that he fights not just his state but for the honor and freedom of his family (The Iliad of Homer 6.448 trans. Lattimore). However, Homer seems to criticize the aret that drives Hektor into battle and to his death. Hektor wants to do what his society considers the right thing by fighting in the war, and he does so only because of the honor required in the Greek excellence. In the course of the story, Hektor does not believe in Paris’ quarrel and does not like to fight even though his aret drives him into battle. Hektor does not want to be called a coward, but this is inevitably the weakness within him. Paris comments on this long before Hektor’s encounter with his wife, and says, “surely now the flowing-haired Achaians laugh at us, thinking you are our bravest champion, only because your looks are handsome, but there is no strength in your heart, no courage” (3.43-45). Homer seems to convey to the audience that Greek masculinity and a warrior’s aggression leads to nothing but a tragic end. Hektor could have liquidated the war, but his weakness prevents this. Homer shows that the nobility of mind and action that he has only leads Hektor and the family his fights for the reality of being killed. Homer’s work demonstrates the honors and sufferings that Hektor endures which shape him into the Greek hero. The passage in book six...
