ousness. He seems more the estranged youth than the manly defender represented by Hector. But, as you read the epic the Iliad you will see that this is a necessary part of his role as "Questor. With a Questor defined as being a searcher after truth. Another thing to note is Hector's statement that "Deep in my heart I know the day is coming when holy Ilium will be destroyed . . ." We here can see his battle with irrevocable destiny that Hector has to fight. Hector knows Troy cannot possibly win, but chooses never to act on that knowledge. Caught in the turmoil of war, fooled by his temporary victories, he acts and later talks as if Troy will win. But in this instance, Homer lets us into his sub - conscious, so to speak. He knows the truth but his commitment to his social order and his sense of honor force him to fly in the face of it. Homer does this to create a hero worthy and complex enough to be balanced against Achilles. These two heroes together represent two types of tragedy. With Hector, bearing the tragedy of a man who has all the good things in life but must lose them in the very act of defending them; and Achilles, the tragedy of the alienated hero, the man searching for everything, who, in finding it, as we shall later see, perceives that it was not worth the suffering....
