The Greek army drives the Trojans behind their walls, and only Hector remains at the Scaean gate, still committed to defending Troy even as his city collapses around him. Priam watches Achilles advance like a comet and pleads with his son to retreat: he tears his white hair, lists the sons already lost, and begs Hector to spare an old father the sight of another slaughter. Hecuba joins the appeal, baring her breast and reminding him of the nursing years, warning that if he dies outside the walls his body will lie unburied for vultures. Hector listens but does not move. Alone with his shield, he weighs flight against honour, imagines Polydamas mocking him for ignoring wise counsel, and decides he must either return in glory or fall fighting where Troy can see him.
When Achilles closes in, blazing in divine armour, Hector's nerve breaks and he runs. What follows is one of the most famous chases in literature: three times the two heroes circle Troy's walls while the gods watch from Olympus. Zeus pities Hector and briefly considers saving him, but Athena argues that a mortal marked for death cannot be spared, and Jove lets fate proceed. Apollo lends Hector strength to keep running, then withdraws when the scales of destiny sink on Hector's side. Athena descends disguised as Deiphobus, Hector's brother, and convinces him that he is not alone. Believing reinforcements have arrived, Hector turns to fight.
Hector proposes honourable terms that Achilles rejects with contempt; the spears fly, Athena deflects Hector's throw, and when he discovers the brother at his side is a phantom, he knows death is certain. One thrust through the gap in his armour ends Troy's greatest defender. Even dying, he begs for burial; Achilles refuses and vows to let dogs devour the body. The Greeks strip the armour and taunt the fallen prince while Achilles stands over him, thinking of Patroclus. Then he pierces Hector's ankles, threads thongs through the wounds, and ties the body behind his chariot. He whips the horses and drives toward the ships, and Hector's head and hair leave a track in the dust.
Priam grovels in the dirt and begs his people to let him go out alone to the killer. Hecuba leads the women in a public lament. Inside the palace Andromache still hears nothing: she is at her loom, with handmaids heating water for the bath she expects her husband to need when he comes home from the wall. The clamour from the ramparts reaches her at last. She runs through the house, climbs to the battlements, and sees Hector dragged behind the Greek chariot. Her veil and diadem fly off; she faints in the arms of her women, and when she wakes she can only weep.
