Heroes are defined by their humanity. Only after Achilles accepts his fate and comes to terms with his own mortality does he regain his humanity, and only then can he be considered a hero. The Iliad opens with “the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,” (Iliad 1.1) and closes with the burial of “Hector breaker of horses” (Iliad 24.944). The bracketing of the poem with descriptions of these two men suggests both their importance and their connection to …showed first 75 words of 1759 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1759 total…a hero. His heroism is so great because, unlike other men, the measure of his heroism does not lie in the status of the people he kills, but in the action of giving up Hector’s body. The murder of Hector is not Achilles’ greatest moment, but only one step in attaining his heroism. He diverges so greatly from the heroic, that in the moment when he finally accepts his mortality, his heroism is immense.