Member-only story
Shame and Shamelessness in the Social-Media Age
A broken feedback loop
Hector, in the end, decides that death is better than shame. In the climactic battle of the Iliad, he faces off against Achilles, who he knows will kill him. The Trojan warrior contemplates surrendering. He wonders whether he should give back Helen and the treasure the Trojans took from the Greeks in exchange for his life. But he decides that
I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing their long robes . . .
Someone less of a man than I will say, ‘Our Hector —
staking all on his own strength, he destroyed his army!’
So they will mutter. So now, better by far for me
to stand up to Achilles, kill him, come home alive
or die at his hands in glory out before the walls.
Achilles does, indeed, defeat Hector, swooping down on him as a hawk does its prey. As Hector dies, Achilles threatens him with another, worse type of shame — he will leave Hector’s body out in the open so that “the dogs and birds will maul you, shame your corpse.” After dragging Hector’s corpse around the walls of Troy, Achilles eventually relents and allows Hector’s family to bury him.
