The Iliad portrays Hector as Troys most capable fighter, but the epic also goes into his

relationship with his wife Andromache. In addition to describing Hector as a prominent warrior, Homer also places him in a loving relationship with his wife. Like a loving spouse, Andromache worries about Hector dying in the Trojan War, and Hector cannot bear to see his wife become the Greeks slave should Troy fall. Hector and Andromache express their worries to each other in Iliad Book 6, proving their loving relationship but also their conflicting values. Both Hector and Andromache fear losing one another, either through death in battle or a cruel life of slavery. Andromache expresses her fears and anxieties to Hector when she tells him that it wont be long before the whole Greek army swarms and kills you. And when they do, it will be better for me to sink into the earth (Homer, Iliad 6.430-3). She pleads with him to show some pity and stay here by the tower. Dont make your child an orphan, your wife a widow (Homer, Iliad 6.453-4). Also fearing the loss of his beloved, Hector tells Andromache that all that pain is nothing to what I will feel for you, when some bronze-armored Greek leads you away in tears, on your first day of slavery (Homer, Iliad 6.477-9). As a loving husband, Hector goes on to pray for their son and to comfort his wife, saying, You worry too much about me, Andromache. No one is going to send me to Hades before my time (Homer, Iliad 6.511-2). Although Hector and Andromache love each other dearly and care about each others health and futures, they also have conflicting values and opinions about Hector fighting in the war. Andromache does not want Hector to continue fighting, despite the fact that Troy depends on his supreme battle skills, because she has already lost her family to Achilles and Artemis (Homer, Iliad 6.435-50). Hector acknowledges her discomfort, but values his honor above her worries, saying but my shame before the Trojans and their wives would be too terrible if I hung back from battle like a coward. And my heart wont let me (Homer, Iliad 6.464-7).

Andromache knows that Hector lives by the values of a true warrior, so she says to him, your courage is going to kill you, and you have no feeling left for your little boy or for me, the luckless woman who will soon be your widow (Homer, Iliad 6.427-30). As much as Andromache wants Hector to stay with her, he would rather be dead and the earth heaped up above me before I hear your cry as you are dragged away (Homer, Iliad 6.48890). Hector knows that there will come a day when holy Ilion will perish (Homer, Iliad 6.471) and that no man has ever escaped his fate, rich or poor, coward or hero, once born into this world (Homer, Iliad 6.513-4). Thus, he values his participation in the war more than staying with his wife to comfort her. Andromache even thinks of Hector as the only thing she has left in her life, but Hector takes into consideration the fate of his people and the shame he will feel if he abandons them in these critical moments of war. In Book 6 of the Iliad, Hector and Andromache definitely express their love for each other through their worries and fears for each others safety and wellbeing. However, they also express conflicting valuesAndromache values her husband and his safety more than his duty to their country in battle, while Hector values courage and honor on the battlefield more than his own life and staying with his wife. Hector would rather die fighting than stay with Andromache and avoid battle only to watch the Greeks take her away as their slave. On the other hand, Andromache would rather have Hector abandon his fellow soldiers and stay with her than lose him and become his widow. Thus Homer portrays the paradox of Hectors and Andromaches marriage in this situationboth love each other dearly, yet both have conflicting values.