Hector's Role In The Patrojan War

Homer compares the Achilles’ beloved friend and mighty soldier, Patroclus, to a boar and Troy’s man-killer, Hector, to a lion in order to clarify Hector’s role in the Trojan War and emphasize Hector’s intensity and brute strength. Homer states in his recital of the Iliad that “A boar does not wear out easily...” Patroclus, the boar in this simile, drives the Trojan Army away from the Greek ships and gloriously fights and kills Trojans until Hector, uncertain of his army’s capabilities against a force like Patroclus, orders the Trojans to execute a retreat. However, “a lion will overpower it when the two face off over a trickling spring up in the mountains, they both want to drink from,” (Homer). Hector, the lion in the simile, soon returns