He has already received the order from Zeus (through Thetis) to return the body. However, guilt is not the reason Achilles’s gives in. Achilles is overwhelmed by guilt by the thought of his own father and agrees to return Hector’s corpse. Weeping, he embraces Achilles’s knees and kisses his hands, begging him to understand that he is a father whose fifty sons have all been killed in this war. Upon seeing Achilles, Priam immediately performs hiketeia. Priam follows the order and is protected by Hermes on his journey to Achilles’s camp. Iris tells Priam to go to Achilles and offer a ransom for Hector’s body. Zeus then sends Iris with a message to Priam, Hector’s father. Must not come to nothing-whatever he commands (Homer, 591). I cringe from mingling with the immortals now-īut go I shall. Why… what does the great god want with me? Thetis is bound to his command and recognizes this herself before even knowing Zeus’s actual request, Achilles’s behavior makes the gods angry, so Zeus demands that Thetis tell Achilles to return the body to Hector’s family. Achilles has defeated and killed Hector, but instead of respectfully returning the corpse, he drags it by chariot around the city to disgrace him because Hector killed Patroclus. Zeus uses the power over Thetis that he gained in Book One later in Book Twenty-Four. She is aware that Zeus will anger his wife, Hera, and the other gods by granting her this wish, and this strengthens Zeus’s power over her. Zeus’s agreement is seen as generous because the gods will be angry by his decision, and therefore Zeus has gained a great power over Thetis. Once I bow my head to say it shall be done (Homer, 94). There is no treachery, nothing left unfinished No word of work of mine-nothing can be revoked, Is the strongest, truest sign that I can give. That, I remind you, that among the mortal gods Look, I will bow my head if that will satisfy you.

Zeus ultimately agrees to this request, despite the repercussions from his wife and the deaths of thousands of mortals, because he himself is indebted to Thetis for saving him from the Olympians:Īway with you now. If a request is granted, the baiter is indebted to the individual that granted hiketeia. Because hiketeia is sacred and a moment of pure subjection, the request cannot be denied casually. She asks Zeus to give the Trojans victory until Agamemnon begs in desperation for Achilles to return and fight. Thetis begs him to bring honor to her son after Agamemnon has disgraced him in front of his troops. She grasps him by the knees with one hand and his face by the other. In Book One Achilles’s mother, Thetis, is an immortal goddess who performs hiketeia onto Zeus.

Hiketeia