Week 6 Story

Alex was the smartest kid at day care, and everyone knew it. Alex's dad was always telling him that he would be something great one day. He believed in his son so much that on his fourth birthday he told him,

"One day even the gods will be amazed by you."

To keep Alex on the path for greatness Alex's dad ensured that Alex would never encounter any of the bad things in life. He could never let his son feel pain. He had to protect him just as much as he had to nurture him.

Alex loved the outdoors, and his nanny loved to take him out into the garden. They would go into the garden and Alex would marvel at the beauty of nature. At such a young age he already had a great appreciation for our world and the life in it. Not many four year-olds can even sit still, and they especially couldn't meditate like Alex would. But he wasn't aware he was meditating. To him he was just having a good time.

Alex was a curious child who needed knowledge to be happy. One day his father had his nanny take him downtown to experience city life for the first time. But he made the nanny swear that she would protect Alex from anything that could cause him harm.

Young Alex was blown away by the city. He hadn't known life could be like this. His nanny had even gotten him an ice cream cone, and many good times were had.

The day turned sour when Alex saw a backpack in the street. He asked his nanny what it was and she told him it was for. Alex learned about school. He learned that Monday through Friday for 3 seasons of the year he would have to be in school. He learned that he would spend 13 years of his life in  school, and if he did well enough he would get in to university. And for the first time in his life, Alex felt sadness.

The nanny realized something was wrong with Alex so they started heading home. But on their way home they came across a math book. Alex learned about homework. He learned that school wasn't just school. It was going to invade his home life too. And Alex fell deeper into despair.

They were hurrying home when they drove past a school, and the sign out front read "REPORT CARDS MUST BE SIGNED BY MONDAY." His teacher told him about grades. She told him how his performance would be boiled down to just a letter, and that was what he would be judged on. And Alex became depressed.

Author's Note: I took an excerpt from The Life of Buddha and turned it into a sillier modern day version. Instead of finding out about aging, sickness, and death our young hero discovers the school system. 

The equivalent of death in our

young protagonist's eyes. Source

Bibliography

The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold. https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-life-of-buddha.html

Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha Part B

Sid is preparing to leave. He instructs Chandaka to bring him his horse because he is on the road to deliverance.

His horse carries him a great distance when they arrive at a secluded wood. Sid gives Chan a necklace to give to the king. He tells Chan to tell his father to believe in him. Sid says "tell him that I seek a place among the gods." Chan pleads with Sid. He says if you must cause the kingdom this much grief can you not make me be the bearer of bad news? "Please don't forsake us Sid."

Sid stays silent then says that they must go their own ways. He tries to comfort Chan by telling him that even if he didn't leave death would separate them one day anyway. Then Sid takes Chan's swords and cuts off his hair in one swipe of the blade. A hunter appears and Sid asks to trade his fancy robes for the hunters reddish garments. The hunter agrees and Sid sets out on his path to hermitage.

Gopa awoke in the middle of the night, and she cannot find her prince. The more she looks the more frantic she becomes. She cries out to him, but never gets a response. She wakes the maidens and has them search for Sid, but they too cannot find him. His companions hopelessly try to console her. The king finds out what has happened and he has the gates to the city shut. He has the whole kingdom searched, but also comes up empty-handed.

Finally Chan returns with Sid's jewelry. He tells the horseman looking for Sid that no one could convince him to come back. Chan tells the king what has happened to his son. Mahaprajapti saw the jewels and took them. She threw them into a pool in the garden. Sid's horse returns to the stables and dies of sadness.

A secluded part of the woods. Source

Bibliography

The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold. https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-life-of-buddha.html

Reading Notes Part A: The Life of Buddha

There once was a queen named Maya. One night in a dream an elephant entered her womb. She does not know what this means, but she knows it means something great. The king comes and they find out their son will be born a buddha.

When it is time to give birth the queen goes to a flower meadow. The world sang when the prince was born. She named him Siddhartha.

There was a great hermit named Asita. He says the baby has the mark of omnipotence. Asita begins to weep, but he tells the king not to be distressed. He says Sid will have the perfect understanding of the world set free.

After the birth of the prince the kingdom was doing great. However, after seven days Maya ascends to heaven. The prince is then put into the care of Maya's sister. She takes Sid to the temple of the gods. The king led him to the statues of the gods. The statues came to life, and the gods fell at the feet of Sid.

A famous wise man, Visvamitra, becomes Sid's teacher. However Vis tells Sid there is nothing he can teach him. Sid goes to a tree and meditates. Some passerby see him and notice that he has the mark of omnipotent. They say he will certainly become brilliant. They see Sid meditating under a tree whose shadow does not move. He awakes and tells the king that they must stop working in the fields.

One day the king thinks to himself, "Sid must never suspect the evil there is in the world." He has Sid go into the town on a golden chariot. The gods get jealous of Sid and place and old man in the road. Sid sees this and learns that someday youth will leave him. Sid no longer has any joy in his heart.

Next the gods place a sick man in the road. Sid learns about illness, and he returns to the palace wrapped in painful thoughts. The king decides that he will let Sid go out once more. This time the gods put a corpse in the road and Sid learns about death.

Udayin assmebles beautiful maiden in an attempt to improve the state Sid is in, but at first the maidens are afraid of Sid. Udayin gets rid of their fears, and the maidens start doing extravagant, over-the-top things to win Sid's heart. Sid is still unhappy; death is still on his mind. Gopa waits naked for Sid. In a dream she sees the Earth shake. This is good because it means that the gods will bow before her one day.

Sid can no longer find peace. A monk approaches Sid, and Sid decides the life of a monk is for him. The king tells him to give up on this idea. Sid tells his father to promise him. "Promise me that my life will not end in death, that sickness will not impair my health, that age will not follow my youth, that misfortune will not destroy my prosperity." His father tells him he cannot.

A statue of a young Buddha. Source 

Bibliography

The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold. https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-life-of-buddha.html

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories Part A

In the beginning Nu who was the god in the ocean gave birth to Ra, the sun god. Then Shu, the wind, and his twin, the lioness Tetnut were created.

Ra had one name given to him by Nu that gave him divine power. Isis, his child and enchantress, wanted power that was equal to Ra. One day she follows Ra and turns some of his saliva into a serpent that no one could see. The serpent bites Ra, and all of his children come to him. Isis convinces him to give her his secret name so she can heal his wound. Ra obliges. With the power of his secret name Isis removes the venom from Ra's body.

Ra learns that people on Earth are talking bad about him so he assembles the gods. It is decided that the rebels will be destroyed. After their destruction Ra begins to feel guilt so he repents for what he has done. Thousands of jars are filled with plants of virtue. They were given as offerings to the god Hathor. From then on out, anytime the Nile rose in a red flood offerings were given to Hathor. Ra wanted help so Nu made Shu and Nut.

After Ra ascended to the Heavens, Osiris ruled over Egypt. He ushered in an era of peace; he taught men to farm and harvest. Osiris traveled the world to spread wisdom. While he was away, Isis sat on the throne.

Set had his eyes on the throne so he devised a scheme to get rid of Osiris. He had a chest with the measurements of the king built. He said whoever could fit in the chest could have it. Eventually it was Osiris's turn and he fit perfectly. Set's followers shut the lid and sealed him in. Then the threw the chest into the Nile. Isis searched up and down for Osiris. Set ascended to the throne and began his rule. Ra feels pity for Isis and sends Anubis, the opener of ways, to help Isis.

Isis gave birth to Horus, and set trapped them in their home. Set has his followers kill Horus, and Thoth brought him back to life. Osiris's coffin is found in Syria and they put it in a tree trunk. Set hears about the coffin being found, so he has his followers cut the body into 14 pieces and throw it into the Nile.

Osiris comes to Horus in a dream and tells him now is the time to overthrow Set. Horus loses an eye. Horus and Set appear before the throne of the gods, and the gods say that Horus is the true king. Ra sends Anubis, Horus and Thoth to unite the body of Osiris. Osiris becomes the judge and the king of the dead.

Storybook Plan

First of all I think the unTextbook will be a very useful resource as a sort of jumping off point. I think Wikipedia will also be useful for foundational ideas. I plan on lots of other adaptations of the stories I choose as inspiration. I will also be going through former students story books for ideas.

I think I definitely want to do an anthology. I think it would be the most fun to tell trickster stories that myself and most people are unfamiliar with, so I will definitely be enlisting your help this week to get some of those ideas rolling. I am still undecided if I want to have a nine-taled fox story or a story about Kagn, but I will be doing much deliberating this week to get a concrete idea of what it is that I want to do.

I guess the main theme I am going for with my stories is that I want them to be fun. This might sound very simple, but no one likes to be bored. I think if I can make stories that people enjoy reading without it feeling like a chore or homework then it will be mission accomplished. The second thing I am really going for is to showcase the wit of some of these infamous tricksters. Finally, I want to tell unfamiliar stories to expose myself and classmates to new things. I personally love learning new things, and I have to be constantly taking in new information. Especially in the era of entertainment that we are in with the constant remakes, reboots, and sequels I think it is important to tell new stories. I am not a fan of milking a franchise for all its worth. We need some fresh stories.

An Aztec trickster god. Source

Check at my very bare bones story book project so far here.  

Story Lab

For my lab I went on TVTropes and shuffled through random tropes and these are some of the ones I found that were worth writing about.

Once Upon a Time Trope - It's exactly what it sounds like. It is the trope how every fair tale used to start with "Once upon a time" and end with "and they lived happily ever after." This trope is a pretty obvious one, but it is the first trope I read about so I felt compelled to include it. Every journey starts somewhere, even if it isn't the most interesting.

Sdrawkcab Name Trope - This is a trope where villains or whoever will go by their real name, but backwards. This allows for a shocking reveal. A good example of this trope is a vampire going by Alucard. Then at the climax of the story the villain can reveal his real name was there all along. This is similar to Lord Voldemort being an anagram of "Tom Marvolo Riddle." I haven't read or seen an Harry Potter movie in quite a while so I apologize in advance if I butchered that.

Unscrupulous Hero Trope - In stories there are heroes and there are antiheroes. The unscrpulous hero is an antihero with traits of an ideal hero. "They are usually defined by dark experiences that have made them cold and unforgiving, and due to the settings in which they exist, there will usually be no compunctions to using more extreme methods. They are as much about payback (or any assorted type of catharsis) as they are the greater good, and their targets will be deserving of it, more likely than not." I was not aware of this specific classification, but after learning about it I can think of a few unscrupulous heroes. Captain Jack Sparrow and the Blues Brothers are good examples of this trope in film. In comics Red Hood and the Punisher are great examples of unscrupulous heroes.

The Snark Knight - This is the winner of the most fun name award. The entire entry is hilarious and definitely worth the read. "This character has a world-weary disdain for everyone, themselves included. They might see themselves as the Only Sane Man, but only in the sense that they're maybe one full notch above everyone else while still falling miles short of where they believe everyone should be." There are so many examples of this trope! Some of my favorites are Meg from Hercules, Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, Juno from Juno, Kim from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Obi-Wan. I use way too much self deprecating humor in my day-to-day life so a lot of my favorite characters are very snarky.

This is probably my favorite assignment we've done so far. I've really enjoyed learning about all of these tropes I didn't know existed. I am at the beginning of my descent down the TVTropes rabbit hole. 

The famous four words. Source

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche B

Cupid goes home to his mom, Venus, and she is not pleased with him at all. "How could you fall in love with a mortal woman! You had one job!"

While Cupid is taking a verbal lashing from Venus, Psyche is wandering around searching for her lost love. She is wailing and praying for her Cupid to return to her. She comes across a house and cannot find who lives there. So she does what anyone would do in that situation - she cleaned the house. It turns out Psyche has stumbled into the home of the goddess Ceres. Ceres sees Psyche and is impressed with the work she did. She asks Psyche what's wrong and Psyche tells her. Ceres says she wants to help, but can't get in the way of Venus.

Meanwhile Venus is searching for Psyche. She seeks out the services of Mercury, the messenger God. Mercury makes a reward for finding Psyche. It is a fine reward that everyone wants.

Sure enough someone finds Psyche and takes her before Venus. Venus is furious. She lashes out at Psyche and cuts her all over. Finally she presents Psyche with a task. She tells Psyche to organize all the wheat, millet, barley, poppy-seeds, chickpeas, lentils, and beans in her store house by the evening. The task would have been impossible, but thankfully some ants came to save the day and helped Psyche organize the whole thing.

Venus knew the whole thing was orchestrated by Cupid so she gave Psyche another task. This time she has to retrieve golden wool. Psyche wanders off to kill herself, but a reed sees and tells her how to get the wool. Psyche uses his advice to obtain what Venus wanted, but Venus does not care. Venus orders Psyche to go down into the underworld.

Psyche thinks she has to kill herself to get to the underworld, but luckily Cupid's voice comes through and tells her what to do. She makes her way to the gatekeeper and begins her descent into the underworld.


Psyche makes it to the palace in the underworld. She tells that Venus wants to borrow a some beauty. Proserpine A gives Psyche a box, and Psyche leaves.

Cupid’s voice warns Psyche not to open the boxno matter what, but Psyche does anyway because she wants some of the beauty for herself. Unfortunately, there's no beauty in the box. When Psyche takes off the lid, she's plunged into a deep sleep. Psyche collapses in the middle of the road.

Cupid goes to help his wife. He wakes her up with one of his arrows, and he points out that once again her curiosity has gotten her in trouble. Cupid tells her to take the box to Venus and to let him take care of the rest. He flies to Jupiter and he begs the king of the gods to help him and Psyche.

Jupiter summons Venus and convinces her to let it go. Then he brings Psyche up to Mt. Olympus and gives her some ambrosia, which means she is immortal now. Psyche and Cupid can finally be together, and now they can finally be together.

Psyche's jar of beauty. Source

Bibliography:
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Translation by Tony Kline. https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-apuleiuss-cupid-and.html

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche Part A

Our story begins with an old woman telling a tale to a captured girl. The story she tells the girl is the story of Cupid and Psyche.

Once upon a time there lived a king and a queen with three beautiful daughters. You know the rest. The youngest daughter was the most beautiful of them all and people traveled to admire her beauty. They would even compare her to Venus, and they even started praying to her like she was the goddess. Obviously this made Venus mad so she summoned her son Cupid.

The plan was to let Psyche continue to be admired, but like a statue. No one would ever want to marry her. Her father noticed something fishy was up so he prayed to Apollo. Apollo answered the father with a prophecy about his daughter, and it wasn't good news. This brought great sorrow to Psyche and her family. Psyche insisted her family let her go to die. She said there was no point in running from the inevitable. So she went to the cliff and Zephyr lifted her up with the wind.

She wakes up in the courtyard of an amazing palace. It had all the typical amenities like treasure, riches, and invisible servants.

Finally her husband arrives, but he's mysterious and we don't know what he looks like. He tells Psyche that if she hears her family not to answer. Psyche agrees to this so the husband reluctantly agrees to bring Psyche's family to visit.

The sisters arrive and Psyche greets them. "Why mourn when I am still here," she says. She takes them inside and the sisters get envious. Why were we not deserving of this fate they thought. So they did what all sisters in fairy tales do. They devised a scheme.

Once again Psyche's husband warned her about her sisters. He tells her "do not talk to them and you will bear a child." Psyche pleads and her husband agrees to bring the sisters back again.

The sisters congratulate her on her pregnancy. They want to know about her husband. She makes up a lie to tell them, and the sisters know she's lying. The sisters warn Psyche that her husband is a monster. Psyche ignores everything her husband has told her and believes them. The sisters tell Psyche that she has to sever her husbands head.

Well, Psyche is going to sever her husbands head, but then she sees him and realizes he is Cupid. This made her fall more in love with him. Oil from the lamp Psyche was using to see drips on Cupid and wakes him.  Cupid wails "I warned you over and over again yet you disregarded my warning. Why Psyche?"

To be continued...

Psyche's arrival to the palace. Source

Bibliography:
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Translation by Tony Kline. https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-apuleiuss-cupid-and.html

Feedback Strategies

Another enjoyable topic that we covered this week. I appreciate how we're learning useful things like this in a mythology course. Did not expect it at all, but I'm glad I'm here. My feedback skills could definitely use some work. I feel pretty good in my ability to give positive feedback, but I am not great at dishing out criticism.

Since I am not in charge of anything, the first article I read was "How to Provide Great Feedback When You’re Not In Charge." I cannot think of a time where my feedback has ever changed someone's life, which is making me think more seriously about how I give feedback. I liked how the author broke feedback down into 3 types. Now I plan on focusing my feedback more and using it as a tool to motivate people. (https://fs.blog/2016/02/provide-feedback/)

The other article I read was "Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback" by Marshall Goldsmith. I like the play on words he does in the title. I don't necessarily understand how feedback can't be focused on the past because you can't give feedback on things that haven't happened yet, but I'm not the feedback expert. I completely agree with him when he says how crucial it is to help people learn to be right rather than show them they are wrong. (https://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/articles/try-feedforward-instead-feedback/)

The most basic form of feedback. Source

Topic Research

For my project I think the most topic I would have the most fun writing about is tricksters. I can't quite place why they are some of my stories, but I really appreciate a nice scheme or demonstration of incredible wit.

Obviously the first trickster story that popped into my head was Loki. Thanks Marvel. But I have no desire to do this story. It's no fun to tell a story every knows. Instead I am going to choose I story I am unfamiliar with to do my project over. I want to learn new stories, and what better way is there to do that than telling my own versions of those stories.

Once I started searching for some trickster stories Anansi was a very popular result. However, since I am already familiar with the story of Anansi I will not be doing my project over it. Sorry Anansi.

The first story I am thinking of doing my project over is the story of Kumiho. When I think of a trickster I think of a cunning fox. "In folktales, the Kumiho would often take the form of a beautiful woman and attempt to seduce young boys. If they gave into temptation, the Kumiho would morph back into a fox and eat their heart and liver. Kumiho have been compared to the European werewolf." Sounds fun!

The second story I am thinking of writing about is the story of Kagn. Once again this story meets the criteria of me being completely unfamiliar with it. "Their trickster god Cagn, perhaps one of the original imaginings of the trickster archetype, holds a unique position as also being the supreme god and creator of the universe." Not only is he the original trickster, he is also the supreme god of the universe like how cool is that.

The final story I am now considering for my project is the story of Juha. I think this could be really fun to write about because "often he is the trickster, while occasionally he is the butt of the trick. The common bond among all the forms of Juha is his use of trickery to teach humorous or ironic moral lessons." I think those could provide for some really interesting stories.

Source: https://ultraculture.org/blog/2016/02/10/5-trickster-gods-world-mythology/

A fox that is up to no good.

Source

Week 3 Story: Mafia Showdown

The two biggest mafia families in the 20s were the Valenzos and the Sorrentos. The eldest sons of the families, Vinny and Arnaldo respectively, both had their eyes on the same girl, Daisy. Daisy was the most sought after damsel in the entire city. Both boys showered her with lavish gifts, but she ended up engaged to Arnaldo. However, one day the Viiny and some of his henchment stormed Arnaldo's place and kidnapped Daisy so she would have to marry Vinny.

This angered Saul, the boss of the Sorrentos and Arnaldo's father. They had no choice but to wage war on the Valenzos. Tony was Saul's right hand man and favorite soldier. Saul put Tony in charge of leading the fight against the Valenzos. But the Valenzos were resilient and the war did not look like it would be over anytime soon. Because of this tensions ran high among the Sorrentos. Saul's second oldest son, Big-time Tommy, grew unhappy with Tony's efforts and questioned his leadership. This infuriated Tony and he said he was done with Tommy and the family. He raged and told Tommy he was going to retire from the family. Tommy was fine with this, but he said if Tony left he would have no choice but to take Tony's prized Jaguar Roadster away from him. Tony told him to buzz off, slammed the door behind him, and left.

Sure enough the next day a couple of Tommy's goons showed up at Tony's and said they were here for his car. Tony had been in the family his whole life, and these were his friends. He didn't want to fight any of them so he let them take his car without any commotion.

The war continued with no end in sight. The Sorrento's would hit the Valenzo's and the Valenzo's would hit right back. Eventually Tommy realized he needed Tony to win so he sent some of his best men to go to Tony and convince him to rejoin the family. He gave them money, jewelry and other expensive gifts to try to win him back. He even gave them the Jaguar to return to Tony. But when the men showed up on Tony's doorstep, Tony told them he couldn't care less about what Tommy or what he wanted. He was sick of Tommy and his antics. He told the men that they were some of his best companions and he had immense respect for them, but he could not go back to Tommy. He told them to take all their gifts and to tell Tommy there was no chance in hell he would come back.

Soon after that Tony's best friend Paulie, who left the family with Tony, pleaded with Tony to let him go back to the fight. He said that one of his friends got jumped and put in a coma, and that he had to avenge him. Tony begrudgingly told Paulie to go, but to come back right after he had avenged his friend. He told him not to go back to the life of never ending war. Tony gave Paulie his favorite switchblade to use as good luck and a sign of brotherhood.

Saul's favorite son and the leader of his forces, Joey, was the one ordered the hit on Paulie's friend. Joey's best foot soldier, Benicio, is the one who carried out the hit. Paulie knew where Benicio stayed and pulled up on him with a couple other Sorrentos. Paulie lead the charge and they easily handled all of Benicio's goons, and they made their way to Benicio. Paulie told the guys to let him handle it and pulled out the switchblade Tony had given him. Benicio put up a good fight, but because of his righteous anger Paulie came out on top. Against Tony's wishes, Paulie stuck around to decide who to go after next. The rush of it all had corrupted Paulie's thinking.

However, Joey got word of what was happening and sped over to Benicio's place. When he got there he saw his friend on the ground, lifeless, in a pool of blood. Paulie standing over him, and menacingly smiling ear-to-ear. He was taking in what he had just done, and pure adrenaline was coursing through his veins. An immense hatred rushed over Joey, and he drew his switchblade and charged Paulie, landing a nonlethal blow to his stomach. Paulie fought back valiantly, but he had used up a substantial amount of energy in his fight with Benicio. After a long fight, because of the wound Paulie sustained Joey eventually overtook him. Joey lit up a cig and gravely stood over Paulie while he watched him die.

Joey after taking Paulie's life. Source

Author's Notes:

This is a retelling of Part A of the reading on Homer's The Iliad. Instead of ancient Greece my story takes place in the time of Al Capone and other gangsters. Instead of Helen, Daisy is the beautiful girl. Instead of the Greeks and the Trojans it is the Sorrentos and the Valenzos who are doing the fighting. Tony's Jaguar is the woman that Agamemnon took away from him after he left the siege of Troy. Benicio is the Trojan hero Sarpedon. Instead of Hector killing Patroclus, Joey kills Paulie.

Bibliography:

A.J. Church, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (Published 1967) https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-iliad-retold.html

Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad Part B

The story continues with a fierce fight for the body of Patroclus. King Menelaüs kills the Trojan who wounded Patroclus. Hector spoils the body of Patroclus, but Ajax defends the body. They call out Hector for his cowardly and slimy behavior, but he responds that he only fears to go against the will of Zeus. Zeus saw the situation and thought "these arms will cost Hector dear." The Greeks said to themselves: "It were better that the earth should open her mouth and swallow us up alive than that we let the Trojans carry off the body of Patroclus." Zeus sees Achilles immortal horses weeping for Patroclus and feels bad for them. Ajax says to have Nestor's son carry the news to Achilles.

Menelaüs doesn't know if Achilles will come because he doesn't have any armor. The Greeks would have taken the city, but Apollo stepped in. Agénor decides his best option is to stand at the gates and wait for Achilles because he knows no matter what Achilles will pursue him so there is no point in fleeing. Achilles rushes him, but Apollo lifts him off the ground to safety. After this only Hector remained outside the city. Achilles realizes he has been tricked and is angry with Apollo for robbing him of glory. King Priam cries out to Hector and says "O my son, wait not for this man, lest he kill you, for indeed he is stronger than you." Hector disregards this.

Then Queen Hecuba cries out to Hector to come inside. She says "for if he conquers you, then not only will you die, but dogs and vultures will eat your flesh far from here, by the ships of the Greeks." Once again Hector ignores this. He trusts in his strength, but when he sees Achilles he is filled with fear and flees. Zeus sees this and feels bad for Hector. He tries to get the other Gods to do something. Athené responds "what is this that you purpose? Will you save a man whom the fates appoint to die? Do this, if you will, but the other gods do not approve." Apollo helps Hector by giving strength to his knees. Athené tells Achilles that it is his day to slay Hector, and that Apollo can't stop him anymore.

Athené takes the shape of Hector's brother Deïphobus and convinces Hector to fight Achilles. Achilles throws his spear and misses which gives Hector confidence. However, Athené returns Achilles's spear to him without Hector noticing. Hector throws his spear and is on target, but it hits Achilles's shield. He asks his brother for another spear, but his brother isn't there and Hector realizes that he has been tricked. Left with no other options, Hector draws his sword and charges at Achilles, but Achilles easily kills him. With his dying breath Hector asks Achilles to give his body back to his family. Achilles says no.

Zeus asks Thetsis to ask Achilles to give the body to Priam, and Achilles obliges. Priam asks Zeus to  pity me and give me a lucky sign. Zeus then sends Hermes to Hector. Hermes tells Hector that he will protect him. Priam enters Achilles's tent and asks if his sons body is whole, and Achilles tells him it is. After hearing Priam Achilles heart was moved and he wept for Priam. He thought about his own parents. Achilles orders some women to wash and anoint Hector's body. Priam asks for a nine day truce between the Trojans and the Greeks and Achilles agrees. Hermes wakes Priam that night and tells him that he sleeps with enemies and instructs him to wake and depart. Priam departs and on the ninth day has a great burying for his son.

 

Achilles displaying the body of Hector. Source

Bibliography:

A.J. Church, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (Published 1967) https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-iliad-retold.html