Hector - Point of View

"All my life I have lived by a code and the code is simple: Honor the Gods, love your woman and defend your country."

After decades of warfare, Agamemnon, King of Mycenae had forced the kingdom of Greece into a loose alliance. Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus, king of Sparta, was weary of war and battle and offered peace with Troy, the most powerful rival to the emerging Greek nation with mighty walls that could never be breached. I remember that day as if it was yesterday. I, Prince Hector of Troy and my brother Paris were invited to Sparta to represent our aging father, King Priam, for the peace agreements. Both countries were tired of war. Our father who have spent his lifetime fighting wars for land, power and glory, wished more than anything else to die peacefully in Troy. Having devoted my adult life to war, I just wanted to retire and dedicate more time to my family and watch my son grow up.

English: Triumphant Achilles: Achilles dragging th...

Menelaus Painter (name vase)

Helen Dennis / 20071117.10D.46197 / SML

I should have stopped the stares and gestures Paris and Helen sent to each other during the feast. I never really anticipated that Paris would try to woo Helen of Sparta as well. After all, women had always loved Paris and so why would he choose to love Helen when he knew that her suitors had signed an oath to protect her marriage? I was wrong. It was all a game to Paris, roaming "from town to town, bedding merchant's wives and temple maids." He spat on out father's love when he brought her onto our ship, for his own selfish lust, he didn't care if Troy burned or men died for his cause. "I've killed men and I've heard them dying and there's nothing glorious about it, nothing poetic." I love my brother but I...