the eldest son of Priam and Hecuba, and heir to the throne, was the most valiant defender of Troy. He was married to Andromache, daughter of Eetion, to whom he was tenderly attached, and had by her Astyanax and Laodamas or Amphineus. He had the chief command of the troops during the Trojan war, and the valour which he displayed showed how well qualified he was to discharge that important office. He fought in single combat with Ajax, and obliged Diomede to fly; but Achilles was his natural enemy, though it was not till the tenth year of the siege that they met in battle. Hector took advantage of the absence of Achilles, who was indignant with Agamemnon for having taken Brissia from him, and, approaching the camp of the Greeks, began to set fire to the ships. Patroclus appeared in the armour of Achilles, and fell by the hands of Hector. This drew forth Achilles, who proceeded to the field of battle, and, pursuing Hector through the plain, put him to death. He then dragged his dead body thrice round the walls of the city, and, not satisfied with this, declared that the body should be given as a prey to birds and dogs. The following night, however, the tears of the aged Priam induced him to change his resolution, and the body of Hector was committed to the flames within the walls of his native city. Such is the scene which terminates rather abruptly the poem of the Iliad. Hector had a monument at Thebes, to which the Thebans maintained that his bones had been removed from Troy. (Hom., Iliad; Pausanias, ix. 18.)