What do the women do when they see Hector's body?

Answer 1

In Book 24, the Trojan women mourn Hector, after a truce has been agreed by both sides, that they will not fight for 11 days while Hector's body is prepared for a funeral and celebrations.

Cassandra is the first one to see Hector's body. She cries and announces to the whole city of Hector's death. The city greets Priam (who has retrieved his son's body from Achilles) and Hector and the women being to weep. The women gather behind Andromache and Hecuba who are right next to Hector's body; they tear their hair and touch his head.

When Hector has been lain on a bed, the women continue to mourn while singers chant a sorrowful song beside them. Andromacheleads the lamentation, saying how their son will grow up without a father (similar to Book 6), she correctly foreshadows that their son will be hurled from the walls and how they are all doomed since Hector was the defender of Troy and there is now no one to protect them. She says her pain cannot compare to the others' as she regrets that he did not die next to her; in each other's arms. This is a very intimate speech, focussing on family and ongoing personal pain.

Hecuba then calls Hector the dearest of all her sons, she remembers how Achilles killed/captured her other sons and then remarks how Hector's body has been preserved by Apollo. She cries.

Lastly, Helen speaks about how she loved Hector the most of all Paris's brothers, but wishes she had died before Paris took her for his own. She recalls how he never did any wrong towards her and that he was her only friend, thus she mourns for herself as well as she thinks only Hector could protect her from others. She also speaks through her tears.

(These speeches in Book 24 are reminiscent of those in Book 6, they are the same women speaking to Hector and instead of ascending in impact, as in Book 6, they descend as if coming to a close instead of setting up the story for Hector).