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Achilles’ battles with Hector in Homer’s Iliad, Book 22, and Cycnus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 12, are both unique in the sense that each portrays a different method of storytelling and each use heroes to illustrate a different message to the audience.. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is more of a collection of stories and stories within stories and was written far after Homer’s Iliad. As a result, the Trojan War and specifically the battle with Hector in the Iliad would have been well known to Ovid’s audience. This battle mentioned is also usually considered the high point of the Iliad. The fact that Ovid decides to completely skip over the battle between Achilles and Hector in his narrative suggests that he wants to form a more comedic version of these great battles before the fall of Troy rather than a more serious tone of storytelling as Homer does with the Iliad. These differences and similarities will be further analyzed in the following paragraphs after a semi-brief context of each battle scene.

In Achilles battle in Homer’s Iliad, Hector is first seen fleeing from Achilles and circling around Troy’s city walls on horseback. Upon his fourth lap to much relief, he thinks he encounters his ally, Deiphobus. Unfortunately for him, this is actually Athena in disguise. However, this lets Hector believe that he has the upper hand on Achilles. With Deiphobus at his side, he is convinced to charge Achilles. After an exchange of spear throws with Achilles, Hector looks to Deiphobus for a lance. Hector then realizes that the gods must have betrayed him as Deiphobus is no longer to be found. In a last desperate attempt for ‘kleos,’ Hector suddenly decides to charge Achilles. However, to much dismay, Achilles has a significant advantage over h...

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... provoke him. (OM 12.102)” Achilles personality definitely does not change from battle version to version. The only difference here is that Achilles is fighting Hector because of what he did to Patroclus. His rage was developed from that killing. In Achilles fight vs Cycnus, Achilles is more of a blood thirsty rage and is not fully emotionally stricken as the other.

Ovid’s version of the myth is based upon Homer’s version, but in such a way that he used it as a starting point and then reversed the readers’ expectations and illuminates a more surprising aspect of the well-known tale. The battle between hector and Cycnus was more of ‘black comedy’ in a sense. Ovid is not to be taken seriously in this episode. In the battle between Hector and Achilles, it is more of an ‘epic’ account to show how Achilles reaches his kleos along with the tragedy of Hector having to die.