Who was the father of Hector?

Priam was the father of Hector, the greatest defender of Troy in Homer’s Iliad. Priam was the aged king of Troy, while Hector was his eldest son and the city’s principal military commander during the Trojan War.

Priam’s family included several central figures in the Trojan story, among them Paris, Cassandra, Helenus, and Deiphobus. His chief wife was Hecuba, who is commonly identified as Hector’s mother. Ancient sources also give Priam many other wives, concubines, sons, and daughters, so accounts of his family vary considerably.

The relationship between Priam and Hector is most powerfully shown after Hector’s death. Achilles kills Hector and refuses at first to return his body. In Iliad Book 24, Priam secretly enters the Greek camp, embraces Achilles’ knees, and begs for his son’s corpse. Moved by Priam’s grief and by memories of his own father Peleus, Achilles agrees.

A common mix-up is to identify Laomedon as Hector’s father. Laomedon was Priam’s father and the earlier king of Troy, making him Hector’s grandfather. Hector was also the husband of Andromache and father of Astyanax.