Honor as a Comparison
When
Hector was killed by Achilles, he kept his body and mutilated it. He drug it behind his chariot for everyone to
see because his death didn’t ease the pain of Patroclus’ death. Thus Andromache had no body to mourn
over. There was no body to be burned or
buried. She then burned his clothes:
“Your
clothes are stored away, beautiful, fine clothes made by women’s hands. I’ll burn them all now in a blazing
fire. They’re no use to you, you’ll
never lie on the pyre in them. Burning
them will be your glory before Trojan men and women” (Iliad 22.569-574).
This honored him because
no one else could wear his clothes.
Which shows us that nobody was worthy enough to do so. This would honor him just like the retiring
of a sports jersey number at a high school or college is done to honor the
person who wore that jersey.
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