Familiar Letters

because he was regarded by the opinion of men as a king, as if by the hope of succession, Astyanax was called so by the poet. And the invented name prevailed so much over the true one that no one knows who Scamandrius was, while everyone recognizes Astyanax. Likewise, I do not doubt that if there was anyone who is said to be the son of Theseus torn by horses, he had another name which later perished, having been obscured by this invented one and by antiquity, so that now no one understands him except as Hippolytus. The same reasoning applies to Hector: it is apparent that he too was created by the poet, derived from the fact that he held the city. Because you write that this does not seem sufficiently clear to you, I must try to open it up more lucidly. For I want something to be understood such as that phrase in Virgil: "At the top, the Tarpeian guard stood on the rock before the temple and held the lofty Capitols." For "to hold" in this place is to watch over and to defend. Therefore, Hector is derived from this meaning. For from echō I hold in Greek, comes the verbal name Hector, attributed to him because he alone held the fatherland against the assault of the Greeks. I think it is now becoming clear what I myself understand; nothing, however, prevents a clearer explanation. For if one were to ask the poet himself in this manner: "Tell me, Homer: you make the Greek preparations so great that the sea is filled with fleets and the earth with an incredible multitude of armed men.
Hector