#Hooligans by Pearson (1983)

[baejax-the-great]

At the same time that fascistic propaganda across Europe upheld Hector as a perfect, noble soldier and Achilles as an insubordinate villain, the English verb "hector" (as in "he hectored me until I agreed to come in to work this weekend") came into use to mean harass, bully, badger.

While one source suggested this is because of how Hector urged his troops to keep fighting in the Iliad, with the meaning eventually getting warped over time, another claims that "rowdy street toughs" in 17th century London called themselves "Hectors," envisioning themselves as mighty, young warriors. Everyone else, obviously, saw them as annoying, violent assholes. And thus, while Hector's reputation continued to exceed what was represented in the surviving texts regarding the Trojan War, his name came to mean far worse than his behavior warranted.

#once again woke up with a thought #I am having a lot of trouble finding an actual source on this street gang thing #everyone is citing the same place #which is a fucking dictionary #which cites nothing #so like idk man #hector of troy #etymology #the iliad #on the other hand #hector coming to mean bullying your no good brother #would have been so fine by me #fucking love literally everything he says to Paris #actually found the source #and the book sounds so interesting #Hooligans by Pearson (1983) #a history of youth gangs in London I believe #might actually get it the writing looks fun