It is perhaps the most famous song of the entire Iliad. Ettore has killed Patroclus, Achilles' brotherly friend and knows he has signed his own death sentence.
Achilles, who from the first book of the Iliad, overwhelmed by anger against his leader Agamemnon, had withdrawn from the struggle, returned to battle to avenge his dead friend.
He will find Hector under the Trojan walls. Ettore would like to go back to the city but he understands that he would be cowardly. The father, the mother, the bride and the son are there, on the walls and watch the duel, begging him to return.
Achilles does not accept pacts of any kind. And to the killed body will inflict torture, binding it by the feet and dragging it several times around the city, denying him the burial.