Ashli Babbitt, an air force veteran who served four tours of duty, was killed at the U.S. Capitol when a federal officer shot her as she was attempting to pass through a broken window. She was not brandishing a weapon or otherwise threatening the officer’s life at the time she was killed. If any of the officer-involved shootings that were protested last year involved the excessive use of force, then certainly so did this one.

Babbitt is arguably the first martyr in the hot civil war now beginning in America. Her death deserves notice, and a memorial. And for a parallel in Shakespeare, we need to go to ancient Greece, and the world of Troilus and Cressida, because Babbitt is a modern-day Hector.

The story is a bit complex. A Trojan named Paris, brother to King Priam, went to Greece and stole Helen, wife of Menelaus, who was the brother of King Agamemnon. So Helen of Troy was actually Helen of Greece, captured by Troy.

The Greeks besieged Troy, a city-state located in today’s Turkey, for seven years, trying to get Helen back. Naturally, this effort gave rise to some debate in both camps over whether a seven-year campaign was justified by a single kidnapping. But then we stayed in Afghanistan for 17 years, at a cost of $7 trillion, when there were plenty of other ways to avenge 9/11.

Hector is a Trojan who embodies all the virtues of a warrior. In fact, he is virtuous to a fault, content to best his opponents in battle and to then mercifully allow them to live:

Troilus: “Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man.”

Hector: “What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.”

Troilus: “When many times the captive Grecian falls,
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,
You bid them rise, and live.”

Ashli Babbitt could have armed herself before joining the throng that stormed the U.S. Capitol, but she did not. As a 14-year military veteran she certainly was familiar with arms and self-defense. But she didn’t. She wanted to make a statement and send a message, and she knowingly confronted armed Capitol police without a weapon, and paid with her life. Hector would understand.

Hector even bested Achilles himself in battle, and then he spared Achilles. Achilles, incensed, called in his Antifa thugs, that is, his Myrmidon thugs to plan Hector’s execution, violating all the rules of fair play (read, the electoral laws) that until then had been built into combat among the ancients (Ilion is the even more ancient name for Troy):

Achilles: “Come here about me, you my Myrmidons;
Mark what I say. Attend me where I wheel:
Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath:
And when I have the bloody Hector found,
Empale him with your weapons round about;
In fellest manner execute your aims.
Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye:
It is decreed Hector the great must die.”…

[Enter Hector]

Hector: “Now is my day’s work done; I’ll take good breath:
Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of blood and death.”

[ Puts off his helmet and hangs his shield behind him ]

[Enter Achilles and Myrmidons]

Achilles: “Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels:
Even with the vail and darking of the sun,
To close the day up, Hector’s life is done.”

Hector: “I am unarm’d; forego this vantage, Greek.”

Achilles: “Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek.”

[Hector falls]

“So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down!
Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone.
On, Myrmidons, and cry you all amain,
‘Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain.'”…
Come, tie his body to my horse’s tail;
Along the field I will the Trojan trail.”

That’s exactly the fate the activist left is planning for America’s conservatives. We’ll see what happens.

This season’s blog posts reflect the discouraging events now occurring in our public life. But I hope that, especially in times like these, the classics, and Shakespeare chief among them, can keep us connected to the highest and best in Western culture, even as we navigate the remnants of our fallen republic, and gather the strength to reclaim it.