Deified leader, Hector, thrashed a leader of Troy (8)
I believe the answer is:
theocrat
'deified leader' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'hector thrashed a leader of troy' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'hector' is 'theocr' which is located in the answer.
'a' is present in the answer.
'troy' could be 't' (abbreviation - troy is a unit of weight) and 't' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for theocrat that I've seen before include "Deified ruler" , "Revered ruler" , "Roman emperor, for example" , "priest-in-charge" , "divine ruler" .)