<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410304" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Iliad: Book 22</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus the Trojans in the city, scared like fawns, wiped the sweat<br>from off them and drank to quench their thirst, leaning against the<br>goodly battlements, while the Achaeans with their shields laid upon<br>their shoulders drew close up to the walls. But stern fate bade Hector<br>stay where he was before Ilius and the Scaean gates. Then Phoebus<br>Apollo spoke to the son of Peleus saying, "Why, son of Peleus, do you,<br>who are but man, give chase to me who am immortal? Have you not yet<br>found out that it is a god whom you pursue so furiously? You did not<br>harass the Trojans whom you had routed, and now they are within<br>their walls, while you have been decoyed hither away from them. Me you<br>cannot kill, for death can take no hold upon me."<br>Achilles was greatly angered and said, "You have baulked me,<br>Far-Darter, most malicious of all gods, and have drawn me away from<br>the wall, where many another man would have bitten the dust ere he got<br>within Ilius; you have robbed me of great glory and have saved the<br>Trojans at no risk to yourself, for you have nothing to fear, but I<br>would indeed have my revenge if it were in my power to do so."<br>On this, with fell intent he made towards the city, and as the<br>winning horse in a chariot race strains every nerve when he is<br>flying over the plain, even so fast and furiously did the limbs of<br>Achilles bear him onwards. King Priam was first to note him as he<br>scoured the plain, all radiant as the star which men call Orion's<br>Hound, and whose beams blaze forth in time of harvest more brilliantly<br>than those of any other that shines by night; brightest of them all<br>though he be, he yet bodes ill for mortals, for he brings fire and<br>fever in his train- even so did Achilles' armour gleam on his breast<br>as he sped onwards. Priam raised a cry and beat his head with his<br>hands as he lifted them up and shouted out to his dear son,<br>imploring him to return; but Hector still stayed before the gates, for<br>his heart was set upon doing battle with Achilles. The old man reached<br>out his arms towards him and bade him for pity's sake come within<br>the walls. "Hector," he cried, "my son, stay not to face this man<br>alone and unsupported, or you will meet death at the hands of the<br>son of Peleus, for he is mightier than you. Monster that he is;<br>would indeed that the gods loved him no better than I do, for so, dogs<br>and vultures would soon devour him as he lay stretched on earth, and a<br>load of grief would be lifted from my heart, for many a brave son<br>has he reft from me, either by killing them or selling them away in<br>the islands that are beyond the sea: even now I miss two sons from<br>among the Trojans who have thronged within the city, Lycaon and<br>Polydorus, whom Laothoe peeress among women bore me. Should they be<br>still alive and in the hands of the Achaeans, we will ransom them with<br>gold and bronze, of which we have store, for the old man Altes endowed<br>his daughter richly; but if they are already dead and in the house<br>of Hades, sorrow will it be to us two who were their parents; albeit<br>the grief of others will be more short-lived unless you too perish<br>at the hands of Achilles. Come, then, my son, within the city, to be<br>the guardian of Trojan men and Trojan women, or you will both lose<br>your own life and afford a mighty triumph to the son of Peleus. Have<br>pity also on your unhappy father while life yet remains to him- on me,<br>whom the son of Saturn will destroy by a terrible doom on the<br>threshold of old age, after I have seen my sons slain and my daughters<br>haled away as captives, my bridal chambers pillaged, little children<br>dashed to earth amid the rage of battle, and my sons' wives dragged<br>away by the cruel hands of the Achaeans; in the end fierce hounds will<br>tear me in pieces at my own gates after some one has beaten the life<br>out of my body with sword or spear-hounds that I myself reared and fed<br>at my own table to guard my gates, but who will yet lap my blood and<br>then lie all distraught at my doors. When a young man falls by the<br>sword in battle, he may lie where he is and there is nothing unseemly;<br>let what will be seen, all is honourable in death, but when an old man<br>is slain there is nothing in this world more pitiable than that dogs<br>should defile his grey hair and beard and all that men hide for<br>shame."<br>The old man tore his grey hair as he spoke, but he moved not the<br>heart of Hector. His mother hard by wept and moaned aloud as she bared<br>her bosom and pointed to the breast which had suckled him. "Hector,"<br>she cried, weeping bitterly the while, "Hector, my son, spurn not this<br>breast, but have pity upon me too: if I have ever given you comfort<br>from my own bosom, think on it now, dear son, and come within the wall<br>to protect us from this man; stand not without to meet him. Should the<br>wretch kill you, neither I nor your richly dowered wife shall ever<br>weep, dear offshoot of myself, over the bed on which you lie, for dogs<br>will devour you at the ships of the Achaeans."<br>Thus did the two with many tears implore their son, but they moved<br>not the heart of Hector, and he stood his ground awaiting huge<br>Achilles as he drew nearer towards him. As serpent in its den upon the<br>mountains, full fed with deadly poisons, waits for the approach of<br>man- he is filled with fury and his eyes glare terribly as he goes<br>writhing round his den- even so Hector leaned his shield against a<br>tower that jutted out from the wall and stood where he was, undaunted.<br>"Alas," said he to himself in the heaviness of his heart, "if I go<br>within the gates, Polydamas will be the first to heap reproach upon<br>me, for it was he that urged me to lead the Trojans back to the city<br>on that awful night when Achilles again came forth against us. I would<br>not listen, but it would have been indeed better if I had done so. Now<br>that my folly has destroyed the host, I dare not look Trojan men and<br>Trojan women in the face, lest a worse man should say, 'Hector has<br>ruined us by his self-confidence.' Surely it would be better for me to<br>return after having fought Achilles and slain him, or to die<br>gloriously here before the city. What, again, if were to lay down my<br>shield and helmet, lean my spear against the wall and go straight up<br>to noble Achilles? What if I were to promise to give up Helen, who was<br>the fountainhead of all this war, and all the treasure that Alexandrus<br>brought with him in his ships to Troy, aye, and to let the Achaeans<br>divide the half of everything that the city contains among themselves?<br>I might make the Trojans, by the mouths of their princes, take a<br>solemn oath that they would hide nothing, but would divide into two<br>shares all that is within the city- but why argue with myself in<br>this way? Were I to go up to him he would show me no kind of mercy; he<br>would kill me then and there as easily as though I were a woman,<br>when I had off my armour. There is no parleying with him from some<br>rock or oak tree as young men and maidens prattle with one another.<br>Better fight him at once, and learn to which of us Jove will vouchsafe<br>victory."<br>Thus did he stand and ponder, but Achilles came up to him as it were<br>Mars himself, plumed lord of battle. From his right shoulder he<br>brandished his terrible spear of Pelian ash, and the bronze gleamed<br>around him like flashing fire or the rays of the rising sun. Fear fell<br>upon Hector as he beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he<br>was but fled in dismay from before the gates, while Achilles darted<br>after him at his utmost speed. As a mountain falcon, swiftest of all<br>birds, swoops down upon some cowering dove- the dove flies before<br>him but the falcon with a shrill scream follows close after,<br>resolved to have her- even so did Achilles make straight for Hector<br>with all his might, while Hector fled under the Trojan wall as fast as<br>his limbs could take him.<br>On they flew along the waggon-road that ran hard by under the<br>wall, past the lookout station, and past the weather-beaten wild<br>fig-tree, till they came to two fair springs which feed the river<br>Scamander. One of these two springs is warm, and steam rises from it<br>as smoke from a burning fire, but the other even in summer is as<br>cold as hail or snow, or the ice that forms on water. Here, hard by<br>the springs, are the goodly washing-troughs of stone, where in the<br>time of peace before the coming of the Achaeans the wives and fair<br>daughters of the Trojans used to wash their clothes. Past these did<br>they fly, the one in front and the other giving ha. behind him: good<br>was the man that fled, but better far was he that followed after,<br>and swiftly indeed did they run, for the prize was no mere beast for<br>sacrifice or bullock's hide, as it might be for a common foot-race,<br>but they ran for the life of Hector. As horses in a chariot race speed<br>round the turning-posts when they are running for some great prize-<br>a tripod or woman- at the games in honour of some dead hero, so did<br>these two run full speed three times round the city of Priam. All<br>the gods watched them, and the sire of gods and men was the first to<br>speak.<br>"Alas," said he, "my eyes behold a man who is dear to me being<br>pursued round the walls of Troy; my heart is full of pity for<br>Hector, who has burned the thigh-bones of many a heifer in my<br>honour, at one while on the of many-valleyed Ida, and again on the<br>citadel of Troy; and now I see noble Achilles in full pursuit of him<br>round the city of Priam. What say you? Consider among yourselves and<br>decide whether we shall now save him or let him fall, valiant though<br>he be, before Achilles, son of Peleus."<br>Then Minerva said, "Father, wielder of the lightning, lord of<br>cloud and storm, what mean you? Would you pluck this mortal whose doom<br>has long been decreed out of the jaws of death? Do as you will, but we<br>others shall not be of a mind with you."<br>And Jove answered, "My child, Trito-born, take heart. I did not<br>speak in full earnest, and I will let you have your way. Do without<br>let or hindrance as you are minded."<br>Thus did he urge Minerva who was already eager, and down she<br>darted from the topmost summits of Olympus.<br>Achilles was still in full pursuit of Hector, as a hound chasing a<br>fawn which he has started from its covert on the mountains, and<br>hunts through glade and thicket. The fawn may try to elude him by<br>crouching under cover of a bush, but he will scent her out and<br>follow her up until he gets her- even so there was no escape for<br>Hector from the fleet son of Peleus. Whenever he made a set to get<br>near the Dardanian gates and under the walls, that his people might<br>help him by showering down weapons from above, Achilles would gain<br>on him and head him back towards the plain, keeping himself always<br>on the city side. As a man in a dream who fails to lay hands upon<br>another whom he is pursuing- the one cannot escape nor the other<br>overtake- even so neither could Achilles come up with Hector, nor<br>Hector break away from Achilles; nevertheless he might even yet have<br>escaped death had not the time come when Apollo, who thus far had<br>sustained his strength and nerved his running, was now no longer to<br>stay by him. Achilles made signs to the Achaean host, and shook his<br>head to show that no man was to aim a dart at Hector, lest another<br>might win the glory of having hit him and he might himself come in<br>second. Then, at last, as they were nearing the fountains for the<br>fourth time, the father of all balanced his golden scales and placed a<br>doom in each of them, one for Achilles and the other for Hector. As he<br>held the scales by the middle, the doom of Hector fell down deep<br>into the house of Hades- and then Phoebus Apollo left him. Thereon<br>Minerva went close up to the son of Peleus and said, "Noble<br>Achilles, favoured of heaven, we two shall surely take back to the<br>ships a triumph for the Achaeans by slaying Hector, for all his lust<br>of battle. Do what Apollo may as he lies grovelling before his father,<br>aegis-bearing Jove, Hector cannot escape us longer. Stay here and take<br>breath, while I go up to him and persuade him to make a stand and<br>fight you."<br>Thus spoke Minerva. Achilles obeyed her gladly, and stood still,<br>leaning on his bronze-pointed ashen spear, while Minerva left him<br>and went after Hector in the form and with the voice of Deiphobus. She<br>came close up to him and said, "Dear brother, I see you are hard<br>pressed by Achilles who is chasing you at full speed round the city of<br>Priam, let us await his onset and stand on our defence."<br>And Hector answered, "Deiphobus, you have always been dearest to<br>me of all my brothers, children of Hecuba and Priam, but henceforth<br>I shall rate you yet more highly, inasmuch as you have ventured<br>outside the wall for my sake when all the others remain inside."<br>Then Minerva said, "Dear brother, my father and mother went down<br>on their knees and implored me, as did all my comrades, to remain<br>inside, so great a fear has fallen upon them all; but I was in an<br>agony of grief when I beheld you; now, therefore, let us two make a<br>stand and fight, and let there be no keeping our spears in reserve,<br>that we may learn whether Achilles shall kill us and bear off our<br>spoils to the ships, or whether he shall fall before you."<br>Thus did Minerva inveigle him by her cunning, and when the two<br>were now close to one another great Hector was first to speak. "I<br>will-no longer fly you, son of Peleus," said he, "as I have been doing<br>hitherto. Three times have I fled round the mighty city of Priam,<br>without daring to withstand you, but now, let me either slay or be<br>slain, for I am in the mind to face you. Let us, then, give pledges to<br>one another by our gods, who are the fittest witnesses and guardians<br>of all covenants; let it be agreed between us that if Jove<br>vouchsafes me the longer stay and I take your life, I am not to<br>treat your dead body in any unseemly fashion, but when I have stripped<br>you of your armour, I am to give up your body to the Achaeans. And<br>do you likewise."<br>Achilles glared at him and answered, "Fool, prate not to me about<br>covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and<br>lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out an<br>through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me,<br>nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall<br>fall and glut grim Mars with his life's blood. Put forth all your<br>strength; you have need now to prove yourself indeed a bold soldier<br>and man of war. You have no more chance, and Pallas Minerva will<br>forthwith vanquish you by my spear: you shall now pay me in full for<br>the grief you have caused me on account of my comrades whom you have<br>killed in battle."<br>He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. Hector saw it<br>coming and avoided it; he watched it and crouched down so that it flew<br>over his head and stuck in the ground beyond; Minerva then snatched it<br>up and gave it back to Achilles without Hector's seeing her; Hector<br>thereon said to the son of Peleus, "You have missed your aim,<br>Achilles, peer of the gods, and Jove has not yet revealed to you the<br>hour of my doom, though you made sure that he had done so. You were<br>a false-tongued liar when you deemed that I should forget my valour<br>and quail before you. You shall not drive spear into the back of a<br>runaway- drive it, should heaven so grant you power, drive it into<br>me as I make straight towards you; and now for your own part avoid<br>my spear if you can- would that you might receive the whole of it into<br>your body; if you were once dead the Trojans would find the war an<br>easier matter, for it is you who have harmed them most."<br>He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. His aim was true<br>for he hit the middle of Achilles' shield, but the spear rebounded<br>from it, and did not pierce it. Hector was angry when he saw that<br>the weapon had sped from his hand in vain, and stood there in dismay<br>for he had no second spear. With a loud cry he called Diphobus and<br>asked him for one, but there was no man; then he saw the truth and<br>said to himself, "Alas! the gods have lured me on to my destruction. I<br>deemed that the hero Deiphobus was by my side, but he is within the<br>wall, and Minerva has inveigled me; death is now indeed exceedingly<br>near at hand and there is no way out of it- for so Jove and his son<br>Apollo the far-darter have willed it, though heretofore they have been<br>ever ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me; let me not then<br>die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some<br>great thing that shall be told among men hereafter."<br>As he spoke he drew the keen blade that hung so great and strong<br>by his side, and gathering himself together be sprang on Achilles like<br>a soaring eagle which swoops down from the clouds on to some lamb or<br>timid hare- even so did Hector brandish his sword and spring upon<br>Achilles. Achilles mad with rage darted towards him, with his wondrous<br>shield before his breast, and his gleaming helmet, made with four<br>layers of metal, nodding fiercely forward. The thick tresses of gold<br>wi which Vulcan had crested the helmet floated round it, and as the<br>evening star that shines brighter than all others through the<br>stillness of night, even such was the gleam of the spear which<br>Achilles poised in his right hand, fraught with the death of noble<br>Hector. He eyed his fair flesh over and over to see where he could<br>best wound it, but all was protected by the goodly armour of which<br>Hector had spoiled Patroclus after he had slain him, save only the<br>throat where the collar-bones divide the neck from the shoulders,<br>and this is a most deadly place: here then did Achilles strike him<br>as he was coming on towards him, and the point of his spear went right<br>through the fleshy part of the neck, but it did not sever his windpipe<br>so that he could still speak. Hector fell headlong, and Achilles<br>vaunted over him saying, "Hector, you deemed that you should come<br>off scatheless when you were spoiling Patroclus, and recked not of<br>myself who was not with him. Fool that you were: for I, his comrade,<br>mightier far than he, was still left behind him at the ships, and<br>now I have laid you low. The Achaeans shall give him all due funeral<br>rites, while dogs and vultures shall work their will upon yourself."<br>Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, "I pray you by<br>your life and knees, and by your parents, let not dogs devour me at<br>the ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of gold and<br>bronze which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body<br>home, that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire<br>when I am dead."<br>Achilles glared at him and answered, "Dog, talk not to me neither of<br>knees nor parents; would that I could be as sure of being able to<br>cut your flesh into pieces and eat it raw, for the ill have done me,<br>as I am that nothing shall save you from the dogs- it shall not be,<br>though they bring ten or twenty-fold ransom and weigh it out for me on<br>the spot, with promise of yet more hereafter. Though Priam son of<br>Dardanus should bid them offer me your weight in gold, even so your<br>mother shall never lay you out and make lament over the son she<br>bore, but dogs and vultures shall eat you utterly up."<br>Hector with his dying breath then said, "I know you what you are,<br>and was sure that I should not move you, for your heart is hard as<br>iron; look to it that I bring not heaven's anger upon you on the day<br>when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you<br>at the Scaean gates."<br>When he had thus said the shrouds of death enfolded him, whereon his<br>soul went out of him and flew down to the house of Hades, lamenting<br>its sad fate that it should en' youth and strength no longer. But<br>Achilles said, speaking to the dead body, "Die; for my part I will<br>accept my fate whensoever Jove and the other gods see fit to send it."<br>As he spoke he drew his spear from the body and set it on one<br>side; then he stripped the blood-stained armour from Hector's<br>shoulders while the other Achaeans came running up to view his<br>wondrous strength and beauty; and no one came near him without<br>giving him a fresh wound. Then would one turn to his neighbour and<br>say, "It is easier to handle Hector now than when he was flinging fire<br>on to our ships" and as he spoke he would thrust his spear into him<br>anew.<br>When Achilles had done spoiling Hector of his armour, he stood among<br>the Argives and said, "My friends, princes and counsellors of the<br>Argives, now that heaven has vouchsafed us to overcome this man, who<br>has done us more hurt than all the others together, consider whether<br>we should not attack the city in force, and discover in what mind<br>the Trojans may be. We should thus learn whether they will desert<br>their city now that Hector has fallen, or will still hold out even<br>though he is no longer living. But why argue with myself in this<br>way, while Patroclus is still lying at the ships unburied, and<br>unmourned- he Whom I can never forget so long as I am alive and my<br>strength fails not? Though men forget their dead when once they are<br>within the house of Hades, yet not even there will I forget the<br>comrade whom I have lost. Now, therefore, Achaean youths, let us raise<br>the song of victory and go back to the ships taking this man along<br>with us; for we have achieved a mighty triumph and have slain noble<br>Hector to whom the Trojans prayed throughout their city as though he<br>were a god."<br>On this he treated the body of Hector with contumely: he pierced the<br>sinews at the back of both his feet from heel to ancle and passed<br>thongs of ox-hide through the slits he had made: thus he made the body<br>fast to his chariot, letting the head trail upon the ground. Then when<br>he had put the goodly armour on the chariot and had himself mounted,<br>he lashed his horses on and they flew forward nothing loth. The dust<br>rose from Hector as he was being dragged along, his dark hair flew all<br>abroad, and his head once so comely was laid low on earth, for Jove<br>had now delivered him into the hands of his foes to do him outrage<br>in his own land.<br>Thus was the head of Hector being dishonoured in the dust. His<br>mother tore her hair, and flung her veil from her with a loud cry as<br>she looked upon her son. His father made piteous moan, and<br>throughout the city the people fell to weeping and wailing. It was<br>as though the whole of frowning Ilius was being smirched with fire.<br>Hardly could the people hold Priam back in his hot haste to rush<br>without the gates of the city. He grovelled in the mire and besought<br>them, calling each one of them by his name. "Let be, my friends," he<br>cried, "and for all your sorrow, suffer me to go single-handed to<br>the ships of the Achaeans. Let me beseech this cruel and terrible man,<br>if maybe he will respect the feeling of his fellow-men, and have<br>compassion on my old age. His own father is even such another as<br>myself- Peleus, who bred him and reared him to- be the bane of us<br>Trojans, and of myself more than of all others. Many a son of mine has<br>he slain in the flower of his youth, and yet, grieve for these as I<br>may, I do so for one- Hector- more than for them all, and the<br>bitterness of my sorrow will bring me down to the house of Hades.<br>Would that he had died in my arms, for so both his ill-starred<br>mother who bore him, and myself, should have had the comfort of<br>weeping and mourning over him."<br>Thus did he speak with many tears, and all the people of the city<br>joined in his lament. Hecuba then raised the cry of wailing among<br>the Trojans. "Alas, my son," she cried, "what have I left to live<br>for now that you are no more? Night and day did I glory in. you<br>throughout the city, for you were a tower of strength to all in<br>Troy, and both men and women alike hailed you as a god. So long as you<br>lived you were their pride, but now death and destruction have<br>fallen upon you."<br>Hector's wife had as yet heard nothing, for no one had come to<br>tell her that her husband had remained without the gates. She was at<br>her loom in an inner part of the house, weaving a double purple web,<br>and embroidering it with many flowers. She told her maids to set a<br>large tripod on the fire, so as to have a warm bath ready for Hector<br>when he came out of battle; poor woman, she knew not that he was now<br>beyond the reach of baths, and that Minerva had laid him low by the<br>hands of Achilles. She heard the cry coming as from the wall, and<br>trembled in every limb; the shuttle fell from her hands, and again she<br>spoke to her waiting-women. "Two of you," she said, "come with me that<br>I may learn what it is that has befallen; I heard the voice of my<br>husband's honoured mother; my own heart beats as though it would<br>come into my mouth and my limbs refuse to carry me; some great<br>misfortune for Priam's children must be at hand. May I never live to<br>hear it, but I greatly fear that Achilles has cut off the retreat of<br>brave Hector and has chased him on to the plain where he was<br>singlehanded; I fear he may have put an end to the reckless daring<br>which possessed my husband, who would never remain with the body of<br>his men, but would dash on far in front, foremost of them all in<br>valour."<br>Her heart beat fast, and as she spoke she flew from the house like a<br>maniac, with her waiting-women following after. When she reached the<br>battlements and the crowd of people, she stood looking out upon the<br>wall, and saw Hector being borne away in front of the city- the horses<br>dragging him without heed or care over the ground towards the ships of<br>the Achaeans. Her eyes were then shrouded as with the darkness of<br>night and she fell fainting backwards. She tore the tiring from her<br>head and flung it from her, the frontlet and net with its plaited<br>band, and the veil which golden Venus had given her on the day when<br>Hector took her with him from the house of Eetion, after having<br>given countless gifts of wooing for her sake. Her husband's sisters<br>and the wives of his brothers crowded round her and supported her, for<br>she was fain to die in her distraction; when she again presently<br>breathed and came to herself, she sobbed and made lament among the<br>Trojans saying, 'Woe is me, O Hector; woe, indeed, that to share a<br>common lot we were born, you at Troy in the house of Priam, and I at<br>Thebes under the wooded mountain of Placus in the house of Eetion<br>who brought me up when I was a child- ill-starred sire of an<br>ill-starred daughter- would that he had never begotten me. You are now<br>going into the house of Hades under the secret places of the earth,<br>and you leave me a sorrowing widow in your house. The child, of whom<br>you and I are the unhappy parents, is as yet a mere infant. Now that<br>you are gone, O Hector, you can do nothing for him nor he for you.<br>Even though he escape the horrors of this woful war with the Achaeans,<br>yet shall his life henceforth be one of labour and sorrow, for<br>others will seize his lands. The day that robs a child of his<br>parents severs him from his own kind; his head is bowed, his cheeks<br>are wet with tears, and he will go about destitute among the friends<br>of his father, plucking one by the cloak and another by the shirt.<br>Some one or other of these may so far pity him as to hold the cup<br>for a moment towards him and let him moisten his lips, but he must not<br>drink enough to wet the roof of his mouth; then one whose parents<br>are alive will drive him from the table with blows and angry words.<br>'Out with you,' he will say, 'you have no father here,' and the<br>child will go crying back to his widowed mother- he, Astyanax, who<br>erewhile would sit upon his father's knees, and have none but the<br>daintiest and choicest morsels set before him. When he had played till<br>he was tired and went to sleep, he would lie in a bed, in the arms<br>of his nurse, on a soft couch, knowing neither want nor care,<br>whereas now that he has lost his father his lot will be full of<br>hardship- he, whom the Trojans name Astyanax, because you, O Hector,<br>were the only defence of their gates and battlements. The wriggling<br>writhing worms will now eat you at the ships, far from your parents,<br>when the dogs have glutted themselves upon you. You will lie naked,<br>although in your house you have fine and goodly raiment made by<br>hands of women. This will I now burn; it is of no use to you, for<br>you can never again wear it, and thus you will have respect shown<br>you by the Trojans both men and women."<br>In such wise did she cry aloud amid her tears, and the women<br>joined in her lament.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410304" data-title="The Iliad: Book 22 de Homer" data-description="Thus the Trojans in the city, scared like fawns, wiped the sweat/from off them and drank to quench their thirst, leaning against the/goodly battlements, while the Achaeans with their shields laid upon/their shoulders drew close up to the walls. Bu..."></div> </div> </div>

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