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