Book 22

So they, fled through the city like fawns,were cooling their sweat and slaking their thirst,leaning on the fair battlements; but the Achaeansdrew near the wall, their shields slung on their shoulders.But deadly fate bound Hector to stand there in placebefore the gates of Ilion and the Scaean gates.But Phoebus Apollo spoke to the son of Peleus:Why, son of Peleus, do you chase me with swift feet,yourself a mortal pursuing an immortal god? Nor yetdid you know me as a god, and you rage unceasingly.Surely the Trojans' toil means nothing to you, whom you have routed,who have crowded into the city, while you have turned aside here.You will not kill me, since I am not destined to die.Then, greatly angered, swift-footed Achilles answered him:You have harmed me, far-worker, most deadly of all the gods,turning me here now away from the wall; surely manywould have taken the earth with their teeth before reaching Ilion.Now you have robbed me of great glory, and saved these meneasily, since you feared no vengeance in the aftertime.Truly I would avenge myself on you, if only power were mine.So he spoke, and went toward the city, greatly exulting,springing like a prize-winning horse with its chariot,which easily runs straining along the plain;so Achilles moved his swift feet and knees.Him the old man Priam first saw with his eyes,shining as a star rushes over the plain,which comes at harvest time, and its rays are conspicuousas it shines among many stars in the dead of night,which men call by name the Dog of Orion.Brightest it is, yet it is made an evil sign,and it brings much fever to wretched mortals;so his bronze shone about his breast as he ran.The old man groaned aloud, and struck his head with his hands,holding them high, and groaning greatly he cried out,beseeching his dear son; but he before the gatesstood insatiably eager to fight with Achilles.The old man addressed him piteously, stretching out his hands:Hector, do not wait here for me, my dear child, for this manalone and apart from others, lest you quickly meet your doom,subdued by the son of Peleus, since he is far strongerthan you, ruthless one. Would that he were as dear to the godsas he is to me; then would dogs and vultures devour himas he lies low; and dread grief would leave my heart.He has left me bereft of many sons and good ones,killing them and selling them to far-off islands.And even now two sons, Lycaon and Polydorus,I cannot see, among the Trojans gathered into the city,the sons Laothoe bore to me, lady among women.But if they live still with the army, then surely afterwardwe shall ransom them with bronze and gold, for there is treasure within;for many gifts old famous Altes gave for his child.But if they are already dead and in the house of Hades,then grief comes to my heart and to the mother who bore us,and to all other people a grief that lasts less long,unless you also die, subdued by Achilles.But enter the wall, my child, so that you may savethe Trojans and the Trojan women, and do not give great gloryto the son of Peleus, and lose your own dear life.Pity me too, the wretched one, while I still have my wits,hapless as I am, whom the father, the son of Cronus, on the threshold of old agewill destroy in a grievous fate, after I have seen many evils:my sons perishing and my daughters dragged away,my chambers plundered, and infant childrenhurled to the ground in dread battle,and my sons' wives dragged off by the deadly hands of the Achaeans.And me myself, last of all, the ravenous dogs at my front doorswill drag out, when someone with the sharp bronzestrikes me or throws and takes the spirit from my limbs,the dogs I raised in my halls, table-fed, guardians of the door,who will drink my blood and grow frenzied in their heartsas they lie in my forecourt. For a young man all things are fittingwho is killed in war and mangled by the sharp bronze,to lie so; and all things are fair for a dead man, whatever is seen of him.But when dogs defile the grey head and the grey beardand the body of a slain old man,that is the most pitiable thing for wretched mortals.So the old man spoke, and tore the grey hairs with his hands,plucking them from his head; but he did not persuade the heart of Hector.And his mother on the other side lamented, shedding tears,loosening her bosom, and with the other hand held up her breast,and shedding tears she spoke winged words to him:Hector, my child, respect these things and pity me,me myself, if ever I held the breast to you that lulls sorrow.Remember these things, dear child, and ward off the hostile manfrom inside the wall, and do not stand as champion against him,ruthless one; for if he kills you, no longer will Imourn you upon a bed, my dear shoot, whom I bore myself,nor will your richly-dowered wife; but far from us two,beside the ships of the Argives, swift dogs will devour you.So the two of them, weeping, spoke to their dear son,begging him much; but they did not persuade the heart of Hector,but he waited for Achilles as he came near, huge and terrible.And as a mountain serpent at its hole waits for a man,having eaten noxious herbs, and dread anger has entered it,and it glares horribly, coiled about its hole;so Hector, holding unquenchable fury, did not give ground,leaning his bright shield against the jutting tower.And angered, he spoke to his own great-hearted spirit:Alas for me, if I pass within the gates and the walls,Polydamas will be the first to lay reproach upon me,who urged me to lead the Trojans back to the citythrough that deadly night, when divine Achilles arose.But I did not obey him; and surely it would have been far better.But now, since I have destroyed the people by my own folly,I am ashamed before the Trojans and the trailing-robed Trojan women,lest some other, worse man than I, shall say:Hector, trusting in his own strength, destroyed the people.So they will say; but for me then it would be far bettereither to kill Achilles face to face and come back,or to die gloriously before the city.But if I lay down my bossed shieldand my stout helmet, and leaning my spear against the wallgo myself to meet blameless Achillesand promise him Helen and the treasures with her,all that Alexander brought in his hollow shipsto Troy, which was the beginning of the quarrel,to give to the sons of Atreus to carry off, and besides to divide apart for the Achaeansall else that this city keeps hidden within it,and again to take from the Trojans an oath sworn by the eldersthat nothing will be hidden, but that all shall be divided in two,all the wealth that the lovely citadel holds within it;but why did my dear heart debate these things with me?I must not go to him, for he will not pity menor respect me at all, but will kill me while I am naked,just as I am, like a woman, when I have put off my armor.There is no way now to chat with him from an oak or from a rock,as a maiden and a youth,a maiden and a youth, chat with one another.Better to clash in strife as quickly as may be.Let us see to which of us the Olympian will grant the glory.So he pondered as he waited, and Achilles came near him,equal to Enyalius, the warrior of the blazing helmet,shaking the Pelian ash spear along his right shoulder,a terrible thing; and the bronze flashed about him like the gleamof blazing fire or of the rising sun.And Hector, when he saw him, was seized with trembling, nor did he dareto remain there any longer, but left the gates and fled in fear,and the son of Peleus sprang after him, trusting in his swift feet.As a hawk among the mountains, lightest of winged things,easily swooped after a trembling dove,and she flees ahead of him, and he close behind with a sharp crydarts at her again and again, and his heart bids him take her;so he flew straight on in his fury, and Hector fledbeneath the wall of the Trojans, moving his swift knees.They ran past the lookout place and the wind-blown wild fig tree,always along the wagon road under the wall of Troy,and they came to the two fair-flowing springs; there two fountainsof eddying Scamander leap up.For one flows with warm water, and smokerises from it as if from blazing fire;the other runs forth in summer like hail,or cold snow, or ice formed from water.There beside them are broad washing troughs nearby,beautiful, of stone, where the shining garmentsthe wives and fair daughters of the Trojans used to washin the old days of peace, before the sons of the Achaeans came.There the two ran past, one fleeing and the other pursuing behind;a good man fled in front, but a far better man chased himswiftly, since they were not striving for a victim or a bull's hide,such as are the prizes of men in a footrace,but they ran for the life of horse-taming Hector.And as when prize-winning single-hoofed horses run swiftlyaround the turning posts; and the great prize lies there,either a tripod or a woman, for a man who has died;so the two of them wheeled three times around the city of Priamwith swift feet; and all the gods looked on;and among them the father of men and gods began the speech:Alas, I see with my eyes a dear man pursued around the wall,and my heart lamentsfor Hector, who burned many thigh bones for meon the peaks of many-folded Ida, and at other times againon the highest citadel; but now divine Achilleschases him around the city of Priam with swift feet.But come, take thought, you gods, and take counsel,whether we shall save him from death, or whether we shall nowsubdue him, good man that he is, to Peleus' son Achilles.Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:Father, bright-thunderer, dark-clouded, what a thing you have said.A man who is mortal and long since destined by fate,do you wish to release again from grim death?Do it; but not all the rest of us gods will approve.Answering her, Zeus the cloud-gatherer spoke:Take heart, Tritogeneia, dear child; I do not speakwith a willing heart, and I wish to be gentle with you.Do as your mind has resolved, and do not hold back any longer.So he spoke, and urged on Athena, who was eager already.And she darted down from the peaks of Olympus.And swift Achilles pressed on Hector, driving him unceasingly.As when a hound in the mountains pursues a fawn of a deer,having roused it from its bed through the glens and through the valleys;and even if it escapes him, crouching under a bush,he runs tracking it steadily until he finds it;so Hector did not escape the swift-footed son of Peleus.And as often as he rushed toward the Dardanian gates,to spring straight in beneath the well-built towers,hoping that those above might ward off the enemy with missiles,so often he would head him off and turn him backtoward the plain; but he himself always flew toward the city.As in a dream a man cannot pursue a fleeing man,nor can the one escape the other, nor the other pursue,so neither could he catch him with his feet, nor could the other escape.And how could Hector have escaped the fates of death,unless Apollo had met him for the last and final time,close by, who roused his fury and his swift knees?And divine Achilles shook his head at the people,and did not allow anyone to hurl bitter missiles at Hector,lest someone win glory by striking him first, and he come second.But when for the fourth time they came to the springs,then the father stretched out his golden scales,and set in them two fates of death that brings long woe,the one of Achilles, the other of horse-taming Hector,and he lifted them by the middle; and the destined day of Hector sank down,and went to Hades, and Phoebus Apollo left him.And the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, came to the son of Peleus,and standing near she spoke winged words:Now indeed we two may hope, dear to Zeus, glorious Achilles,to win great glory for the Achaeans at the ships,having slain Hector, insatiate of battle though he is.There is no way now for him to escape us,not even if the far-worker Apollo should suffer very muchrolling over and over before father Zeus who bears the aegis.But you now stand still and take breath, and this man Iwill go and persuade to fight against you face to face.So spoke Athena, and he obeyed, rejoicing in his heart,and he stood leaning on his bronze-tipped ash spear.And she left him there, and came to divine Hectorin the likeness of Deiphobus in body and untiring voice,and standing near she spoke winged words:Dear brother, surely swift Achilles presses you hard,chasing you around the city of Priam with swift feet.But come now, let us two stand and defend ourselves, waiting here.Then great Hector of the shining helmet answered her:Deiphobus, surely before this you were by far the dearest to meof the brothers whom Hecabe and Priam bore as sons;but now I mean to honor you even more in my heart,who dared, for my sake, when you saw with your own eyes,to come outside the wall, while the others wait within.Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:Dear brother, surely our father and our honored motherbegged you again and again with prayers, and your companions around you,to stay here; such trembling holds them all;but my heart within was worn down by grievous grief.But now let us fight eagerly face to face, and let there be nosparing of spears, so that we may see whether Achilleswill kill us both and carry off our bloody spoilsto the hollow ships, or be subdued by your spear.So she spoke, and Athena led the way with craft.And when the two had come close, advancing against each other,great Hector of the shining helmet spoke first:No longer, son of Peleus, will I flee from you, as beforethree times around the great city of Priam I ran, and never daredto stand my ground as you came on; but now my heart has urged meto stand against you; I may kill, or I may be killed.But come, let us put the gods to witness; for they will be the bestwitnesses and guardians of our agreements.I will not outrage you foully, if Zeusgrants me the victory and I take away your life;but when I have stripped your glorious armor, Achilles,I will give your body back to the Achaeans; and you do the same.Then looking from under his brows, swift-footed Achilles answered him:Hector, accursed man, do not speak to me of agreements.As there are no trustworthy oaths between lions and men,nor do wolves and lambs hold a like-minded heart,but they plan evil against each other continually,so there is no way for me and you to be friends, nor will thereever be oaths between us, before at least one of us has fallenand sated with his blood Ares, the staunch warrior.Call to mind every kind of valor; now especially you mustbe a spearman and a bold warrior.There is no escape for you any longer; soon will Pallas Athenasubdue you with my spear; and now all at once you will payfor the griefs of my companions, whom you killed, raging with your spear.He spoke, and brandishing it he hurled his long-shadowing spear.And glorious Hector, seeing it face on, avoided it;for he crouched down watching beforehand, and the bronze spear flew over him,and it stuck in the ground; and Pallas Athena snatched it up,and gave it back to Achilles, unseen by Hector, shepherd of the people.And Hector spoke to the blameless son of Peleus:You missed, and surely not yet, godlike Achilles,did you know my doom from Zeus, though you claimed you did.But you have proved a glib and crafty speaker of words,so that in fear of you I might forget my fury and my strength.You will not drive your spear into my back as I flee,but straight through my chest, as I rush eagerly at you,drive it in, if a god has granted it to you; but now avoid my bronze spear;would that you might take it all into your body.And war would be lighter for the Trojanswith you dead; for you are their greatest bane.He spoke, and brandishing it he hurled his long-shadowing spear,and struck the middle of the son of Peleus' shield and did not miss.But the spear glanced far away from the shield; and Hector was angrybecause his swift missile had flown in vain from his hand,and he stood downcast, and had no other ashen spear.He called to Deiphobus of the white shield, shouting aloud,and asked him for his long spear; but he was nowhere near him.And Hector knew it in his heart and spoke:Alas, surely now the gods have called me to death.For I thought that Deiphobus, the hero, was here;but he is within the wall, and Athena has deceived me.And now evil death is near me, nor is it any longer far off,and there is no escape; for indeed this has long been dearerto Zeus and to the son of Zeus, the far-shooter, who before nowgladly guarded me; but now fate has overtaken me.May I not die without a struggle and ingloriously,but after doing some great deed, for men to come to hear of.So speaking he drew his sharp sword,which hung beside him by his flank, great and strong,and he swooped, gathering himself like a high-flying eagle,which comes down to the plain through the dark cloudsto snatch a tender lamb or a crouching hare;so Hector swooped, brandishing his sharp sword.And Achilles rushed at him, and filled his heartwith savage fury, and before him he covered his breast with his shield,beautiful and cunningly wrought, and he nodded with his shining helmet,four-crested; and the beautiful golden hairs waved around it,the thick plumes that Hephaestus set around its crest.And as a star goes among the stars in the dead of night,the evening star, which stands fairest of stars in the sky,so the gleam shone from his well-whetted spear point, which Achillesbrandished in his right hand, planning evil for divine Hector,looking over his fair flesh, where it would best give way.And of him the bronze armor covered so much of his flesh,the beautiful armor that he had stripped from the strength of Patroclus when he killed him;but it showed where the collarbones hold the neck from the shoulders,the throat, where the destruction of the soul comes swiftest.There divine Achilles drove at him with his spear as he rushed on,and clean through his tender neck the point went.Yet the ashen spear did not cut his windpipe,so that he might say something to him in answer.And he fell in the dust; and divine Achilles exulted over him:Hector, surely you thought, when you stripped Patroclus,that you would be safe, and you gave no thought to me, being far away,fool; but a far better avenger, though far off,I remained behind beside the hollow ships,I who have loosed your knees; the dogs and the birdswill drag you shamefully, and the Achaeans will bury him.Then, faintly breathing, Hector of the shining helmet answered him:I beg you by your life and by your knees and by your parents,do not let the dogs of the Achaeans devour me beside the ships,but accept bronze and gold in plenty,gifts that my father and my honored mother will give you,and give my body back home, so that the Trojansand the Trojans' wives may give me my share of fire when I am dead.Then looking from under his brows, swift-footed Achilles answered him:Do not beg me by my knees, dog, nor by my parents.Would that my fury and my heart urged me onto carve off your flesh and eat it raw, for what you have done;so there is no one who will keep the dogs from your head,not even if they should bring tenfold and twentyfold ransomand weigh it out here, and promise other things besides,not even if Dardanian Priam should bid them buy you for your weight in gold;not even so will the honored mother who bore youlay you on a bed and mourn you, her own child,but dogs and birds will devour you over all your body.Dying, Hector of the shining helmet answered him:Truly, knowing you well, I foresaw this, and I was not goingto persuade you; for the heart in your breast is iron.Consider now, lest I become some cause of the gods' wrath to youon the day when Paris and Phoebus Apolloshall destroy you, good man that you are, at the Scaean gates.So speaking, the end of death covered him,and his soul flew from his limbs and went to the house of Hades,lamenting its fate, leaving behind its manhood and its youth.Even dead, divine Achilles spoke to him:Die; and I will accept my doom wheneverZeus wishes to accomplish it, and the other immortal gods.He spoke, and drew his bronze spear from the corpse,and set it aside, and he stripped the bloody armor from his shoulders;and the other sons of the Achaeans ran up around him,and they marveled at the stature and the wondrous formof Hector; and no one stood by him without a wound.And so each one spoke, looking at his neighbor:Alas, surely now Hector is far softer to handlethan when he burned the ships with blazing fire.So each one spoke, and standing close he stabbed him.And when swift-footed divine Achilles had stripped him,standing among the Achaeans he spoke winged words:My friends, leaders and rulers of the Argives,since the gods have granted us to subdue this man,who wrought as many evils as all the rest together did not,come now, let us make trial of the city with our armor,so that we may learn what mind the Trojans hold,whether they will abandon the high city now that this man has fallen,or whether they are eager to hold out with Hector no longer living.But why did my dear heart debate these things with me?There lies beside the ships a corpse unmourned and unburied,Patroclus; and I will not forget him, as long as Ilive among the living and my dear knees move.And even if in the house of Hades men forget the dead,yet even there I will remember my dear companion.But come now, youths of the Achaeans, singing the paean,let us go to the hollow ships and bring this man with us.We have won great glory; we have killed divine Hector,to whom the Trojans throughout the city prayed as to a god.He spoke, and devised shameful deeds against divine Hector.He pierced the tendons of both his feet behind,from heel to ankle, and fastened ox-hide straps through them,and tied him to his chariot, and let his head drag on the ground.And stepping up onto the chariot and lifting the glorious armor,he lashed the horses to drive, and the two flew along, not unwilling.And as he was dragged a dust cloud rose, and his dark hairstreamed out, and his whole head lay in the dust,the head that was graceful before; but then Zeus gave itto his enemies to defile in his own fatherland.So his whole head was soiled with dust; but his mothertore her hair, and threw off her shining veilfar from her, and wailed aloud when she saw her son;and his dear father groaned piteously, and the people aroundwere caught up in shrieking and wailing throughout the city.And it was most like this, as if alllofty Ilion were smoldering with fire to its summit.The people barely held the old man back as he struggled,eager to pass out through the Dardanian gates.And he begged them all, rolling in the dung,calling each man by name:Hold, friends, and though you care for me, leave me aloneto go out of the city and reach the ships of the Achaeans.I beg this man, reckless and violent in his deeds,in the hope that he will respect my age and pitymy old age; and he too has a father such as I am,Peleus, who begot him and raised him to be a woeto the Trojans; and most of all he has brought griefs on me beyond all others.For he has killed so many of my flourishing sons;for all of them I do not grieve so much, though I am distressed,as for one, whose sharp grief goes down inside me into Hades,Hector; would that he had died in my arms;then we would have had our fill of weeping and wailing,his mother and I, who bore him, unhappy as we are.So he spoke, weeping, and the citizens groaned with him;and among the Trojan women Hecabe led the shrill lament:My child, wretched me; what will become of me, suffering dreadfullynow that you are dead? You who night and daywere my prayer throughout the city, and a help to allthe Trojans and the Trojan women in the town, who welcomed you like a god.For you were indeed a great glory to themwhile you lived; but now death and fate have overtaken you.So she spoke weeping; but his wife had not yet heard anythingabout Hector; for no true messenger had cometo tell her that her husband had stayed outside the gates,but she was weaving a web in an inner room of the high house,a double-folded purple cloth, and she was sprinkling embroidered flowers on it.And she called to her fair-haired serving women throughout the houseto set a great tripod over the fire, so that there might bea warm bath for Hector when he came home from battle,poor fool, and she did not know that far from any bathbright-eyed Athena had subdued him at the hands of Achilles.And she heard the shrieking and the wailing from the tower,and her limbs shook, and the shuttle fell from her hand to the ground,and again she spoke to her fair-haired servants:Come, two of you follow me, so that I may see what has been done.I heard the voice of my honored mother-in-law, and in my ownbreast my heart leaps up to my mouth, and below my kneesare frozen stiff; some evil is surely near the children of Priam.Would that the word never reach my ear; but I fear greatlythat now divine Achilles has cut off bold Hectorfrom the city, alone, and is chasing him over the plain,and has put an end to the courage that was so painful,which held him, since he never waited in the throng of men,but ran far ahead, yielding his fury to no one.So speaking, she rushed through the hall like a madwoman,her heart pounding; and her serving women went with her.But when she came to the tower and the crowd of men,she stood and looked over the wall, and she saw himbeing dragged in front of the city; and swift horseswere dragging him carelessly toward the hollow ships of the Achaeans.And dark night covered her eyes,and she fell backward, and gasped out her spirit.And far from her head she threw her shining bindings,the frontlet and the net and the woven headbandand the veil, which golden Aphrodite had given heron that day when Hector of the shining helmet led herfrom the house of Eetion, after he gave countless bridal gifts.And around her stood her husband's sisters and his brothers' wives in throngs,who held her among them as she gasped, ready to die.And when she had recovered and her spirit was gathered back into her breast,she spoke among the Trojan women, sobbing brokenly:Hector, wretched me; so we were born, it seems, under one fate,both of us, you in Troy in the house of Priam,and I in Thebes beneath wooded Plakos,in the house of Eetion, who raised me when I was small,hapless himself, father of an ill-fated child; how I wish he had not begotten me.And now you go to the house of Hades beneath the hidden places of the earth,and you leave me behind in hateful grief,a widow in the halls; and our child is still only an infant,whom you and I bore, the two of us unhappy; nor will yoube any help to him, Hector, since you have died, nor he to you.For even if he escapes the tearful war of the Achaeans,always hereafter toil and sorrows will be his;for other men will push him off his fields.The day of orphanhood makes a child wholly helpless;his face is all downcast, and his cheeks are wet with tears,and in his need the child goes up to his father's companions,tugging at one for a cloak, at another for a tunic;and one of them, pitying him, holds out a small cup;he wets his lips, but he does not wet his palate.And a boy whose parents both live strikes him away from the feast,beating him with his hands and taunting him with insults:Get out, just as you are; your father does not dine with us.Then weeping, the child Astyanax comes to his widowed mother,Astyanax, who before used to eat only marrowon his father's knees, and the rich fat of sheep;and when sleep took him, and he stopped playing like a child,he used to sleep in his bed in the arms of his nurse,on a soft couch, his heart filled with delight.But now he will suffer many things, having lost his dear father,Astyanax, whom the Trojans call by that name;for you alone guarded their gates and their long walls.And now beside the curved ships, far from your parents,the writhing worms will devour you, once the dogs have had their fill,naked as you are; but your garments lie in the halls,fine and lovely, made by the hands of women.Yet all these I will burn in blazing fire,no use at all to you, since you will not lie in them,but they will be glory for the Trojans and the Trojan women.So she spoke weeping, and the women groaned with her.

So they had fled through the city like fawns,and were cooling off their sweat and quenching their thirst,leaning on the fine battlements; but the Achaeanscame closer to the wall, shields resting on their shoulders.But deadly fate pinned Hector there in placein front of the gates of Ilion and the Scaean gates.Then Phoebus Apollo spoke to the son of Peleus:Why, son of Peleus, do you chase me with your swift feet,a mortal chasing an immortal god? And you still have notrecognized that I am a god, while you keep raging.So the Trojans' trouble means nothing to you, the men you routed,who have crowded into the city, while you turned aside to come here.You will not kill me, since I am not fated to die.Then, greatly angered, swift-footed Achilles answered him:You have wronged me, far-worker, most deadly of all the gods,by turning me here away from the wall; otherwise manywould have bitten the ground before they reached Ilion.Now you have robbed me of great glory and saved those meneasily, because you had no fear of vengeance afterward.I would pay you back, if only I had the power.With these words he set off toward the city, elated,springing like a prize-winning horse with its chariotthat easily stretches out and runs across the plain;so Achilles drove his swift feet and knees.The old man Priam was the first to see him with his eyes,shining like a star as it rushes across the plain,the star that rises at harvest time, and its rays stand outas it shines among the many stars in the dead of night,the one men call by the name Dog of Orion.It is the brightest of all, yet it is set as a sign of evil,and it brings much fever on wretched mortals;so his bronze armor blazed around his chest as he ran.The old man groaned, and struck his head with his hands,lifting them high, and groaning loudly he called out,begging his dear son; but he in front of the gatesstood there, unrelentingly eager to fight Achilles.The old man spoke to him pitifully, reaching out his hands:Hector, my dear child, do not wait here for this manalone and away from the others, or you will soon meet your death,beaten by the son of Peleus, since he is much strongerthan you, merciless man. If only he were as dear to the godsas he is to me; then dogs and vultures would soon eat himwhere he lies, and terrible grief would leave my heart.He has left me with none of my many fine sons,killing them and selling them off to distant islands.Even now there are two sons, Lycaon and Polydorus,whom I cannot see among the Trojans gathered in the city,the ones Laothoe bore to me, a queen among women.If they are alive with the army, then laterwe can ransom them with bronze and gold, for we have plenty inside;old famous Altes gave many gifts for his daughter.But if they are already dead and in the house of Hades,it is grief for my heart and for the mother who bore us,and for other people a less lasting grief,unless you also die, beaten by Achilles.So come inside the wall, my child, so that you may savethe Trojans and the Trojan women, and do not hand great gloryto the son of Peleus, and lose your own dear life.Have pity on me too, the wretched one, while I still have my mind,unlucky as I am, whom the father, the son of Cronus, on the threshold of old agewill destroy under a painful fate, after I have seen many evils:my sons dying and my daughters dragged off,my bedrooms looted, and little childrenthrown down on the ground in terrible battle,and my sons' wives dragged away by the deadly hands of the Achaeans.And me, last of all, the dogs at my own front doors,the flesh-eating dogs, will drag out, when someone with sharp bronzestrikes me or throws and takes the life from my body,the dogs I raised in my halls, fed at my table, guarding my doors,who will drink my blood and go mad in their heartsas they lie in my doorway. For a young man it is all fitting,killed in war, cut up by sharp bronze,to lie there; and everything looks fine on a dead man, whatever shows;but when dogs defile the gray head and gray beardand the naked body of a slain old man,that is the most pitiful thing for wretched mortals.So the old man said, and he tore at his gray hairs with his hands,pulling them from his head; but he did not sway Hector's heart.His mother on the other side wept and poured out tears,opening her robe, and with her other hand lifted up her breast,and weeping she spoke winged words to him:Hector, my child, respect this and have pity on me,on me, if ever I held out my breast to you to soothe your crying.Remember that, dear child, and fight off the enemyfrom inside the wall, and do not stand up as champion against him,merciless man; for if he kills you, I will no longerbe able to mourn you on a bed, my dear child, whom I bore myself,nor will your richly dowered wife; but far from us both,beside the Argive ships, swift dogs will eat you.So the two of them wept and spoke to their dear son,pleading with him a great deal; but they did not sway Hector's heart,and he waited for Achilles as he came closer, huge and terrifying.As a mountain snake at its hole waits for a man,after eating poisonous herbs, and terrible anger has taken hold of it,and it glares horribly, coiled around its hole;so Hector, with unquenchable fury, did not give way,but leaned his bright shield against the jutting tower.Angered, he spoke to his own great-hearted spirit:Oh no, if I go in through the gates and walls,Polydamas will be the first to throw reproach at me,the man who told me to lead the Trojans back to the cityduring that deadly night, when brilliant Achilles rose up.But I did not listen, and it would have been far better if I had.But now that I have destroyed the army by my own foolishness,I am ashamed in front of the Trojans and the long-robed Trojan women,in case some worse man than me ever says:Hector trusted in his own strength and destroyed the army.That is what they will say; and for me then it would be far bettereither to face Achilles, kill him, and come back,or to die with honor in front of the city.But if I lay down my bossed shieldand my sturdy helmet, and lean my spear against the wall,and go myself to meet blameless Achillesand promise him Helen and the treasure with her,everything that Alexander brought in his hollow shipsto Troy, which was the start of the quarrel,to give to the sons of Atreus to take away, and also to divide out separately for the Achaeansall the rest that this city keeps hidden,and then to swear the Trojans' oath before the eldersthat nothing will be hidden, but that everything will be split in two,all the wealth the lovely city holds inside it;but why does my own heart debate these things with me?I must not go to him, for he will not pity meor respect me at all, but will kill me while I am stripped,just as I am, like a woman, once I take off my armor.There is no way now to chat with him from an oak or a rock,the way a girl and a young man,a girl and a young man, chat with each other.Better to clash in battle as fast as possible.Let us see which of us the Olympian will give the glory to.That is what he was thinking as he waited, and Achilles came up close to him,equal to Enyalius, the warrior with the flashing helmet,shaking the Pelian ash spear along his right shoulder,a frightening sight; and the bronze flashed around him like the gleamof blazing fire or the rising sun.When Hector saw him, trembling seized him, and he no longer daredto stay there, but left the gates and ran away in fear,and the son of Peleus sprang after him, confident in his swift feet.Like a hawk in the mountains, the lightest of flying birds,that easily swoops after a trembling dove,and she flees ahead of it, and it comes up close with a sharp cryand keeps darting at her, and its heart urges it to catch her;so he flew straight at him eagerly, and Hector ranunder the Trojans' wall, driving his swift knees.They ran past the lookout point and the windy fig tree,always under the wall along the wagon road,and they came to the two well-flowing springs; there two fountainsof swirling Scamander leap up.One flows with warm water, and steamrises from it as if from a blazing fire;the other runs out cold even in summer, like hail,or cold snow, or ice made from water.Beside them there are wide washing troughs nearby,beautiful, made of stone, where the shining clothesthe Trojans' wives and fair daughters used to washin the old days of peace, before the Achaean sons came.The two ran past there, one fleeing and the other chasing behind;a good man fled in front, but a far better man chased himat full speed, since they were not competing for a prize animal or a bull's hide,the kind of prizes men win in a footrace,but they were running for the life of horse-taming Hector.As when prize-winning single-hoofed horses run fastaround the turning posts; and a great prize lies waiting,either a tripod or a woman, for a man who has died;so the two of them circled the city of Priam three timeson swift feet; and all the gods watched;and the father of men and gods was the first to speak among them:Shame on it, I see with my own eyes a dear man chased around the wall,and my heart lamentsfor Hector, who burned many thigh bones for meon the peaks of many-ridged Ida, and at other timeson the highest part of the city; but now brilliant Achillesis chasing him around Priam's city on swift feet.But come, gods, think it over and decidewhether we will save him from death, or whether we will nowbeat him down, good man that he is, for Peleus' son Achilles.Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:Father, bright-thunderer, dark-clouded, what a thing to say.A man who is mortal, long since marked out by fate,do you want to release him again from hateful death?Do it; but the rest of us gods will not all approve.Answering her, Zeus the cloud-gatherer said:Take heart, Tritogeneia, dear child; I am not speakingfrom a willing heart, and I want to be kind to you.Do what your mind has decided, and do not hold back any longer.With these words he urged on Athena, who was already eager.She darted down from the peaks of Olympus.Swift Achilles kept after Hector, driving him on without pause.As when a hound in the mountains chases a deer's fawn,after rousing it from its bed through the hollows and the glens;and even if it hides, crouching under a bush,the dog still runs tracking it steadily until it finds it;so Hector did not escape the swift-footed son of Peleus.Every time he rushed toward the Dardanian gates,trying to dart straight in under the well-built towers,hoping those above might fend the enemy off with missiles,each time Achilles cut him off and turned him backtoward the plain; and he himself always flew toward the city.As in a dream a man cannot chase a fleeing man,and neither can the one escape, nor the other catch him,so he could not catch him on foot, nor could the other get away.And how could Hector have escaped the fates of death,unless Apollo had met him one last final time,close by, and spurred on his fury and his swift knees?Brilliant Achilles signaled to the army with his headand did not let anyone throw bitter weapons at Hector,in case someone struck first and won glory, and he came second.But when they came to the springs for the fourth time,then the father stretched out his golden scalesand put in them two fates of death that brings long sorrow,one of Achilles, and one of horse-taming Hector,and he lifted them by the middle; and Hector's destined day sank down,and went off to Hades, and Phoebus Apollo left him.The goddess, bright-eyed Athena, came to the son of Peleus,and standing close she spoke winged words:Now at last, dear to Zeus, glorious Achilles, we two may hopeto win great glory for the Achaeans at the ships,by killing Hector, insatiable in battle though he is.There is no way for him to escape us now,not even if the far-worker Apollo suffers a great dealand rolls over and over in front of father Zeus who holds the aegis.But you stand still now and catch your breath, and Iwill go and persuade this man to fight you face to face.So said Athena, and he obeyed, happy in his heart,and he stood leaning on his bronze-tipped ash spear.She left him there and went to brilliant Hectorlooking like Deiphobus in body and tireless voice,and standing close she spoke winged words:Dear brother, swift Achilles is really pressing you hard,chasing you around Priam's city on swift feet.But come on, let us stand and defend ourselves, holding our ground.Then great Hector of the shining helmet answered her:Deiphobus, until now you were by far the dearest to meof the brothers Hecabe and Priam bore as sons;but now I intend to honor you even more in my heart,because you dared, for my sake, when you saw it with your own eyes,to come out of the wall, while the others stay inside.Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:Dear brother, our father and our honored motherkept begging you with prayers, one after another, and your companions around them,to stay here; that is how much fear grips them all.But my heart inside was worn down with miserable grief.But now let us fight eagerly face to face, and let there be noholding back of spears, so that we can see whether Achilleskills the two of us and carries off our bloody spoilsto the hollow ships, or is beaten by your spear.With these words Athena led the way by trickery.When the two had come close, moving against each other,great Hector of the shining helmet spoke first:Son of Peleus, I will not run from you any longer, the way I did beforewhen I ran three times around Priam's great city, and never daredto stand my ground as you came on; but now my heart has pushed meto stand against you; I may kill you, or I may be killed.But come, let us call the gods to witness; they will be the bestwitnesses and watchers of our agreement.I will not treat you shamefully, if Zeusgives me the victory and I take your life;but once I strip your glorious armor, Achilles,I will give your body back to the Achaeans; you do the same.Then, looking at him from under his brows, swift-footed Achilles said:Hector, you cursed man, do not talk to me about agreements.Just as there are no trustworthy oaths between lions and men,and wolves and lambs do not share the same mind,but keep plotting evil against each other all the time,so there is no way for you and me to be friends, and there will neverbe any oaths between us, until one of us at least has fallenand filled Ares, the tough warrior, with his blood.Remember every kind of courage; now above all you needto be a spearman and a bold fighter.There is no escape for you now; Pallas Athena will soonbeat you down with my spear; and now you will pay all at oncefor the grief of my companions, the men you killed as you raged with your spear.He spoke, and swinging it back he threw his long-shadowing spear.Glorious Hector saw it coming and dodged it,because he crouched down after watching, and the bronze spear flew over himand stuck in the ground; and Pallas Athena snatched it upand gave it back to Achilles without Hector, shepherd of the people, noticing.Hector said to the blameless son of Peleus:You missed, and you did not yet, godlike Achilles,know my death from Zeus, though you claimed you did.You turned out to be a smooth and sly talker,hoping I would be afraid of you and forget my fury and my strength.You will not drive your spear into my back as I run away,but straight through my chest, as I rush eagerly at you,drive it in, if a god has granted that to you; but now dodge my bronze spear;I wish you could take the whole thing in your body.And the war would be lighter for the Trojansonce you are dead, since you are their greatest disaster.He spoke, and swinging it back he threw his long-shadowing spear,and hit the middle of the son of Peleus' shield and did not miss.But the spear bounced far off the shield; and Hector was angrythat his swift weapon had flown from his hand for nothing,and he stood there discouraged, since he had no other ashen spear.He shouted loudly to Deiphobus of the white shieldand asked him for his long spear; but he was not near him at all.Hector understood it in his heart and said:Oh no, now the gods really have called me to my death.I thought Deiphobus the hero was here beside me,but he is inside the wall, and Athena has tricked me.Now evil death is near me, and no longer far away,and there is no escape; this has in fact long beenmore pleasing to Zeus and to the son of Zeus, the far-shooter, who before nowgladly protected me; but now fate has caught up with me.May I not die without a fight and without glory,but after doing something great, for people in the future to hear about.With these words he drew his sharp sword,the one that hung beside his hip, big and heavy,and he swooped in, gathering himself like a high-flying eaglethat comes down to the plain through the dark cloudsto snatch a tender lamb or a cowering hare;so Hector swooped, swinging his sharp sword.Achilles charged, and filled his heartwith savage fury, and in front of him he covered his chest with his shield,the beautiful one, finely worked, and he nodded with his shining helmet,the four-crested one; and the beautiful golden hairs waved on it,the thick plumes Hephaestus set around its crest.As a star moves among the stars in the dead of night,the evening star, which stands as the fairest star in the sky,so the gleam shone from his sharp spear point, which Achillesswung in his right hand, planning evil for brilliant Hector,watching his fine body, to see where it would give way most.The bronze armor covered so much of his body,the beautiful armor that he had stripped from mighty Patroclus after killing him;but it showed where the collarbones hold the neck away from the shoulders,the throat, where the destruction of life comes fastest.There brilliant Achilles drove at him with his spear as he rushed in,and the point went straight through his soft neck.Yet the ashen spear did not cut through his windpipe,so that he could still say something in reply.He fell in the dust; and brilliant Achilles boasted over him:Hector, you probably thought, when you were stripping Patroclus,that you would be safe, and you gave no thought to me, since I was far away,you fool; but a far better avenger, though far away,had been left behind by the hollow ships, and that was me,and I have brought your knees down; the dogs and the birdswill drag you shamefully, but the Achaeans will bury him.Then, breathing faintly, Hector of the shining helmet answered him:I beg you by your life, and by your knees, and by your parents,do not let the dogs of the Achaeans eat me beside the ships,but accept as much bronze and gold as you like,the gifts my father and my honored mother will give you,and give my body back home, so that the Trojansand the Trojans' wives can give me my share of fire after I am dead.Then, looking at him from under his brows, swift-footed Achilles said:Do not beg me by my knees, dog, or by my parents.I wish my fury and my heart would drive meto cut off your flesh and eat it raw, for what you have done;so there is no one who will keep the dogs off your head,not even if they bring ten times and twenty times the ransomand weigh it out here, and promise even more than that,not even if Dardanian Priam tells them to buy you for your weight in gold;not even then will the honored mother who bore youlay you on a bed and mourn you, her own child,but dogs and birds will eat you all over.As he was dying, Hector of the shining helmet answered him:I know you well, and I saw this coming, and I was never goingto persuade you; for the heart in your chest is made of iron.Think about it now, in case I bring some anger of the gods on youon the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollodestroy you, good man that you are, at the Scaean gates.With these words the end of death covered him,and his soul flew out of his limbs and went to the house of Hades,mourning its fate, leaving behind its manhood and its youth.Brilliant Achilles spoke to him even though he was dead:Die; and I will accept my own death wheneverZeus chooses to bring it about, and the other immortal gods too.He spoke, and pulled his bronze spear out of the body,and set it aside, and stripped the bloody armor from his shoulders;and the other sons of the Achaeans ran up around him,and they stared at the build and the wonderful appearanceof Hector; and no one stood beside him without stabbing him.And each one said, looking at the man next to him:What do you know, Hector is much softer to touchthan he was when he burned the ships with blazing fire.So each one said, and standing beside him stabbed him.When swift-footed brilliant Achilles had stripped him,he stood among the Achaeans and spoke winged words:My friends, leaders and rulers of the Argives,since the gods have given us this man to beat down,the man who did as much evil as all the rest together did not,come on, let us test the city with our weapons,so that we can learn what the Trojans have in mind,whether they will abandon the high city now that this man has fallen,or are eager to hold out even with Hector gone.But why does my own heart debate these things with me?A corpse lies beside the ships, unmourned and unburied,Patroclus; and I will not forget him as long as Ilive among the living and my dear knees still move.And even if people forget the dead in the house of Hades,still even there I will remember my dear companion.But come now, young men of the Achaeans, singing the paean,let us go back to the hollow ships and bring this man with us.We have won great glory; we have killed brilliant Hector,the man the Trojans in the city prayed to like a god.He spoke, and planned shameful acts against brilliant Hector.He pierced the tendons of both his feet behind,from heel to ankle, and threaded ox-hide straps through them,and tied him to his chariot, and let his head drag on the ground.He climbed onto the chariot and lifted up the glorious armor,and whipped the horses to drive on, and the two flew along, not unwilling.As he was dragged, dust rose, and his dark hairstreamed out, and his whole head lay in the dust,the head that used to be so lovely; but then Zeus gave itto his enemies to treat shamefully in his own homeland.So his whole head was covered in dust; and his mothertore at her hair, and threw off her shining veilfar away, and screamed loudly when she saw her son;and his dear father groaned pitifully, and the people aroundwere caught up in screaming and wailing throughout the city.And it was most like this, as if allhigh-built Ilion were smoldering with fire from the top down.The people barely held the old man back as he struggled,eager to go out through the Dardanian gates.He begged them all, rolling around in the dung,calling each man by name:Hold on, friends, and even though you care about me, leave me aloneto go out of the city and reach the ships of the Achaeans.I want to beg this reckless man who acts with violence,in case he respects my age and has pityon my old age; he too has a father just like this,Peleus, who fathered him and raised him to be a disasterfor the Trojans; and he has brought grief on me more than on anyone.He has killed so many of my flourishing sons;I do not grieve for all of them as much, though I am in pain,as for one, whose sharp grief goes down inside me to Hades,Hector; I wish he had died in my arms.Then we would have had our fill of crying and wailing,his mother and I, who bore him, the two of us unlucky.So he said, weeping, and the citizens groaned with him;and among the Trojan women Hecabe began the shrill lament:My child, I am so wretched; what will become of me, suffering terriblynow that you are dead? You were my prayer night and daythroughout the city, and a help to allthe Trojans and Trojan women in the town, who welcomed you like a god.You really were a great glory to themwhile you were alive; but now death and fate have caught up with you.So she said, weeping; but his wife had not yet heard anythingabout Hector; no true messenger had cometo tell her that her husband was waiting outside the gates,but she was weaving cloth in an inner room of the high house,a double-width purple robe, and she was embroidering patterns of flowers on it.She called to her fair-haired serving women throughout the houseto set a big tripod over the fire, so that there would bea warm bath for Hector when he came back from the fighting,poor fool, and she did not know that far from any bathbright-eyed Athena had brought him down by the hands of Achilles.She heard the screaming and the wailing from the tower,and her limbs shook, and the shuttle fell from her hand to the floor,and she spoke again to her fair-haired servants:Come, two of you follow me, so I can see what has happened.I heard the voice of my honored mother-in-law, and inside my ownchest my heart is jumping up into my mouth, and my kneesare frozen stiff; something bad is close to Priam's children.I wish the word would never reach my ear; but I am terriblyafraid that brilliant Achilles has cut bold Hector offfrom the city, all alone, and is chasing him across the plain,and has put an end to the painful couragethat used to drive him, since he never waited in the crowd of men,but always ran far out in front, giving way to no one in his fury.With these words she rushed through the hall like a madwoman,her heart pounding; and her serving women went with her.But when she reached the tower and the crowd of men,she stood and looked out over the wall, and she saw himbeing dragged in front of the city; and swift horseswere dragging him without a care toward the hollow ships of the Achaeans.Dark night covered her eyes,and she fell backward and breathed out her life.She threw her shining headdress far from her head,the frontlet and the net and the woven headbandand the veil, which golden Aphrodite had given heron the day when Hector of the shining helmet married herand brought her from Eetion's house, after he gave countless bridal gifts.Around her stood her husband's sisters and her brothers' wives in crowds,who held her among them as she gasped and nearly died.When she had come to and her spirit had returned to her breast,she spoke among the Trojan women, sobbing brokenly:Hector, I am so wretched; we were born, it seems, under the same fate,both of us, you in Troy in Priam's house,and I in Thebes under wooded Plakos,in Eetion's house, who raised me when I was little,unlucky himself, father of a doomed child; I wish he had never fathered me.Now you are going to the house of Hades, under the depths of the earth,and you are leaving me behind in hateful grief,a widow in these halls; and our child is still just a baby,whom you and I bore, the two of us unlucky; you will notbe any help to him, Hector, now that you are dead, nor he to you.For even if he escapes the tearful war with the Achaeans,from then on there will always be labor and sorrow for him;other men will push him away from his fields.The day of being orphaned makes a child completely helpless;his face is all pinched, and his cheeks are wet with tears,and in his need the child goes up to his father's friends,tugging at one man for a cloak, at another for a tunic;and one of them, feeling pity, holds out a small cup;he wets his lips, but he does not wet the roof of his mouth.And a boy whose parents are both alive pushes him out of the feast,hitting him with his hands and insulting him:Get out of here, just like that; your father does not eat with us.Then weeping, the child Astyanax comes to his widowed mother,Astyanax, who before used to eat only marrowon his father's knees, and the rich fat of sheep;and when sleep took him and he stopped playing like a child,he used to sleep in his bed in his nurse's arms,on a soft bed, with his heart full of delight.But now he will suffer a lot, having lost his dear father,Astyanax, the name the Trojans call him by;for you alone defended their gates and their long walls.But now, beside the curved ships, far from your parents,the glistening worms will eat you, once the dogs have had their filland you are bare; but your clothes lie in the halls,fine and lovely, made by the hands of women.Still, I will burn all of it in blazing fire,no use at all to you, since you will not lie in them,but it will be a mark of honor from the Trojans and the Trojan women.So she said, weeping, and the women groaned with her.