The Iliad by Homer (pdf to ebook reader .TXT) 📖

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Achilles then went back into the tent and took his place on the richly
inlaid seat from which he had risen, by the wall that was at right
angles to the one against which Priam was sitting. "Sir," he said,
"your son is now laid upon his bier and is ransomed according to
desire; you shall look upon him when you take him away at daybreak; for
the present let us prepare our supper. Even lovely Niobe had to think
about eating, though her twelve children--six daughters and six lusty
sons--had been all slain in her house. Apollo killed the sons with
arrows from his silver bow, to punish Niobe, and Diana slew the
daughters, because Niobe had vaunted herself against Leto; she said
Leto had borne two children only, whereas she had herself borne
many--whereon the two killed the many. Nine days did they lie
weltering, and there was none to bury them, for the son of Saturn
turned the people into stone; but on the tenth day the gods in heaven
themselves buried them, and Niobe then took food, being worn out with
weeping. They say that somewhere among the rocks on the mountain
pastures of Sipylus, where the nymphs live that haunt the river
Achelous, there, they say, she lives in stone and still nurses the
sorrows sent upon her by the hand of heaven. Therefore, noble sir, let
us two now take food; you can weep for your dear son hereafter as you
are bearing him back to Ilius--and many a tear will he cost you."

With this Achilles sprang from his seat and killed a sheep of silvery
whiteness, which his followers skinned and made ready all in due order.
They cut the meat carefully up into smaller pieces, spitted them, and
drew them off again when they were well roasted. Automedon brought
bread in fair baskets and served it round the table, while Achilles
dealt out the meat, and they laid their hands on the good things that
were before them. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink,
Priam, descendant of Dardanus, marvelled at the strength and beauty of
Achilles for he was as a god to see, and Achilles marvelled at Priam as
he listened to him and looked upon his noble presence. When they had
gazed their fill Priam spoke first. "And now, O king," he said, "take
me to my couch that we may lie down and enjoy the blessed boon of
sleep. Never once have my eyes been closed from the day your hands took
the life of my son; I have grovelled without ceasing in the mire of my
stable-yard, making moan and brooding over my countless sorrows. Now,
moreover, I have eaten bread and drunk wine; hitherto I have tasted
nothing."

As he spoke Achilles told his men and the women-servants to set beds in
the room that was in the gatehouse, and make them with good red rugs,
and spread coverlets on the top of them with woollen cloaks for Priam
and Idaeus to wear. So the maids went out carrying a torch and got the
two beds ready in all haste. Then Achilles said laughingly to Priam,
"Dear sir, you shall lie outside, lest some counsellor of those who in
due course keep coming to advise with me should see you here in the
darkness of the flying night, and tell it to Agamemnon. This might
cause delay in the delivery of the body. And now tell me and tell me
true, for how many days would you celebrate the funeral rites of noble
Hector? Tell me, that I may hold aloof from war and restrain the host."

And Priam answered, "Since, then, you suffer me to bury my noble son
with all due rites, do thus, Achilles, and I shall be grateful. You
know how we are pent up within our city; it is far for us to fetch wood
from the mountain, and the people live in fear. Nine days, therefore,
will we mourn Hector in my house; on the tenth day we will bury him and
there shall be a public feast in his honour; on the eleventh we will
build a mound over his ashes, and on the twelfth, if there be need, we
will fight."

And Achilles answered, "All, King Priam, shall be as you have said. I
will stay our fighting for as long a time as you have named."

As he spoke he laid his hand on the old man's right wrist, in token
that he should have no fear; thus then did Priam and his attendant
sleep there in the forecourt, full of thought, while Achilles lay in an
inner room of the house, with fair Briseis by his side.

And now both gods and mortals were fast asleep through the livelong
night, but upon Mercury alone, the bringer of good luck, sleep could
take no hold for he was thinking all the time how to get King Priam
away from the ships without his being seen by the strong force of
sentinels. He hovered therefore over Priam's head and said, "Sir, now
that Achilles has spared your life, you seem to have no fear about
sleeping in the thick of your foes. You have paid a great ransom, and
have received the body of your son; were you still alive and a prisoner
the sons whom you have left at home would have to give three times as
much to free you; and so it would be if Agamemnon and the other
Achaeans were to know of your being here."

When he heard this the old man was afraid and roused his servant.
Mercury then yoked their horses and mules, and drove them quickly
through the host so that no man perceived them. When they came to the
ford of eddying Xanthus, begotten of immortal Jove, Mercury went back
to high Olympus, and dawn in robe of saffron began to break over all
the land. Priam and Idaeus then drove on toward the city lamenting and
making moan, and the mules drew the body of Hector. No one neither man
nor woman saw them, till Cassandra, fair as golden Venus standing on
Pergamus, caught sight of her dear father in his chariot, and his
servant that was the city's herald with him. Then she saw him that was
lying upon the bier, drawn by the mules, and with a loud cry she went
about the city saying, "Come hither Trojans, men and women, and look on
Hector; if ever you rejoiced to see him coming from battle when he was
alive, look now on him that was the glory of our city and all our
people."

At this there was not man nor woman left in the city, so great a sorrow
had possessed them. Hard by the gates they met Priam as he was bringing
in the body. Hector's wife and his mother were the first to mourn him:
they flew towards the waggon and laid their hands upon his head, while
the crowd stood weeping round them. They would have stayed before the
gates, weeping and lamenting the livelong day to the going down of the
sun, had not Priam spoken to them from the chariot and said, "Make way
for the mules to pass you. Afterwards when I have taken the body home
you shall have your fill of weeping."

On this the people stood asunder, and made a way for the waggon. When
they had borne the body within the house they laid it upon a bed and
seated minstrels round it to lead the dirge, whereon the women joined
in the sad music of their lament. Foremost among them all Andromache
led their wailing as she clasped the head of mighty Hector in her
embrace. "Husband," she cried, "you have died young, and leave me in
your house a widow; he of whom we are the ill-starred parents is still
a mere child, and I fear he may not reach manhood. Ere he can do so our
city will be razed and overthrown, for you who watched over it are no
more--you who were its saviour, the guardian of our wives and children.
Our women will be carried away captives to the ships, and I among them;
while you, my child, who will be with me will be put to some unseemly
tasks, working for a cruel master. Or, may be, some Achaean will hurl
you (O miserable death) from our walls, to avenge some brother, son, or
father whom Hector slew; many of them have indeed bitten the dust at
his hands, for your father's hand in battle was no light one. Therefore
do the people mourn him. You have left, O Hector, sorrow unutterable to
your parents, and my own grief is greatest of all, for you did not
stretch forth your arms and embrace me as you lay dying, nor say to me
any words that might have lived with me in my tears night and day for
evermore."

Bitterly did she weep the while, and the women joined in her lament.
Hecuba in her turn took up the strains of woe. "Hector," she cried,
"dearest to me of all my children. So long as you were alive the gods
loved you well, and even in death they have not been utterly unmindful
of you; for when Achilles took any other of my sons, he would sell him
beyond the seas, to Samos Imbrus or rugged Lemnos; and when he had
slain you too with his sword, many a time did he drag you round the
sepulchre of his comrade--though this could not give him life--yet here
you lie all fresh as dew, and comely as one whom Apollo has slain with
his painless shafts."

Thus did she too speak through her tears with bitter moan, and then
Helen for a third time took up the strain of lamentation. "Hector,"
said she, "dearest of all my brothers-in-law--for I am wife to
Alexandrus who brought me hither to Troy--would that I had died ere he
did so--twenty years are come and gone since I left my home and came
from over the sea, but I have never heard one word of insult or
unkindness from you. When another would chide with me, as it might be
one of your brothers or sisters or of your brothers' wives, or my
mother-in-law--for Priam was as kind to me as though he were my own
father--you would rebuke and check them with words of gentleness and
goodwill. Therefore my tears flow both for you and for my unhappy self,
for there is no one else in Troy who is kind to me, but all shrink and
shudder as they go by me."

She wept as she spoke and the vast crowd that was gathered round her
joined in her lament. Then King Priam spoke to them saying, "Bring
wood, O Trojans, to the city, and fear no cunning ambush of the
Argives, for Achilles when he dismissed me from the ships gave me his
word that they should not attack us until the morning of the twelfth
day."

Forthwith they yoked their oxen and mules and gathered together before
the city. Nine days long did they bring in great heaps of wood, and on
the morning of the tenth day with many tears they took brave Hector
forth, laid his dead body upon the summit of the pile, and set the fire
thereto. Then when the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn, appeared
on the eleventh day, the people again assembled, round the pyre of
mighty Hector. When they were got together, they first quenched the
fire with wine wherever it was burning, and then his brothers and
comrades with many a bitter tear gathered his white bones, wrapped them
in soft robes of purple, and