37 THE RANSOMING OF HECTOR'S BODY1
ECTOR has killed the Greek warrior Patroclus,
and in his turn he too has fallen, his slayer being Patroclus's friend, renowned Achilles. King Priam, his father, now comes with gifts to ransom his dead body. Led by the god Mercury, the King and his companion, the sage Idæus, have entered the Grecian camp unseen and have come near to the tent of Achilles.
Achilles, sometimes called Pelides, after Peleus, his father, has been told by Thetis, his goddess mother, of Jupiter's desire that he should deal kindly with Priam and accept the proffered ransom.
In the opening words of the passage the god Mercury (here sometimes called Hermes), hitherto disguised, reveals himself to Priam.
"O aged monarch, I am Mercury, An ever-living god; my father, Jove, Bade me attend thy journey. I shall now Return, nor must Achilles look on me; It is not meet that an immortal god Should openly befriend a mortal man. Enter, approach Pelides, clasp his knees; Entreat him by his father, and his son,
And fair-haired mother; so shall he be moved." Thus having spoken, Hermes took his way Back to the Olympian summit. Priam then Sprang from the chariot to the ground. He left Idæus there to guard the steeds and mules, And, hastening to the tent where, dear to Jove, Achilles lodged, he found the chief within, While his companions sat apart, save two,-
1 From the twenty-fourth book of the Iliad. The translation is that of William Cullen Bryant, and is reprinted by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers.
Automedon the brave, and Alcimus, Who claimed descent from Mars. And ministered to Peleus' son, who then
Was closing a repast, and had just left The food and wine, and still the table stood. Unmarked the royal Priam entered in,
And, coming to Achilles, clasped his knees, And kissed those fearful slaughter-dealing hands, By which so many of his sons had died.
And as, when some blood-guilty man, whose hand In his own land has slain a fellow-man,
Flees to another country, and the abode Of some great chieftain, all men look on him Astonished, so, when godlike Priam first Was seen, Achilles was amazed, and all Looked on each other, wondering at the sight. And thus King Priam supplicating spake:- "Think of thy father, an old man like me, Godlike Achilles! On the dreary verge Of closing life he stands, and even now Haply is fiercely pressed by those who dwell Around him, and has none to shield his age From war and its disasters. Yet his heart Rejoices when he hears thou yet dost live, And every day he hopes that his dear son Will come again from Troy. My lot is hard, For I was father of the bravest sons
In all wide Troy, and none are left me now. Fifty were with me when the men of Greece Arrived upon our coast; nineteen of these Owned the same mother, and the rest were born Within my palaces. Remorseless Mars
Already had laid lifeless most of these,
And Hector, whom I cherished most, whose arm Defended both our city and ourselves,
Him didst thou lately slay while combating For his dear country. For his sake I come To the Greek fleet, and to redeem his corse I bring uncounted ransom. O, revere The gods, Achilles, and be merciful, Calling to mind thy father! happier he Than I; for I have borne what no man else That dwells on earth could bear,-have laid my lips Upon the hand of him who slew my son." He spake: Achilles sorrowfully thought Of his own father. By the hand he took The suppliant, and with gentle force removed The old man from him. Both in memory Of those they loved were weeping. The old king, With many tears, and rolling in the dust Before Achilles, mourned his gallant son. Achilles sorrowed for his father's sake, And then bewailed Patroclus, and the sound Of lamentation filled the tent. At last Achilles, when he felt his heart relieved
By tears, and that strong grief had spent its force, Sprang from his seat; then lifting by the hand
The aged man, and pitying his white head
And his white chin, he spake these wingèd words:"Great have thy sufferings been, unhappy king!.
How couldst thou venture to approach alone The Grecian fleet, and show thyself to him Who slew so many of thy valiant sons? An iron heart is thine. But seat thyself, And let us, though afflicted grievously, Allow our woes to sleep awhile, for grief Indulged can bring no good. The gods ordain
The lot of man to suffer, while themselves
Are free from care. Beside Jove's threshold stand Two casks of gifts for man. One cask contains The evil, one the good, and he to whom
The Thunderer gives them mingled sometimes falls Into misfortune, and is sometimes crowned With blessings. But the man to whom he gives The evil only stands a mark exposed
To wrong, and, chased by grim calamity, Wanders the teeming earth, alike unloved By gods and men. So did the gods bestow Munificent gifts on Peleus from his birth, For eminent was he among mankind · For wealth and plenty; o'er the Myrmidons
He ruled, and, though a mortal, he was given A goddess for a wife. Yet did the gods Add evil to the good, for not to him Was born a family of kingly sons Within his house, successors to his reign. One short-lived son is his, nor am I there To cherish him in his old age; but here Do I remain, far from my native land, In Troy, and causing grief to thee and thine. Of thee too, aged king, they speak, as one Whose wealth was large in former days, when all That Lesbos, seat of Macar, owns was thine, And all in Phrygia and the shores that bound The Hellespont; men said thou didst excel
All others in thy riches and thy sons.
But since the gods have brought this strife on thee War and perpetual slaughter of brave men
Nor grieve forever. Sorrow for thy son Will profit nought; it cannot bring the dead
To life again, and while thou dost afflict Thyself for him fresh woes may fall on thee." And thus the godlike Priam, aged king, Made answer: "Bid me not be seated here, Nursling of Jove, while Hector lies among Thy tents unburied. Let me ransom him
At once, that I may
With my own eyes.
look on him once more
Receive the many gifts
We bring thee, and mayst thou possess them long, And reach thy native shore, since by thy grace I live and yet behold the light of day."
Achilles heard, and, frowning, thus rejoined: "Anger me not, old man; 'twas in my thought To let thee ransom Hector. To my tent The mother came who bore me, sent from Jove, The daughter of the Ancient of the Sea, And I perceive, nor can it be concealed,
O Priam, that some god hath guided thee To our swift galleys; for no mortal man,
Though in his prime of youthful strength, would dare To come into the camp; he could not pass
The guard, nor move the beams that bar our gates.
So then remind me of my griefs no more,
Lest, suppliant as thou art, I leave thee not
Unharmed, and thus transgress the laws of Jove." He spake the aged man in fear obeyed. And then Pelides like a lion leaped Forth from the door, yet not alone he went; For of his comrades two-Automedon,
The hero, and his comrade Alcimus, He whom Achilles held in most esteem After the slain Patroclus-followed him. The mules and horses they unyoked, and led The aged monarch's clear-voiced herald in,
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