s 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, one while on the
crests 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 h