offspring you surpassed all that is in Lesbos, the realm of Makar to
the northward, Phrygia that is more inland, and those that dwell upon
the great Hellespont; but from the day when the dwellers in heaven sent
this evil upon you, war and slaughter have been about your city
continually. Bear up against it, and let there be some intervals in
your sorrow. Mourn as you may for your brave son, you will take nothing
by it. You cannot raise him from the dead, ere you do so yet another
sorrow shall befall you."

And Priam answered, "O king, bid me not be seated, while Hector is
still lying uncared for in your tents, but accept the great ransom
which I have brought you, and give him to me at once that I may look
upon him. May you prosper with the ransom and reach your own land in
safety, seeing that you have suffered me to live and to look upon the
light of the sun."

Achilles looked at him sternly and said, "Vex me, sir, no longer; I am
of myself minded to give up the body of Hector. My mother, daughter of
the old man of the sea, came to me from Jove to bid me deliver it to
you. Moreover I know well, O Priam, and you cannot hide it, that some
god has brought you to the ships of the Achaeans, for else, no man
however strong and in his prime would dare to come to our host; he
could neither pass our guard unseen, nor draw the bolt of my gates thus
easily; therefore, provoke me no further, lest I sin against the word
of Jove, and suffer you not, suppliant though you are, within my tents."

The old man feared him and obeyed. Then the son of Peleus sprang like a
lion through the door of his house, not alone, but with him went his
two squires Automedon and Alcimus who were closer to him than any
others of his comrades now that Patroclus was no more. These unyoked
the horses and mules, and bade Priam's herald and attendant be seated
within the house. They lifted the ransom for Hector's body from the
waggon, but they left two mantles and a goodly shirt, that Achilles
might wrap the body in them when he gave it to be taken home. Then he
called to his servants and ordered them to wash the body and anoint it,
but he first took it to a place where Priam should not see it, lest if
he did so, he should break out in the bitterness of his grief, and
enrage Achilles, who might then kill him and sin against the word of
Jove. When the servants had washed the body and anointed it, and had
wrapped it in a fair shirt and mantle, Achilles himself