To avenge the death of his comrade in arms, Achilles conducted the Greeks
to the attack. The Gods again mingled in the fight. Hector and Achilles met
in fierce combat, and the first fell gloriously. The son of Peleus refused
to the Trojans the last and only consolation of thinking that the remains
should be given to the aged Priam. He had the cruelty to tie the body to
his chariot, and in that way to drag it three times round the city, a
sacrifice to the tomb of Patroclus, and the unfortunate Priam was obliged
to give a large ransom for the remains of Hector. {237}
"Then his fell soul a thought of vengeance bred,
Unworthy of himself and of the dead,
The nervous ancles bored, his feet he bound
With thongs inserted through the double wound;
These fixed up high behind the rolling wain,
His graceful head was hauled along the plain.
Proud on his car th' insulting victor stood,
And bore aloft his arms distilling blood.
He smites the steeds, the rapid chariot flies;
The sudden clouds of circling dust arise.
Now lost is all that formidable air,
The face divine and long descending hair,
Purple the ground, and streak the sable sand;
Deformed, dishonoured, in his native land,
Given to the rage of an insulting throng,
And in his parents sight now dragged along.
The mother first beheld with sad survey,
She rent her tresses venerably gray:
And cast far off the regal veils away.
With piercing shriek his bitter fate she moans,
While the sad father answers groans with groans;
Tears after tears his mournful cheeks o'erflow,
And the whole city wears one face of woe."