“Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn.”
Footnote 708: (return) Cf. Æn. x. 903; xii. 930, sqq.
But him swift-footed Achilles, sternly regarding, addressed;
“Dog, supplicate me not by my knees, nor by my parents; for would that
my might and mind in any manner urge me myself, tearing thy raw flesh
to pieces, to devour it, such things hast thou done to me. So that
there is not any one who can drive away the dogs from thy head, not
even if they should place ten-fold and twenty-times such ransoms,
bringing them hither, and even promise others; not even if Dardanian
Priam should wish to compensate for thee with gold: 709 not even thus
shall thy venerable mother lament [thee] whom she has borne, having
laid thee upon a bier, but dogs and fowl shall entirely tear thee in
pieces.”
But him crest-tossing Hector, dying, addressed:
“Surely well knowing thee, I foresaw this, nor was I destined to
persuade thee; for truly within thee there is an iron soul. Reflect
now, lest to thee I be some cause of the wrath of the gods, on that day
when Paris and Phœbus Apollo 710 shall kill thee, though being brave,
at the Scæan gates.”
As he spoke thus, the end of death overshadowed him; and his soul
flying from his limbs, descended to Hades, bewailing its destiny,
relinquishing vigour and youth. But him, although dead, noble Achilles
addressed:
“Die: but I will then receive my fate whensoever Jove may please to
accomplish it, 711 and the other immortal gods.”
He spoke, and plucked the spear from the corpse; and then laid it
aside, but he spoiled the bloody armour from his shoulders. But the
other sons of the Greeks ran round, who also admired the stature and
wondrous form, of Hector; 712 nor did any stand by without inflicting a
wound. And thus would some one say, looking to his neighbour: “Oh,
strange! surely Hector is now much more gentle to be touched, than when
he burned the ships with glowing fire.”
Footnote 709: (return) _I.e._ to give thy weight in gold. Theognis,
77: ιστὸς ἀνὴρ χρυσοῦ τε καὶ άργύρου άντερύσασθαι Ἄξιος.
Footnote 710: (return) Grote, vol. i. p. 406, observes: “After routing
the Trojans, and chasing them into the town, Achilles was slain near
the Skæan gate by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the
unerring auspices of Apollo,” referring to Soph. Phil. 334; Virg. Æn.
vi. 56.
Footnote 711: (return) “I have conversed with some men who rejoiced in
the death or calamity of others, and accounted it as a judgment upon
them for being on the other side, and against them in the contention:
but within the revolution of a few months, the same man met with a more
uneasy and unhandsome death; which when I saw, I wept, and was afraid;
for I knew that it must be so with all men; for we also die, and end
our quarrels and contentions by passing to a final sentence.”—Taylor,
Holy Dying, i. p. 305, ed. Bohn.
Footnote 712: (return) Herodot. ix. 25: Ὁ δὲ νεκρὸς ἔην θέης ἄξιος
μεγάθεος εἵνεκα κα κάλλεος.
Thus would some one say, and, standing by, would wound him. But
swift-footed Achilles, after he had despoiled him, standing amongst the
Greeks, spoke winged words:
“O friends, leaders and princes of the Greeks, since the gods have
granted us to subdue this hero, he who did as many mischiefs, as did
not all the others together; come! let us make trial round the city
with our arms, that we may learn concerning the Trojans, what mind they
have; whether they are about to desert the citadel, he being slain, or
intend to remain, Hector being no more. But why does my mind within me
deliberate these things? Patroclus lies at the ships, an unwept,
unburied corse; and him I shall never forget, as long as I am amongst
the living, and my dear knees move for me; and though they forget the
dead in Hades, yet will I remember my beloved comrade even there. But
come now, ye youths of the Greeks, singing a pæan, 713 let us return to
the hollow ships, and let us bring him; we bear back great glory: we
have slain noble Hector, whom the Trojans, throughout the city,
worshipped as a god.”
He spoke, and was meditating unseemly deeds against noble Hector. He
perforated the tendons of both his feet behind, from the heel to the
instep, and fastened in them leather thongs, and bound him from the
chariot; but left his head to be trailed along. Then ascending his
chariot, and taking up the splendid armour, he lashed (the horses) to
go on, and they, not unwilling, flew. But the dust arose from him while
trailed along, and his azure locks around approached [the ground], 714
and his entire head, once graceful, lay in the dust; for Jupiter had
then granted to his enemies, to dishonour him in his own father-land.
Thus indeed his whole head was defiled with dust; but his mother plucked
out her hair, and cast away her shining veil, and wept very loudly,
having beheld her son. And his dear father groaned piteously, and all
the people around were occupied in wailing and lamentation through the
city; and it was very like to this, as if all Ilium, from its summit,
were smouldering in fire. With difficulty indeed did the people detain
the old man, indignant with grief anxious to rush out from the
Dardanian gates: for rolling in the mud, he was supplicating all,
addressing each man by name:
Footnote 713: (return) “This hymn consisted in a repetition, cf. v.
393, 4, which Quintus Smyrnæus has imitated in Ιδ. 117, and Abronius
Silo translated ap. _Senec. Suas_. c. 2. The most ancient hymn of this
kind on record is that in the first book of Samuel, xviii. 7.”—Kennedy.
Footnote 714: (return) Supply οὔδει or κονίη.
“Desist, my friends, and permit me alone, grieved as I am, going out of
the city, to approach the ships of the Greeks. I will supplicate this
reckless, violent man, if perchance he may respect my time of life, and
have compassion on my old age; for such is his father Peleus to him, he
who begat and nurtured him a destruction to the Trojans; but
particularly to me above all has he caused sorrows. For so many
blooming youths has he slain to me, for all of whom I do not lament so
much, although grieved, as for this one, Hector, keen grief for whom
will bear me down even into Hades. 715 Would that he had died in my
hands; for thus we should have been satisfied, weeping and lamenting,
both his unhappy mother who bore him, and I myself.” Thus he spoke,
weeping, but the citizens also groaned. But among the Trojan dames,
Hecuba began her continued lamentation:
Footnote 715: (return) “Then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with
sorrow to the grave.” —Genes, xlii. 38
“O my son, why do wretched I live, having suffered grievous things,
thou being dead? Thou who by night and day wast my boast throughout the
town, and an advantage to the Trojan men and women throughout the city,
who received thee as a god. For assuredly thou wast a very great glory
to them when alive now, on the contrary, death and fate possess thee.”
Thus she spoke, weeping; but the wife of Hector had not yet learned
anything: no certain messenger going, informed her that her husband had
remained without the gates; but she was weaving a web in a retired part
of her lofty house; double, splendid, and was spreading on it various
painted works. 716 And she had ordered her fair-haired attendants
through the palace, to place a large tripod on the fire, that there
might be a warm bath for Hector, returning from the battle. Foolish!
nor knew she that, far away from baths, azure-eyed Minerva had subdued
him by the hands of Achilles. But she heard the shriek and wailing from
the tower, and her limbs were shaken, and the shuttle fell from her to
the ground; and immediately she addressed her fair-haired attendants:
Footnote 716: (return) οικίλματα is similarly used in vi. 294.
“Come hither, let two follow me, that I may see what deeds have been
done. I heard the voice of my venerable mother-in-law, and to myself
the heart within my breast leaps up to my mouth, and the limbs under me
are benumbed. Surely some evil is now near the sons of Priam. O that
the word may be [far] from my ear! I dread lest brave Achilles, having
already cut off noble Hector alone from the city, may drive him towards
the plain, and even now have made him desist from the fatal valour
which possessed him; for he never remained among the throng of
warriors, but leaped out far before, yielding in his valour to none.”
Thus having spoken, she rushed through the palace like unto one
deranged, greatly palpitating in heart; and her attendants went along
with her. But when she reached the tower and the crowd of men, she
stood looking round over the wall, and beheld him dragged before the
city; but the fleet steeds drew him ruthlessly towards the ships of the
Greeks. Then gloomy night veiled her over her eyes, and she fell
backwards, and breathed out her soul in a swoon. But from her head fell
the beautiful head-gear, the garland, the net, and the twisted fillet,
and the veil which golden Venus had given to her on that day when
crest-tossing Hector led her from the palace of Eëtion, after he had
presented many marriage-gifts. Around her in great numbers stood her
sisters-in-law and sisters, who supported her amongst them, seized with
stupor unto death. 717 But when she again revived, and her soul was
collected in her breast, sobbing at intervals, she spoke among the
Trojan dames:
Footnote 717: (return) See Kennedy: ὥστε is to be understood before
ἀπολέσθαι.
“Hector, O wretched me! then we were both born to a like fate, thou
indeed in Troy, in the mansion of Priam, but I in Thebe, beneath woody
Placus, in the palace of Eëtion; who, himself ill-fated, reared me,
ill-fated, being yet a little child;—would that he had not begotten me!
Now, however, thou goest to the mansions of Hades beneath the recesses
of the earth, but leavest me, in hateful grief, a widow in the
dwelling; and thy boy, yet such an infant, to whom thou and I
unfortunate gave birth; nor wilt thou be an advantage to him, O Hector,
for thou art dead; nor he to thee. For even if he shall escape the
mournful war of the Greeks, still will labour and hardship ever be to
him hereafter; for others will deprive him of his fields by changing
the landmarks. But the bereaving day renders a boy destitute of his
contemporaries; he is ever dejected, and his cheeks are bedewed with
tears. The boy in want shall go to the companions of his father,
pulling one by the cloak, another by the tunic; and some of these
pitying, shall present him with a very small cup; and he shall moisten
his lips, but not wet his palate. Him also some one, enjoying both
[parents], 718 shall push away from the banquet, striking him with his
hands, and reviling him with reproaches: ‘A murrain on thee! even thy
father feasts not with us.’ Then shall the boy Astyanax return weeping
to his widowed mother,—he who formerly, indeed, upon the knees of his
own father, ate marrow alone, and the rich fat of sheep; but when sleep
came upon him, and he ceased childishly crying, used to sleep on
couches in the arms of a nurse, in a soft bed, full as to his heart
with delicacies. But now, indeed, Astyanax, 719 whom the Trojans call
by surname (because thou alone didst defend their gates and lofty walls
for them), shall suffer many things, missing his dear father. But now
shall the crawling worms devour thee, naked, at the curved ships, far
away from thy parents, after the dogs shall have satiated themselves:
but thy robes, fine and graceful, woven by the hands of women, lie in
thy palaces. Truly all these will I consume with burning fire, being of
no use to thee, for thou wilt not lie on them; but let them be a glory
[to thee] before the Trojans and the Trojan dames.”
Thus she spoke, weeping, and the females also mourned.
Footnote 718: (return) Ἀμφιθαλὴς παῖς ὸ ἀμφοτέρωθεν θάλλων, ἤγουν ᾦ
ἄμφω οὶ γovεῖς περίεισι.
Footnote 719: (return) Playing on the signification of the name,—“king
of the city.” This piece of twaddle has not been omitted by Plato in
his ridiculous Cratylus.